In today’s society of lost souls and young people lacking direction, needing direction and longing for social connections, is why football is probably more important than ever. Yes, yes I understand, that there are risks with football, let’s work past that and focus on the overwhelming positives and how they impact society.
#1 Football teaches not just teamwork, but the values of each individuals’ role on a team. This is arguably its greatest value, as people long to belong to something that serves a greater good or that isn’t connected to the internet, people need social interaction and a reliance on others for their success. Football does this to the enth degree. Each person on the team has a specific role and each unit or team is only as good as the weakest person in that group. If someone fails in their task and doesn’t value their role the rest of the team is lost. Yes other sports have team elements, but football is the only one where theoretically you can utilize 35–40 individuals or more in one game who all contribute. No other sport does this. The ramification for society is people learning how to work together, pull together not at each other, and how to understand and get along with each other. This is critical for the success of football and is optimal when people of all different backgrounds come together for a common cause.
#2 The physical demands are unmatched. No longer are people required to be drafted into the army or join the armed forces. This is a good thing, but where can people and young men get the discipline and physical demands that teach the skills of armed forces. The only close replica is football. Football requires the ability to go hard every play, get knocked down and keep on going. In life you will get hit real hard and football teaches you how to react to it and improve. In today’s society with everyone focusing on a cumbaya world, we do not get the physical demands required in knocking down, getting knocked down and having to overcome adversity. Football teaches you that and how to get through it.
#3 Football teaches you to be both the leader and the follower. On a football team there are many instances where someone must lead. They must lead their teammates, help them, work with them. There are also many times where they must follow others and follow coaches. The ying and the yang of being both a leader and a follower help you to understand human nature. It helps you to understand what each person and you need to succeed and formulate a task based plan to get it done. In society today more than ever we must learn to know when it’s time to take a stand and when its time to shut up and follow another. This is a key distinguishing feature that football teaches you. You learn when it’s your time to lead and you learn when its your time to listen and follow. We have too many instances in society of people not having a feel for their place in the world and lacking the instincts to make great decisions. Being both a leader and follower will help you with that.
#4 Decision making and critical decision making skills. Football teaches you to make split second decisions and daily consistent decisions that will either hurt or help you on each and every task you attempt to complete. You must execute the plan and the ability to make great decisions are critical. Football teaches this skill and as the athlete becomes better at it, they learn to make better decisions for themselves and their lives. The on the field practices makes for off the field genius. Learning to execute a plan, make a decision and live with it is critical for life success and is learned in football.
These are four of many great things that football can contribute to an athletes’ life that will have dividends for many many years. In a world that is dominated by low interaction, the internet and social media, and gaming, our young people need more activities and sports that place rigorous demands on them on a consistent basis and football does just that. Embrace the great things in football and you will see societal benefits for generations to come.
by David Schuman twitter — David Schuman and on social media on instagram @daveschuman or nuc_football
After over 17 years in the high school football space as a coach and over 12 years helping athletes with NUC Sports, I have come to a very sad conclusion. Parents and athletes have no clue what they are doing in the recruiting process, have no idea where to get the information needed, have no understanding of the NCAA rules, and further have no inclination to give the effort necessary to get themselves in a better situation. Parents and athletes have been waiting for a handout from their coaches, from college coaches and from associates surrounding college sports. They all think that magically things will just happen. My answer is please please first learn the rules of recruiting and the NCAA. This is the first step. I love working with athletes but have grown increasingly tired of the same exact questions, with no knowledge of anything to do with recruiting. Here are some of the questions I get.
#1 Will there be scouts at my son’s event? No there will not be scouts because outside of April 15- May 30th and specifically only for Juniors, D1 coaches cannot watch your athlete participate in an event under the NCAA rules. They cannot see a combine period and cannot watch you participate unless they are watching a scholastic based event. For example, they can come to your track meet in the spring. They can watch you work out which counts as a athletic evaluation. They are allowed 1 in the spring and 1 academic evaluation. At college camps on their campus obviously they can evaluate you. Treat showcase events as information and video based evaluation tools that act as 1. publicity 2. Information from evaluators from the event that get shared with college coaches and 3. An opportunity to compete against top athletes. Now with the internet and video at NUC sports we send direct links and information to all the college coaches that serves as a filtering in and filtering out process of top athletes. At the D3 level coaches can go and evaluate whenever they want, and on campus or off, but the financial resources of D3 programs limit their travel.
#2 How do i get in contact with college coaches? This is beyond mind boggling to me, but here is the answer! Call them, Email them, go to campus, and DM them on Instagram and Twitter. Reaching out with your information, video and transcript is critical. Make a video and send it, introduce them to you! Do something that makes you stand out but by all means you must reach out to them. The NCAA rules prohibit college coaches from reaching out to underclassmen other than Juniors in the spring on a limited basis. So you must get your name out there. Events are great for publicity and evaluation and reach out directly to the coaches is necessary! The Recruiting Calendar can be found here http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/resources/recruiting-calendars
RECRUITING CALENDAR FOR FOOTBALL CLICK HERE TO READ
#3 Why isn’t my son being recruited? Well see answer #2 if you haven’t reached out. If you have an he is still isn’t then choose new schools to reach out to. It is ridiculous to reach out to the same schools over and over again and they have no interest. Reach out to new schools. If those schools show no interest then reach out to a lower level. Know your son’s athleticism, speed and size are direct factors in recruiting. Stop fooling yourself to think you are going to get a D1 scholarship when you are 5’6 and run a 4.8 40…it ain’t happening. I had a coach get mad at me because I told his athlete to reach out to D3 schools because his athlete was 5’9 205 and wanted to be a D1 lineman. In the history of mankind there has never been a D1 lineman at 5’9 205. Choose the right level. Finally, If you have bad grades and bad SAT/ACT scores you won’t qualify, so pick your grades up and improve your scores or you will not qualify to get recruited.
#4. How can you help me get recruited? This one particularly irks me….How can i help any athlete without knowing more about them. We need to as athletes and parents learn about what makes our athlete unique, reach out to someone like myself who can help them, in a way that will want to make me want to help them. There is no right to play in college, there is no right to get help and its not FREE. Over the dozen years i have been helping athletes with providing information to college coaches for FREE, i have never been able to provide direct 1 to 1 help unless the athlete A. Played for me or B. I knew them. There is a C. If you are a good enough athlete, good enough student, and are recruitable and are willing to pay for my time or another experts time you can get direct help. Don’t expect something for nothing. In most cases, someone like myself, just like a college coach will want to know a lot more than just your film, because in 99 percent of the cases the athletes film does not clearly standout. My advice is to learn as much as you can, figure out where your abilities are, attend events and then reach out for assistance.
#5. My coach sucks or doesn’t help me in recruiting can you help me? My short answer on this is NO. If you think your coach sucks and he doesnt help you then you are probably a headache that no college coach wants. Develop a relationship with your high school so he wants to help you. If you can’t do that in 90% of the cases playing in college may not be in the cards for you. So many parents contact me complaining about there coach that it is overwhelming and ridiculous. Support your coach and he will support you. If you jump around from school to school and think every coach sucks, then more than likely you and your family will be disgruntled parents at the college level and college coaches just aren’t willing to deal with that. They are getting rid of kids in college that run 4.4 in the 40 who are headaches so they certainly aren’t interested in a borderline athlete who runs a 4.9 in the 40. My advice is develop a relationship with your coach, work harder than anyone on the field, play better than anyone on the field, be a great teammate, be a great person and be a great student, and chances are you will have a great high school experience, your coach will be willing to help you and a college coach will be willing to recruit you.
#6.Does the school and how good they are going to help me in recruiting? The reality is how good you play and what kind of student you are helps you in the process, not what kind of team you are on. If you are great and you reach out to schools you will have a great chance on being recruited. If you are average it does not matter where you go. An excellent team can provide you with some additional exposure but it can also hurt you if you are the 5th best player on a great team. So my advice is be the very best player on the field and it won’t matter what school you play at. If you combine that with reaching out like i spoke about in point #1 you will get recruited.
I just like to point out the truths. As always you can reach me on twitter at David Schuman or on instagram at NUC_football or DaveSchuman. Send me a DM, I will respond.
David Schuman, NUC Sports
The ways that we can truly help our kids in the long run
In today’s athletic environment the rise of club sports has had a huge impact on high school sports. It trickles into every single sport you can think of, soccer (where it is biggest), volleyball, basketball (think AAU), football (think 7v7), baseball, softball and much more. The rise of club sports is due to several factors: 1. the desire for parents to give their kids a leg up athletically 2. the desire for athletes and parents to earn an athletic scholarship 3. the desire to do their chosen sport more often and 4. the desire to see our better competition. These are issues that almost every state organization attempts to address by making the biggest fundamental mistake it can. High School coach regulation.
What do i mean by high school coach regulation? Well, before I address this I want to explain my background so you better understand where I am coming from, so you can see where I am going. I played Division 1 football at UCONN, I am a parent, I am a head high school football coach, I run my own football club team, and I own NUC Sports which is one of the largest football event companies designed to help athletes with event to get them recruited for college. I spend a lot of time with college coaches with recruiting and I can tell you that everyone including me wishes we can work with our own kids more. Now the rules of the state of NJ are very good with letting us train them strength wise and conditioning wise and even basic skill movements. The issue is when we want to work with our kids in a more significant manner, like some form of practice. This is where the club sports take over. Athletes that want to get more and address the three areas i mentioned in the rise of club sports, choose to seek out alternatives because they cannot address the fundamental needs that i mentioned. People can debate the morality or the overuse or the other VALUE based issues they want, but my experience tells me the athlete and parent wants more from their experience not less.
The pundits will tell youths will kill other sport season but see it the opposite way. It think it will encourage more participation, increase collaboration of high school coaches to get other sports that can help them and my proposal will show you how. The reason club is a problem is that anyone can coach your kid, little to no background checks, and little to no oversight. Its not uncommon to see at a club event a parent argue with a coach during or after a game, kids getting in fights and referees being berated. This kind of behavior has consequences at the high school level but not at the club level. Now there are many great coaches at the club level and their are many great individuals and maybe we can find a way to get them more involved with our schools. So we need to find the ways to improve high school so we can do that. If we allowed our coaches to be more involved and give them more leeway you will see less of coaches being concerned about what their athletes do, more impact in helping other sports and increased support from the parents. Ok, now I am going to address both at the regulations state level.
#1. The state should allow the high school coaches to work with their own athletes in their sport out of season. Restrict physical contact levels, restrict it to a number of times per week and have this reported online using technology. For example, strength and conditioning is not and should never be regulated, that should be up to the coach, but at the sport level, I.E throwing a football with their coach, the old 1970’s Open Gym concept is not good enough. We must allow our coaches the ability to work with their athletes a certain number of times per week, I recommend 1–2 and then a certain number of competition per year like 4–5 and make it that this must be on a sunday (this will ensure no other sport conflict). This will in one swoop climate half of the club based programs.
#2. We must create a reward based system that provides either financial or status that provides incentives for high school athletics and athletes to be rewarded for playing multiple sports. This can be done numerous ways but I think if you incent the individual schools you will find that the athletic director and the other coaches will encourage the athletes to do multiple sports. We do it with an incentive program based on points with our own team, i have seen our hockey coach reward different point levels and no longer with the hockey coach have to worry about forming his club, he will have the incentive to take care of things right at the school level. In addition we should compensate the coaches for working with their kids in the offseason and include it in the budget or charge the individual families a small participation fee and use that to compensate the coaches. This creates as situation where everyone wins and you create a more full time atmosphere for the coaches. Coaches at the high school level more and more are looking to be full time coaches and creating this will create more of that atmosphere.
#3. The state should partner with business that run events and try to create these certifications with the state that creates validity and legitimacy to the events. They don’t have to over regulate but instead certify and say that this event is a legit event and create a database that works with colleges to help them understand the events and what they can attend.
#4. The state department of education should recognize playing sports as part of the graduation curriculum, as physical education gets squeeze in various states as a requirement, we should work to create physical education, health education, strength and conditioning and sport participation as a part of the curriculum for graduation. If colleges are offering scholarships primarily based off athletic ability, why should this not be considered an educational skill. There is no better leadership academy than the academy of sport and having this a part of the graduation requirements will increase participation, create better health, prepare kids for life and how to compete and will improve self esteem and body image. We are stuck in a model in education with respect to sports and physical education from the 1970’s and the desire to change this must be clear. The purists of physical education will say that competition takes away form physical education but that is not the point the point is we should have a choice as to what contributes to our education and for athletes it is sport. For non-athletes it might be to stay in shape and healthy and our programs should have this too.
#5. Create an educational forum on recruiting and the education of recruiting for athletes and parents. The school guidances counselors are overtasked and under educated on recruiting and should not bear that burden. The athletic directors and even the coaches should only bear that burden if they choose. We should have a partnership and coordinated program with the schools and colleges to help athletes learn the recruiting process so they can make informed decisions. They need to learn more now.
Listen, the more we restrict our coaches and programs the more club will continue to rise and take away from high school. Restricting regulation always works the opposite of what you would expect. It is when you inhibit people will find alternatives address their needs. We should work to address peoples needs, athletes needs, and parents needs and this way you will have a more cooperative environment, a high school friendly environment and an opportunity to succeed. At this point, it may take a miracle, but if we don’t do something now, our school sports could go away one day. The crowds of 10,000 screaming fans at a high school football game could be replaced by 50 parents yelling for Johnny to show everyone what he’s got. The team will be replaced by the individual and the leadership will be replaced by self-serving. I don’t expect to have all the answers and i understand that their are benefits to club sports as I have a club myself, but i feel the bigger shame in society is losing our hometown environment, our friends, and becoming great alongside the people we grew up with, it provides better relationships a better society and a more close nit community.
Thank you and as always, if you want to find out more on my like my work and email me at dschuman36@gmail.com or on twitter @nucfootball or on instagram @nuc_football
I am so excited to attach for you the most amazing five tips that will help you 10X your recruiting right now. Yes right now. If you have any questions please hit me up on twitter @nucfootball and visit us and register now at www.nucsports.com to register for an event where if you perform well it wont 10x your recruiting by 100x it.
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Best of luck this year,
David Schuman
NUC Sports
@nucfootball on twitter
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