At last! An online college recruiting service that makes sense!
If you have a youngster in HS who aspires someday to play sports in college, I do hope you had a chance to listen to the Sports Edge this AM. I had the opportunity to speak with Vish Prabhakara, the young CEO of BeRecruited.com, and I must admit that I came very impressed with how this service works.
In sum, any HS student-athlete can register on BeRecruited.com for free, and one can post their athletic achievements, their GPA, SAT and ACT scores, and much more. You can even post video of yourself in action for all coaches to see. And we’re talking coaches from Div I, II, and III, and NAIA.
And it’s not just for superstar basketball and football players. The best part of the service is that it works for boys and girls – kids who play volleyball to those who run cross-country to those who play lacrosse and everything else in between. A total of 31 sports are tracked.
As Vish explained, there are more than 27,000 college coaches who now routinely check on potential prospects on BeRecruited. Once they find an interesting candidate, they can contact them right away and set the recruiting process in motion.
Over the years, I have heard from all sorts of college recruiting services, all of them usually charging a fee upfront of $1000 or more. But of course, nothing in terms of a scholarship is guaranteed. But this service is different because it’s free. There’s no risk to the athlete. The only charge – which is optional – is $60 if you opt for BeRecruited’s special bonus feature which allows you to see which college coaches have actually checked on your profile.
Otherwise, that’s the only fee. Vish told me that thousands of HS athletes have used the service, and have been deighted with the results. Seems to me that before you start writing out checks for big bucks, you ought to check out BeRecruited.com first.
"The Sports Edge"
Rick Wolff
Steve Kallas
Doug Abrams
Rick, thank you again for continuing to post information regarding college recruiting. BeRecruited and other sites are good for keeping an aspiring college athlete’s name out there. Coaches immediately do their Google searching and the more you appear, the better.
Success Story:
Our son utilized BeRecruited and had a Perfect Game Profile/video in his sophomore year and, in his junior year, did a video through Top 96. He sent this video to about 30 college coaches who attended his Top 96 showcase and to coaches who didn’t attend. He also sent the video as a follow-up to the coaches who held their own fall “evaluation games” on campus. The fruits of his labor paid off as last week he was accepted to a top d3 academic college/baseball program in the Centennial Conference. It all started when he was evaluated at a Top 96 Academic Showcase event in Hartford, CT in the summer; the coach contacted him following the event and invited him to pitch in his evaluation game/prospect camp in the fall.
The take-away here is for athletes to be PROACTIVE and not expect coaches to contact them through BeRecruited or similar sites. Coaches now expect athletes to send them emails/videos attend their camps. It is also good practice to send heads up notes to coaches you know are planning to attend the showcases so you’ll be top of mind beforehand.
One more thing…. from experience, do not waste money on showcases before your junior year! College coaches are not interested as they know players are still developing in their sophomore year and, most importantly, coaches cannot start the recruiting process with an athlete until the end of their junior year. So, for baseball, your window to be noticed is the summer following your junior year and the fall of your senior year (Sept/Oct).
Good luck to all aspiring college players and their proud parents!
This sounds like a great resource. It encourages kids to take responsibility for reaching out to coaches and getting their names and information out there. Especially great for sports that may not traditionally be as heavily recruited. Nice article!