Understanding Levels of Recruitment

According to the NCAA, less than 2% of high school athletes earn college athletic scholarships. It’s important to gauge the level of attention that you’re receiving from college coaches so that you know what to expect from the recruiting process.

There are several levels of recruitment. See where you stand in the list below.

Heavily Recruited athletes are top-tier recruits who will likely go on to compete at the Division I level. The recruiting process for these high-level athletes is outlined below.

• Freshmen – At least one scholarship offer. Receive an abundance of letters from coaches, questionnaires, camp invites and admissions information, and generous amounts of letters asking you to call or email.
• Sophomores – Several scholarship offers and unofficial visit invites. Overflow of letters and evaluation at high school games and summer tournaments.
• Juniors – 10 or more scholarship offers and 10 or more unofficial visits. Pre-evaluation from admissions. Multiple calls from coaches in April, May, June and July and asks for a verbal commitment.
• Seniors – National Letter of Intent signing during the early signing period.

Seriously Recruited athletes are high-level recruits who will certainly play sports at the college level.

• Freshmen – Receive a fair amount of letters from coaches, questionnaires, camp Invites and admissions information, and some letters asking you to call or email.
• Sophomores – At least one scholarship offer. Abundance of letters, questionnaires and letters inviting you to call or email. Evaluation at high school games and summer tournaments.
• Juniors – 5 or more scholarship offers and 5 or more unofficial visits. Handwritten letters from coaches. Pre-evaluation from admissions. A few calls in April, May, June and July.
• Seniors – 10 or more offers and at least one official visit. In-home visits.

Moderately Recruited athletes may not end up at the Division I level, but there’s a good chance that they’ll find the right fit at Division II or Division III.

• Freshmen – Some letters and questionnaires from coaches, a few camp invites and some admissions information.
• Sophomores – A generous amount of letters, camp invites, admissions information, and questionnaires.
• Juniors – A few scholarship offers. A few handwritten letters and some calls in April, May, June and July. Evaluation at summer tournaments.
• Seniors – Less than 10 scholarship offers and less than 10 official visit invites. Pre-evaluation from admissions.

Lightly Recruited athletes need to draw more attention to themselves if they want to earn scholarship offers.

• Freshmen – A few letters from coaches and a few camp brochures.
• Sophomores – Several letters from coaches. Some camp invites, admissions info and questionnaires.
• Juniors – A couple of handwritten letters and a few questionnaires. A few evaluations at summer tournaments.
• Seniors – 3 or more offers and 3 or more official invites. Some unofficial invites and some invitations to walk-on.

Not Recruited athletes aren’t on the radar either because they haven’t reached out to college coaches, or they don’t realistically have the athletic ability to play at the collegiate level.

• Freshmen – No recruiting materials.
• Sophomores – A few camp brochures.
• Juniors – Some camp invites, admissions information and questionnaires.
• Seniors – Camp and tryout invite, admissions packets and unofficial visit offers only.