Sports
In reply to the discussion: NCSA Athletic Recruiting. does anyone have experience or knowledge about this program? [View all]fishwax
(29,346 posts)I don't know about this particular service, but I've seen plenty of accounts of recruiting scams over the years. They charge a thousand or two thousand or sometimes more (by having a subscription model), often to put information on their database, where coaches may or may not even see it.
A lot depends on what your son's sport is and how talented he is. If it's a money sport, like football or basketball, and he's very talented, then the money is better spent on college camps, which is where a lot of programs spot and develop their recruiting pools. Or competing in known quantities like AAU. These service might be more useful if he's in a more minor sport, I don't know.
But my advice, if you think an athletic scholarship is a real possibility and a goal that he wants to pursue, would be to start by talking to his coach. The coach will (hopefully) have a better sense of what level he might be able to shoot for as well as some strategies for how to go about it. Then, I'd recommend doing the research on your own. As you get a sense of what the opportunities might be, you can start investigating possible programs, both those nearby (I remember you're in Texas, so there will presumably be at least some possibilities nearby, unless his sport is something regional or somewhat obscure, like hockey or crew or what have you) and those spread a bit further out. Most athletic departments will have forms you can fill out online, I believe.
The people I know who have wound up with athletic scholarships have gotten it done through their own (and their family's) hard work. Both on the field and off. I'm not saying it's definitely a scam, but I would say that I would investigate the process (the whole recruiting process, not just this company) on my own before forking over hundreds of dollars to a company like that. Especially if the recruiting horizon is still very long and you are getting an early start.