As an AAU basketball coach, you are a highly regarded person in your players lives. When it comes to getting recruited to college, you are the first person they will turn to for guidance. In their eyes, you are the one who can help them secure a college to play for. When your players reach their senior year they are working as hard as they can to find the right school to play for. Your expertise in the world of basketball is a blessing to them. In this article you can find some guidance for yourself. We also offer up a few suggestions to help you utilize your abilities as a basketball coach so that you can really help every one of your unsigned seniors get recruited to play college basketball. At this point in their basketball career, you know them best. Therefore, as their AAU basketball coach, you are the one who is situated best, to help them in their recruitment process.
HELPING YOUR AAU PLAYERS GET THEIR PROFILE INFORMATION TOGETHER
After the AAU season is over you want to make sure that all your players have all their information to you as soon as possible. Ask all your players to gather together all their basketball information and have them email it to you. This way, it will be easier for you to track who has or hasn’t got their information to you. Set a deadline for this. When asking for the information from your players, be very specific. It is recommended by us that you get at least all of the following: full names, date of birth, hometown, high school attended, position(s), height, weight, vertical (jump/reach), stats, GPA and current highlight video. If some of your players want to include stats such as one rep max, basketball achievements etc. make sure that everything that will be included in the profile can be verified.
Once all the above is completed for each of your AAU basketball players, now its time for your professional input via a scouting report. You should add your scouting report for each of your unsigned seniors to the top of their profile above all their player information. You only need to write a short paragraph. Make sure you include what type of player they are, what positions they have played for you, their strengths, weaknesses, player preferences, left hand/right hand dominant you know the drill. This should be a quick read for college coaches. When a college coach reads your scouting report, you want them to have enough information about the player for them to decide quickly if this is a recruit they want to pursue further. Your scouting report will play a big role in your players recruitment. College coaches respect what you have to say about your players.
HELPING YOUR AAU PLAYERS GET THEIR VIDEO TOGETHER
A good highlight video can make the difference in a players recruitment process. You want to make a good first impression with college coaches. From our experience, coaches prefer videos to be 5 minutes long (max!). They also prefer to watch videos in silence so they can think about what they are seeing and not be distracted by music. College coaches will also request a full video of players they are interested in. Make sure you help your AAU players pick out their best full game from the season. As their AAU basketball coach, you should watch all of your players highlight videos from start to finish. Watch from your professional position as a basketball coach. After, advise them on ways they can improve, if they need to take anything out or, if they have missed something that needs to be added.
CONTACTING COLLEGE COACHES FOR YOUR UNSIGNED SENIORS
You want to start contacting college coaches in August. With this in mind, all your AAU players should have their profiles and video completed by the end of July. Now you have all your unsigned seniors profiles ready, now is the time to start contacting college coaches. You want to make sure you target college coaches who are recruiting your unsigned seniors positions. Make the most of your time by planning and staying organized. When contacting coaches for your specific players, you want to make sure that you contact college coaches recruiting players at their specific position and level. If you’re helping a point guard get recruited, don’t spend your time reaching out to coaches who are recruiting forwards this isn’t going to be productive for you, the coach or the player.
AAU coaches who contact college coaches for their players tend to get response rates. This is because nobody knows your players better than you. When reaching out to college coaches about your players, this is also a good time to share with them, your game schedule.
MAKE SURE YOUR AAU PLAYERS UPDATE THEIR VIDEO
After the AAU season finishes, your players should make their highlight video to get ready for August. Your unsigned seniors will also need to update their highlight video at the mid-point of their high school season and at the end of their high school season. Don’t let them wait to do it all at once. Make sure your players are getting the video work done after each game otherwise it can quickly build up into a massive project! Players should have their mid-season highlight video ready as soon as possible so you can share this with college coaches you are in touch with that are still undecided or, want to see more video.This applies to the end of the season video as well. Players can get distracted and lose their focus for a number of reasons. Make sure they are getting their video work done on time.
PUTTING YOUR AAU PLAYERS IN CONTACT WITH INTERESTED COLLEGE COACHES
Once you start receiving interest from college coaches for your AAU players that remain unsigned, you will want to start putting them in direct contact with the college coaches. College coaches are super experienced when it comes to recruiting basketball players. They will know after seeing the players profile and speaking with you, if they want to talk with the player. They will either call, text or email you to request this.
Before one of you players gets on the phone with a college coach you should definitely prep them. Have them check out the schools website. They should read about the school and the school’s basketball program. Have them write down any questions they have about the basketball program, academics, admissions etc. Not only will this come across well to the coach, it will make the conversation flow much better. Emphasise to your players to listen well. We recommend that you tell your players to be ready to take notes. A lot can be said on a phone call with a college coach. Taking notes will make sure you don’t forget anything that was said and, it can be a useful tool for when it’s time to make a decision on a school. We recommend that you do a follow up call with both the player and college coach just to see how things went and if you can facilitate the process in any way.
HELPING YOUR AAU PLAYERS DECIDE WHICH OFFER TO TAKE
As an AAU basketball coach one of your many roles is that of a mentor. You have already gone the extra mile for your players, more than most. You have put the time and effort into getting your players ready and prepared as much as you can. Now, they finally have those offers on the table. All you can do now, is use your experiences, skills and guidance as a basketball coach. Helping your players make one of their first, most important life decisions is a big deal. Remember, your players put a lot of weight on your words when making their decision. Guide them wisely.
