So, you’re a serious high school field hockey player and have decided that you want your college experience to include the sport you love. Congratulations! Coming to that conclusion is a huge decision, and we’re happy you love the sport enough to keep playing at the next level.
With that excitement, though, comes a fair amount of uncertainty. The college recruiting process can be an overwhelming one with a lot of unknowns because of all the rules and regulations set forth by the NCAA. The best way to move past those uneasy feelings is to educate yourself on the process and know what you have control of. Here are some tips to help you along the way.
Have a Resume Just for Field Hockey
This is crucial when it comes to getting all the necessary details to college coaches in a timely manner. There are plenty of great templates available on the internet, but some of the basic information you should be sharing fall into two main buckets:
Academic: Your high school, current cumulative GPA, class rank (if your school ranks), PSAT/SAT or ACT scores (if you have them – if not say when you plan on taking the test), any academic awards or honors, and what you’d like to study (if you know, and it’s totally OK if you don’t!).
Field Hockey: Your HS coach’s name and contact info, information regarding the club you play for (all of them if more than one), your field hockey position and any awards you’ve won, relevant stats if they’re available, and names of any camps/clinics you’ve attended or plan to attend.
Have an Updated Highlight Video
All the stats and information in your resume is great, but a coach won’t even start to consider being seriously interested in recruiting you without seeing you actually play! They may prefer to come and see you in person but having a highlight video to send is a great way for them to get an initial idea of where you excel on the field.
This video should be short – no more than five minutes – and have time dedicated to skills demonstration and game clips where you can be easily identified. There are companies around that can help put together a professional-looking highlight video, but it’s also something you can do on your own (with some help), if it’s done well.
Contact Schools You’re Interested In
We hear a lot about top high school athletes who get recruited by the country’s best college programs. In reality, though, they’re the minority – most high school athletes who want to play at the next level need to put themselves out there and connect with coaches themselves to get the process started.
First, we’d suggest going onto the athletic website of the school you’re interested in and find their prospective student-athlete questionnaire to fill out. This will get you into the coach’s recruitment database. You can also send a personal email to the coach that includes your resume and highlight video. Even if you use a template for multiple colleges, make sure you change the necessary details (like the name of the school) before sending it off.