Players: Get started now!
Before you get started on the college planning and softball recruiting process, just know there’s a lot for you to do and keep track of during your high school years. At times the process may feel overwhelming and stressful to you.
Be sure to check in with your parents or guardians, your coaches (both high school and summer team), and your school counselors along the way – they can all provide tremendous support in helping you on your journey. You’re in charge but you’re not alone.
For high school and junior college players, click to access and save your own copy of the MNP College Softball Recruiting Guide. This streamlined version summarizes the detailed information provided below, and it will be a tool to help you stay on top your college planning and recruiting process.
For you coaches, we've dropped in some "Tools for coaches" below that you can tap into while you're helping your players navigate this journey. You can also save a copy of the MNP College Softball Recruiting Guide to share with players and parents in your program.
Here are the 5 key pieces of MyNextPlay.org's guide to the college softball recruiting process.
1. Know your “what” and “why”
It all starts here - knowing “what” you want out of your college experience socially, academically, athletically, and financially; and knowing “why” you want to play softball in college. Start your recruiting process by reading and answering the questions in our post "Do you know your ‘what’ and ‘why’ when it comes to preparing for college as a high school softball player?”.
Tools for coaches
Being there for each of your players is the most important role you can play in this process, and it starts with helping your players understand the commitment that's required to excel at the next level both academically and athletically. Keep in mind you play a key role and that every conversation you have with a player is an opportunity for them to learn more about what they want after high school.
2. Find your best fit
This step boils down to you figuring out which schools to consider playing at based on the best combined academic, athletic, and financial fit for you. We’ve created three resources to help you get started on understanding your best fit so take a read of all three so you can realistically assess the best options for you by the beginning of your junior year in high school:
- “What are the academic requirements to play college softball?”
- “What are the athletic requirements to play college softball?”
- “What does it cost to play college softball?”
Tools for coaches
Here are a few tools that can help high school and junior college coaches work with their players to help them find the best fit for them after high school:
- "3 ways softball coaches can help their players find their next destination“
- "How to run a showcase day to help assess where your players might fit"
- "How softball coaches can have a productive fit conversation with their players"
3. Get organized and track your progress
You drive the college softball recruiting process. It’s never too early to get to work building your player profile and developing your list of colleges and coaches you want to potentially reach out to. We’ve created two free tools to help guide you all the way through the college softball recruiting process:
- Use the MyNextPlay Tracker so you’ll always know where to find your academic and athletic information, and where you can create and manage your target list of colleges.
- Check out the MyNextPlay Timeline to see what specific college planning and recruiting tasks you should be doing during each semester (and summer) from 9th grade through high school graduation. Down in part 5 we have links to Timelines broken down by high school grade level.
If you and your family are looking for a recruiting service to help you organize and track your progress, there are many options out there, and here are a few of the bigger ones worth checking out: FieldLevel, SportsRecruits, NCSA, and CaptainU.
Okay, you have the first 3 parts of this guide down, and you also have a couple tools that will help you dive into the college baseball recruiting process. The next two parts of the guide are where you really get active in the college planning and softball recruiting process.
Tools for coaches
Help your players get organized and help them use a tool like the MyNextPlay Tracker, MyNextPlay Timeline, or a recruiting service like FieldLevel so they and you can be looking at their college planning and recruiting information together.
4. Recruit yourself by building your list of target colleges and engaging with college coaches
It's never too early to build your first list of 5-10 colleges where you could see yourself attending and playing softball. This is something you can start doing as early as the end of 9th grade or the fall semester of 10th grade. Your list of target schools will help keep you focused, and it will help you stay engaged with your parents, coaches, and counselors as you move forward on this process.
Once you have your first list of colleges, start pulling together the recruiting information you'll want share with college coaches. This should be easy to do if you're using the MyNextPlay Tracker or another recruiting service that helps you organize all this information.
Here's the short list of the most important recruiting information you'll need when you're ready to start emailing and texting college coaches:
- Your academic information: High school transcript, test scores (ACT or SAT), and any Honors and AP elective classes. Also, be prepared to share with coaches the majors you might be interested in studying in college.
- Your athletic information: Core softball metrics (either as a position player or pitcher), high school varsity season statistics, and any evaluations or assessments you’ve gotten from attending recruiting events or other evaluations.
- Your highlight video: Develop a high quality video that you can upload and share with college coaches so they can see you run, hit, field, and throw if you’re a position player, or see your mechanics and different pitches if you’re a pitcher. To get some ideas on how to put your video together, read “How to create your college softball recruiting video” from NCSA College Recruiting.
- Your references: High school coach and summer ball coaches will be important for your college softball recruiting process, and high school teachers, counselors, and non-softball coaches will be important for your college application process.
- Your recruiting events: List any recruiting assessments, showcase camps, and tournaments where you've participated, and any of these same events that you plan to attend in the future, especially those recruiting events where coaches from the colleges in which you’re most interested are scheduled to attend. MyNextPlay may be able to provide financial assistance for attending a recruiting event - apply here.
- Your email templates: Start drafting the different emails that you'll want to send to college coaches. Be sure to do your research so you can highlight why each program is on your list, and be sure to proof-read your emails to make sure they are well organized, personally drafted, and include the important information from the list above so they grab the coach's attention.
Tools for coaches
This is where coaches can be most impactful, especially as it relates to helping players create a target list of programs that aligns well with the types of schools that will be the best fit for them coming out of high school or junior college. Take a read of our article "How softball coaches can have a productive fit conversation with their players" to get some ideas on how you can help your players in this part of their process.
5. Use your grade level timeline to keep working through your college planning and recruiting tasks
Once you've completed the tasks above, you'll be in the flow of the college planning and recruiting process, and you'll have developed a good foundation of information that you'll be able to share with anyone who's helping you on this journey.
Moving forward you'll be working hard to:
- Improve your academic and athletic profile
- Update your college list and engage college coaches at your target schools
- Complete other college planning and recruiting tasks that you need to finish this semester or summer
MyNextPlay has created grade-level timelines that breakdown these tasks for each semester and summer from 9th grade through the day you set foot on the college campus of your choice:
Tools for coaches
One of the best things you can do as a coach is just checking in with your players as they're moving through the college planning and recruiting process. Whether you're a high school or junior college coach, the opportunity you have at practices and on campus to remind and "nudge" your players on the tasks they should be doing above makes a huge impact on helping them get to their best destination when they're done playing for you.
A final note on the overall guide above. We're always working to update and improve the information and tools here, so please share your feedback on any feedback or suggestions you have here.
Related Articles
