Learn The Rules Of Engagement For a Scholarship

As more and more sports become popular and internationally diverse, college athletic scholarships are harder to come by. In order to give yourself a chance to compete in any sport at the collegiate level, you absolutely must have a plan and the determination to carry out that said plan. This is where S.P.A.A.R.C. comes in to play. S.P.A.A.R.C. Game planning gives you the information to help you plan your collegiate future in athletics.

A common example that I use to explain the importance of planning is asking what the admissions requirements are at a student-athlete’s dream school. When I have the opportunities to recruit student-athletes or speak at high schools, I always ask them, “what do you want out of basketball?” The sad part is that often this answer goes unanswered or is answered with uncertainty. If you are a student-athlete or a parent of a student-athlete, I ask you to answer this same question. What do you want in exchange for competing in your sport of choice?

If you answered a scholarship, that is an excellent answer. Now how do you achieve this goal? The answer is easy, have a plan. This plan needs to be flawless because of the following statistics:

Boys playing in High School: Basketball Baseball Football Soccer

Playing in any College Division: 17:1 9:1 12:1 13:1

Playing NCAA Division I: 107:1 47:1 39:1 87:1

Playing Professional Sports: 1,860:1 764:1 603:1 835:1

Girls playing in High School: Basketball Softball Volleyball Soccer

Playing in any College Division: 16:1 12:1 16:1 10:1

Playing NCAA Division I: 88:1 62:1 88:1 45:1

Playing Professional Sports 3,416:1 764:1 603:1 1,756:1

Statistics Gathered From http://scholarshipstats.com/varsityodds.html

These numbers are not meant to discourage student-athletes from aspiring to to play college sports. These numbers are meant to encourage student-athletes to compete with themselves to be their absolute best and realize the difficulty in landing an opportunity to play college sports.

Before a student-athlete steps onto a high school campus, they need to understand that each class that they take is important. Before considering the strenuous college admissions requirements at each college or university, they need to consider the NCAA Core Courses, Core Course GPA, and SAT/ACT Test scoring system (the free SAT/ACT test resources available) and the sliding scale (among other requirements). If they don’t understand that system and meet the NCAA Eligibility Requirements while in high school, they cannot compete at the NCAA Division I or II level. The NAIA level of college athletics also has its own eligibility requirements.

If you don’t know those requirements, then how serious are you about landing a college athletic scholarship?

Become a S.P.A.A.R.C. member and learn the rules to the game. People do not luck their way into scholarships. Scholarships are earned. Not given!