The Draftday Process

Beginning with our initial interview we will work to fully understand you the athlete, and you the student so that we can get to know you and then focus on finding the best college options available. Through a collaborative approach we will gain full understanding of your hopes and expectations and then provide sound strategy to assist you in meeting them. Each step of the process will be structured to get you one step closer to obtaining the final goal of securing placement as a student athlete. Our dedicated staff will be there for constant support during this exciting step in your athletic and academic career. Below you will gain some visibility into each step and stage of your journey.

Family Interview (Goals)

Throughout your entire life your parents have geared you towards a moment like this, being responsible for your life choices... and certainly this is an important one. While building your portfolio, parents certainly have an important role to play with us and then will be a valuable resource to you in assisting with the evaluation and decision-making process…but ultimately the decision will come down to you the student athlete. This choice could represent the next 4 years of your life and act as a springboard into the future you. We will work within the family dynamic to ensure that everyone is involved throughout.

Creating Online Profile

An online profile is a personalized webpage highlighting significant athletic and academic achievements thus providing college coaches with a snapshot of who you are as an athlete and person. The profile will demonstrate your commitment to education and athletics and will provide such things as personal statistics, athletic statistics, academic information such as ACT/SAT scores (if available) along with skills and game video. The online profile will provide you a website link which they can use in their email strategy to send to coaches who can simply open the link and get full visibility to your profile.

Highlight Video

Having a high quality recruiting video can prove quite helpful during the recruiting process. College coaches generally don't have the time it takes to see hundreds of recruits in person so video can play an important role. Proper video can be an integral first step in gaining the attention of a college coach. We will assist in the editing of the final product as there are many important do's and don'ts' s to making the most effective video providing maximum exposure.

Top College Picks

Many student athletes choose schools for the wrong reasons and it is certainly not a "one size fits all" experience. Examining and deciding which school best suits the combination of your academic and athletic desires can be the single most important question when determining placement pursuit. Do you want to be part of a large or small campus? Does the college have the course of study in the field that you are looking to pursue upon graduation? Is there a roster placement availability based on your position. Do the coaches and schools athletic and academic philosophy's match well with your own. Many things are to be considered and we will help you navigate through these and other considerations to assist in identifying the primary schools to focus on.

Evaluate Best Fit for College

We will see to it that every consideration is covered when evaluating the best fit for you. The location of the school, accessibility to family, available roster spot at your position, course of study choice, class size, campus size, academic advisors and team tutors are just a few of the considerations which we will review with you to ensure you have the most successful education and athletic experiences.

Communication with College Coaches / Athlete

The NCAA has recently adopted new recruiting rules for NCAA D1 schools which went into effect in May 2019. The new rules place limitations between college coaches and recruits with respect to communication prior to the end of their sophomore year of high school (Grade 10). The NCAA feels this is necessary to avoid early recruiting tactics as well as give student athletes the opportunity for make a more educated decision on their college of choice.

Timely and proper communication techniques and strategies can be paramount in making a positive impression. Through our message center we will be able to provide you with immediate notification of coaches’ correspondence and/or emails and staff will review proper response etiquette along with participate in a mock interview so you have the tools to respond confidently.

Tournament / Showcases

Draftday International Athletics not only participates in some of the top Showcase tournaments around the world but host a variety of highly recognized Showcase events in North America giving us direct access to many of the coaches and college staff. We are in constant communication with prep and college coaches/staff to ensure they are attending the showcase events that we participate in to evaluate our athletes. With our 20 years of experience we know where to be to maximize your exposure.

ACT/SAT Prep

If you want to attend college in the United States, you will be required to take the SATs and/or ACTs. Although these scores are not the only thing an admissions office is looking at when deciding whether or not to accept you, the higher the grade you can get the better. Consideration should be given into taking an SAT test prep course which we will assist with and provide you with more confidence heading into the test. You will also want to plan when you take the tests carefully - make sure that you give yourself more than one chance to take the test just in case you don't do as well as you need to the first time around. Every school will have a different standard that they'd like you to meet in order to make the admissions process as successful as possible.

Campus Visits and Tours

Stepping foot onto some of your top college campus choices can be a very exciting time...and intimidating. Whether a casual unofficial visit where you have reached out to a coach or team representative and personally pay the expenses associated with the visit or an official visit where the institution has provided travel or other expenses to host you, we will make sure that you are ready. We will provide you with "do's and don'ts" instructions to maximize and make the most of the visit. We will also complete a follow up communication to ensure all the proper steps have been taken to provide the desired outcome moving forward.

University Acceptance / Offers

Once this process is complete, the final step will hopefully be to decide on the proper College or University you wish to attend. We will assist you in weighing out the pros and cons of each school, with the possibility of there being multiple scholarship offers. With our assistance you will feel confident in obtaining a written commitment form a school that meets your needs.