If you want to eventually play on a college sports team, you are going to need to work much harder than most other students. Most high school students need to think about scoring well on entrance exams, maintaining good grades and writing great application essays, but you also have to worry about playing to the best of your ability. Here are 5 helpful tips for aspiring college athletes.
- Train Every Day
If you really want to be competitive in the realm of college sports, then you have to work harder than you even think possible. This means that you need to be training every day. You don’t necessarily want to be doing the same exercises each day, though. In fact, you want to have a solid routine of exercises and skills that you work on throughout the week so that you can give certain muscle groups a break for a day or two.
- Never Miss a Game
If you want college scouts to notice you, then you have to try and play in every game. Even missing one game could mean the difference between being noticed and being missed. That’s why you want to work extra hard to show your coach that you are ready to work your hardest at every practice, which will make you an asset to every single game that your team plays.
- Keep Your Grades Up
Even if you are the best at your sport within your entire district, you are going to have a hard time getting accepted to college if you don’t have decent grades. If you give up on your grades during your senior year, it is going to show college admissions that you are not a very serious student. Plus, if you don’t maintain a certain GPA, you won’t be eligible to play for your school team anyways. So make sure you are staying well rounded throughout all 4 years of high school.
- Research Colleges
If there’s a specific sport that you want to play in college, you want to be sure that you know all of the colleges that have strong teams in that sport. Not only that, but you want to make sure that they have strong programs in whatever subject you want to study as well. If you don’t get recruited for the team you were dreaming of, then think about the major you want to pursue and see if you can find a school with a decent team, but a strong major program. If you eventually want to pursue something like NEC’s masters in project management, then then team you played for during your undergraduate years won’t really matter much.
- Maintain a Good Rapport with Your Coach
If you don’t maintain a good relationship with your coach, then you are going to miss out on some great opportunities to meet with college recruiters. Plus, you will want to get a letter of recommendation from your coach as well. So make sure you’re thinking about this the next time you are upset with your coach and bite your tongue.
