The Sports Scholarships Insider's Guide: Getting Money for College at Any Division Updated 2nd Edition

386 Pages·2009·4.45 MB·English

by  Dion Wheeler

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Over 500,000 athletes participate in sports in the nation’s college
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But less than 1% (about 4,000) of them get Division I, full-ride
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financial aid grants.
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the truth is: 80% of all college athletic Insider’s Guide
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opportunities are located outside Division I!
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But to seize those opportunities, you must take control of your
own recruiting process—recruiting, research and homework,
exposure and promotion, and negotiating—all in the S
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environment of a high-stakes contest where only the opposition n
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knows the rules.
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this book will give you the edge.
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If you aren’t one of the 4,000, but are athletically and
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academically qualified to participate in college sports, The Sports L
Scholarships Insider’s Guide will lead you step by step through the rA
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twists, turns, and all too often unpleasant surprises to achieve sR
your ultimate goal of a roster position and financial aid for your

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Study Aids/ $16.99 U.S. iI GETTING MONEY FOR
College Guide $18.99 CAN dP
ISBN-13: 978-1-4022-1884-2 £9.99 UK
ISBN-10: 1-4022-1884-2 e
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COLLEGE AT ANY DIVISION
www.sourcebooks.com
www.sourcebookscollege.com
AN WHEELER
E
DION WHEELER
updated 2nd Edition
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The
S por ts
ScholarShipS
insider’s Guide
GettinG Money for
ColleGe at any Division
2nD eDition
Dion Wheeler
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Copyright © 2005, 2009 by Dion Wheeler
Cover and internal design © 2009 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
Front cover design by Cyanotype Book Architects
Cover photos © iStockphoto.com/timeless, md8speed, sumnersgraphicsinc, klikk,
bcebul, mypokcik
Internal photo © Digital Vision
Tables on pages 33 and 39-42 © The National Collegiate Athletic Association
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval
systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or
reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information
in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that
the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional
service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a
competent professional person should be sought.—From a Declaration of Principles
Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of
Publishers and Associations
All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, regis-
tered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks, Inc., is
not associated with any product or vendor in this book.
Published by Sourcebooks, Inc.
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
[phone]
FAX: [phone]
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Originally published in 2000.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wheeler, Dion.
The sports scholarships insider’s guide : getting money for college at any
division / by Dion Wheeler.
p. cm.
(alk. paper)
1. Sports--Scholarships, fellowships, etc.--United States. 2.
Universities and colleges--United States--Admission--Planning. I. Title.
GV351.W475 2005
796’.079’73--dc22
2005003152
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To all the track animals I ever coached.
You gave me infinitely more than I ever gave you.
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acknowledgments
With Special Thanks To:
Peter Lynch, my editor, who believed in this project and
required that it be complete.
Betsy Lancefield Lane—my light at the end of the rejections.
My wife and best friend, Dianne, without whose publishing
wisdom and insight and remarkable patience, this book would
never exist.
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contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Recruiting Myths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter 1: Understanding the Recruiting Process . . . . . . 7
Chapter 2: Recruiting and Financial Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 3: Preparing for College and the Future. . . . . . 25
Chapter 4: Your Education and Athletics. . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter 5: Academic Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Chapter 6: Constructing the Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Chapter 7: The Cover Letter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Chapter 8: The Videotape. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Chapter 9: Sending Credentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Chapter 10: Organize, Organize, Organize. . . . . . . . . . . 71
Chapter 11: Critical Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter 12: Communication Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Chapter 13: The Visit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Chapter 14: Visit Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
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Chapter 15: Why Prospects and Families Get Hurt . . . . 99
Chapter 16: Awarding of Athletic Financial Aid. . . . . . 105
Chapter 17: Negotiating Guidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Chapter 18: Financial Aid Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Chapter 19: Solving the Division III Athletic
Financial Aid Mystery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Chapter 20: Interdepartmental Communications . . . . 139
Chapter 21: Division III’s Pleasant Surprise . . . . . . . . . 151
Chapter 22: Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate . . . . . . . . 153
Chapter 23: The Ultimate Negotiating Weapon . . . . . 157
Chapter 24: How Do I Contribute to
My Future Success? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Chapter 25: Professional Help Wanted. . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Glossary of Recruiting Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Appendix 1: Additional Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Appendix 2: Institution Contact Information . . . . . . . 180
Appendix 3: Women’s Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Appendix 4: Men’s Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Appendix 5: Mixed Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
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introduction
The confluence of two seemingly unconnected and important
aspects of collegiate culture combine to create an interesting
phenomenon: the distribution of financial aid for athletic abil-
ity by a huge majority of America’s colleges. Soon after athletic
competitions between schools began, it became clear that the
student bodies of the schools took the contests quite seriously
and they preferred winning as opposed to losing, no matter
how much sportsmanship the athletes on the fields of competi-
tion exhibited. And they didn’t want to win occasionally; they
wanted victories on a consistent basis. The winning formula
became obvious: when your team has better players, your team
dramatically increases its chances to win these important con-
tests. The obvious question followed, “How can the best players
on the field wear our school’s colors?” Athletic Scholarships
(having little to do with scholarship) were created and the rest
is Recruiting History.
Is your dream to exploit this situation so you can continue
your athletic career and simultaneously have your athletic abil-
ity be rewarded with a reduced financial burden while compet-
ing and earning your college education? Is that why you are
here, to leverage your athletic ability to create educational and
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2 The Sports Scholarships Insider’s Guide
other amazing opportunities for your future? If so, you’ve come
to the right place.
This book is designed to help your son or daughter become
a successfully recruited high-school student athlete. It is con-
structed to provide you with the tools, devices, and strategies
to give you the best opportunity to continue an athletic career
in college and to receive financial aid based upon your athletic
ability. For the purposes of this book, the term financial aid
will include scholarships, grants, low-interest loans, or any
combination of the above. In short, The Sports Scholarships
Insider’s Guide is intended to give you an advantage over other
equally qualified student athletes who dream your educa-
tional, athletic, and financial aid dream.
I am uniquely qualified to lead you through the tangled
web of recruiting confusion, duplicity, and unfairness. For
twelve years I coached at a NCAA member university. One
of the primary responsibilities in my position was recruiting
high-school student athletes.
I coached at three high schools in two Midwestern states over
a fourteen-year period. Much of this time was spent working
with college recruiters, as well as the parents and prospects of
those who were being recruited. I have two grown children who
were both successfully recruited: one by a Division I state uni-
versity and the other by a private Division III college. One was
an All-American and the other’s career was cut short by injury.
I empathize with the positions that all the parties involved
find themselves in. I know intimately what each one is going
through during all phases of the recruiting process, especially
the crucial and fragile negotiating prior to an offer of athletic
or other financial aid and a roster position. I owned a col-
lege prospect recruiting service. My clients were academically
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Introduction 3
and athletically qualified student athletes wanting expert
help in becoming professionally exposed to college coaches.
I contacted and often negotiated with coaches and recruit-
ers on behalf of my clients. I am a member of the Recruiting
Education Speaker’s Bureau of the National Collegiate Scouting
Association: www.ncsasports.org. You are about to use the
inside knowledge I have accumulated, sometimes painfully,
over many years of experience as the parent of recruited stu-
dent athletes, a high-school coach, a recruiting service owner,
and as a college coach and recruiter.
Today, there exists a nearly uncountable number of oppor-
tunities for qualified athletic prospects to leverage their ability
to play and to learn. More than 1,700 colleges and universities
offer athletic programs. That’s good news! There’s more good
news, however there’s some not so good news, too. Only 7
percent of those 1,700 institutions offer full grant-in-aid Divi-
sion I athletic scholarships. That covers less than 1 percent of
student athletes! So it should be obvious that a colossal major-
ity of the opportunities to play your sport and receive finan-
cial aid for your athletic ability are located outside Division I.
And the coaches of those colleges want to put uniforms with
their school’s colors on the best players available. But how will
they find them? They need your help! Although you may be an
outstanding prospect, you may well be overlooked and not
offered financial aid for your athletic ability, especially in non-
revenue sports. How will those coaches find you? They need your
help! This book will help you help them and create opportu-
nity for yourself, as well. Need more proof of athletic financial
aid opportunity? According to an NCAA Executive Sum-
mary, since 1981, the number of college women athletes has
increased by nearly 98,500 and men athletes by nearly 61,500.
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