I received a camp invite and recruiting questionnaire. Now what?

Recently, Smarter Football visited a high school in New Jersey and met a junior cornerback. He had two envelopes that were mailed to him that very day. One envelope was a recruiting questionnaire from a division II college and the other was a camp invite from another division II college.

The recruiting questionnaire is very important because it helps college coaches determine who is really interested in joining their program. When you fill out a recruiting questionnaire and send it back, you will be keeping options open and have an advantage over those that fail to fill them out and send them back. No matter what division you receive a questionnaire from, you always want to fill out every field of the questionnaire form and send it back. You want to do this because there is no guarantee that other colleges will offer you a scholarship, so you need to show interest to every college that send you information.

We told him that it would be wise to fill out everything on the recruiting form and send it back immediately. After he finished that, we told him to send an email to the Head coach of that college and notify him that he filled it out and sent it back. The coach will see that he is interested by that rapid response and email. If the athletes information checks out, you can be assured that the coach will pursue this junior cornerback. The cornerback will have established a relationship with this coach and create opportunities to play college football when he is ready to commit.

The camp invite is a different story. The reality of camp invites is that colleges send these out to hundreds of prospects, but it does not mean they are serious about recruiting any of them. Camps cost money and the more athletes they get to sign up, the more money they make.

This does not mean you should not go to any camps! You need to make sure that the college inviting you is a college you feel you can compete at. If you feel you can compete at that college, then go to that camp and prove it in front of the coaches. By using this method, you will save money and improve your chances of getting on a college roster. When you know the camps you want to attend, email or call the coach and express your interest in attending the camp. Let him know who you are so he can see you are interested and prepare for your arrival.