Colleges have a limited number of scholarships or "relaxed admissions" spots available for a certain sport each year. Since no school signs 100% of the athletes it recruits, a recruiter’s job is to sell his or her school to as many potential customers … er, athletes … as possible.

When you combine the individual recruiting lists of an entire college football staff, you might have a few thousand potential players that the staff will pare down to fill maybe two or three dozen roster spots, at most. They’ll rank the prospects by position, offer scholarships to the highest-ranked players, seek commitments, pursue other players when their "first choices" don’t pan out, and then repeat the process until they’ve filled their recruiting class.

Other sports work much the same way.

The numbers can be discouraging. To give you an idea just how discouraging, consider this: A Division IA football team -- the USCs and Notre Dames of the world -- can have a total of 85 full-scholarship players on its roster.  That's the most of any level of any sport in the country.  If you figure an equal number of players from each class (freshman, soph, junior and senior), you're looking at an average of 21 or 22 scholarships per class.

Now, it's usually a little more, because juniors and seniors occasionally leave the program if they're not making progress up the depth chart.  But even if Notre Dame, for example, has 30 or 35 scholarships to offer an incoming freshman class, they are probably "recruiting" (that is, sending letters to) a few thousand high schoolers.  A few thousand!

That's why it's important not to get too carried away by all those letters.

Still, like a lottery, you have to play the scholarship-recruiting game, if you ever expect to win.

The first step is a sit-down meeting with your high school coach sometime during your child’s sophomore or junior year. The purpose of the meeting is to confirm to the coach that your child wants to play in college, and to discuss how the three of you can work together to make that happen.

The coach’s role in the process isn’t what you think. A High School coach can’t "get" your child a college scholarship or Admission offer.  I can’t stress that enough. Even if your coach is close personal friends with the recruiter -- even if they were Best Man in each other’s weddings -- it will not prevent the recruiter from doing his job, which is to evaluate athletic talent and potential as it relates to his school’s roster needs and academic requirements.

Only your child’s athletic and academic performance can earn him or her a scholarship or a "preferred" Admissions spot. The recruiter will look at film and transcripts, size up your kid, compare him with other prospects that play the position, and then either stay in touch with him or bypass him.

If he’s uncertain, the recruiter may ask your coach about your child’s work ethic, family background and other intangibles. But no matter how glowing the report from your coach is, the recruiter and his head coach make the final decision. Grades and game films don’t lie. Remember that, and you’ll save yourself and your child -- not to mention his coach -- a lot of headaches.

What can you expect from your coach? Three things:

1. A fair and honest assessment of your child’s talent level and college playing potential.
2. Timely follow up on all recruiting opportunities -- including forwarding mail from colleges to you, and following up on phone calls and other info requests from recruiters.
3. A reputation for honesty and credibility with recruiters.

That last item may be the most important of all. Parents often think a high school coach should embellish (translation: "lie about") their kids’ talent and accomplishments to recruiters. "Our coach knew my son wanted to play at Duke, but when the Duke recruiter called to see if there were any prospects at our school, our coach didn’t even mention my son’s name."

Maybe that’s because your son doesn’t have the size and/or talent to play at Duke. If so, your coach did a big favor to the recruiter, to your son, and to future student-athletes at your high school.

Recruiting is serious business. Recruiters travel thousands of miles visiting prospects at schools. They don’t just pop in on a whim. They maintain extensive contact lists with high school coaches that they trust to understand their needs and to recommend only athletes who are a good fit for their programs.

They have no patience for shell games. One or two shady recommendations, and they’ll cross a coach or high school off their contact list for good.

Keep that in mind as you talk with your coach about the right athletic fit for your child. If you disagree with your coach’s assessment, you’re free to contact as many colleges as you want. But leave your coach out of these contacts. His main focus should be on the types of schools that he feels best suit your child’s talent level.

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