The Truth About Social Media and Recruiting
It’s that time of the year. The high school regular season is coming to a close, and unless you are part of the select few that go on and advance up the ladder of post-season play, you may be finding yourself making a college decision/commitment here very soon.
The reality of college basketball recruiting is that high to mid major prospects have been vetted and have been building relationships with high to mid major coaching staffs for at least a year or so now. AAU basketball and exposure events have made it easier to build those relationships early in the recruiting process more than ever. Coaches now have a better idea of what type of person they are bringing into their program. Most coaches will go on to tell you that the type of person they want to bring in is more important than who they want to bring in as a player. Players with character > players who are characters.
Those of you that may go on to play low major, D-II, D-III, JUCO or NAIA ball could still be looking for places to play without much of a relationship built with a coach or staff. My advice, (as a small college basketball assistant coach)? Listen good: YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS MATTER.
Social media, especially Twitter and Instagram, will be the first thing coaches look at when trying to figure out what type of person they may be bringing into their program. It’s just so easy to access. And their interest in you could change as quickly as seeing just ONE derogatory post or comment. College coaches want to bring in players they can trust. Someone they know won’t be causing them any problems, especially if all the sudden you went from having DI hopes to relying on that small college coach to offer you a scholarship.
At your age (you are a young adult now), it’s time to be a professional. Get rid of the profanity statements and perverted jokes. That picture of you and your buddy bonging a beer? 9/10 coaches just went on to the next prospect. It matters. I’m not telling you not to have fun at your age. Trust me, I was that age. Most college coaches understand that. But all college coaches also understand how important “image” is. If the image you are putting out on social media could possibly hurt their program’s image when you step foot on campus, it’s just not going to be a good fit.
Social media truly is one of the greatest resources we as college coaches have at our disposal. We follow recruiting networks promoting players, see Vine clips of player’s highlight dunks, scores and stats from games of players we are interested in. But it can also be your worst enemy.
Keep it clean, reap the benefits. Good luck and best wishes to the 2017 class!
“WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHO YOU ARE AS A PLAYER.” – JOHN WOODEN