NCSA - Next College Student Athlete. Has anyone used them?

The Dad wrote:

My HS freshman pole vaulter daughter contacted this company, and they've asked me to give them a call in a day or two to discuss working with her. I'm curious if anyone has used them and what their experiences were.

I currently coach at the D1 level (NCAA bubble team) and have had experiences with NCSA. They do a good job at contacting us (almost to annoyance, but it’s a good thing). The profiles look good and I like how you can have video there. Because I am a distance coach it isn’t as important, but the field event coaches enjoy it. Make sure that the video also has portions that slow down so technique can be observed better.

I will say something negative about them though. Usually their email title is something along the lines of “A recruit is interested in your school” or something like that. I think the athlete puts down a bunch of schools that fit the bill and then NCSA sends out a link to their profile. It is quite generic and can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. My school received probably close to 300 emails a semester from kids wanting to be on the team so the NCSA ones don’t always stand out.

Regardless, it does help you cast a wide net. For the schools your kid is really keen on, I would also recommend directly reaching out on your own and providing the NCSA link.

I have met a few college coaches in a variety of sports. Few say good things about these recruiting services and they think the prices charged are way over the top. So the bang for the buck is just not there. One coach said one service makes big claims about how much money it has gotten athletes, but he notes that most of those athletes were already known to coaches.

http://usatodayhss.com/2015/recruiting-column-5-things-to-consider-about-using-a-recruiting-service

This one is interesting in that it blasts other companies in order to sell its own product.

https://sportsrecruits.com/blog/2017/03/10/3-reasons-why-recruiting-services-dont-work/

https://www.athleticscholarships.net/ncsa-reviews-athletic-recruiting.htm

PS. I clicked on the site for NCSA and they are not transparent with their pricing.

To both of you guys, thanks for the info.

Don't bother. Have your athlete be proactive and contact the coaches of the schools they are interested in directly. Look for emails, phone numbers etc and let it be known you are interested in their school and program. Give them reasons why their program interests you and how you would be a contributing factor to the team.

I’m a D1-bound high-school senior. I didn’t use NCSA. I just went to the athletics website for schools I was interested in and contacted the coaches directly. That way, I could say something about why I was interested in that school specifically, so it didn’t just look like I copied and pasted the same standard email and send it out to 30 coaches.

LoneStarXC wrote:

I’m a D1-bound high-school senior. I didn’t use NCSA. I just went to the athletics website for schools I was interested in and contacted the coaches directly. That way, I could say something about why I was interested in that school specifically, so it didn’t just look like I copied and pasted the same standard email and send it out to 30 coaches.

Yeah. That's what my D1-bound gymnast daughter did.

LoneStarXC wrote:

I’m a D1-bound high-school senior. I didn’t use NCSA. I just went to the athletics website for schools I was interested in and contacted the coaches directly. That way, I could say something about why I was interested in that school specifically, so it didn’t just look like I copied and pasted the same standard email and send it out to 30 coaches.

+1

Agree strongly. Have your daughter put in the effort. Most coaches would rather see initiative over some service you plop down money for.

The Dad wrote:

My HS freshman pole vaulter daughter contacted this company, and they've asked me to give them a call in a day or two to discuss working with her. I'm curious if anyone has used them and what their experiences were.

I have used NCSA for both of my kids. My daughter is currently a D1 athlete and my son is being actively recruited by D1 programs. I use NCSA for 4 main things: 1) detail information on schools (size, price, academics, etc.) all in one place; 2) the email system, which not only has all of the email address you need but also provides you with a read-receipt; 3) creating a profile with stats and video; and 4) ability to talk/email people at NCSA for advice from reviewing emails before sending them through negotiating with a coach. As others have said, you should take things in your own hands and contact coaches directly. NCSA just makes it easier to contact them with the information coaches want and need. Good Luck!

If I may...

1) That detailed information is readily available for free

2) Gmail and Outlook allow for read receipt.

3) That profile assumes a coach will go to the site to find it. I wonder how many coaches go to the site.

4) Letsrun posters do that for free! Okay, I can see some value in having someone to look over the email or help in understanding the aid packages, but at what cost?

Luv2Run wrote:

If I may...

1) That detailed information is readily available for free

2) Gmail and Outlook allow for read receipt.

3) That profile assumes a coach will go to the site to find it. I wonder how many coaches go to the site.

4) Letsrun posters do that for free! Okay, I can see some value in having someone to look over the email or help in understanding the aid packages, but at what cost?

Good points. I never said you couldn't do most of what you get from NCSA somewhere else, you just get it all in one place. You have to decide if that is worth the price. I got the mid-level service both times since I knew we would be doing most of the legwork ourselves. So:

1) Agreed. However the information is one click away instead of searching through various college sites, some of which are awful to navigate.

2) Agreed. However all of the emails are in one place and not combined with all of your other work or personal stuff. The read receipt is not just for the emails, it is for hits on your profile and searches initiated by coaches. It is a way to see if they are interested, especially in that period before they can contact you directly.

3) You can attach your profile link directly to the email. Most coaches who opened an email hit the link at least once and many hit it multiple times (even sharing it with other coaches not on the original email). The point is, you can see all of these activities on the coaches end in real time. Very helpful.

4) Yes. The cost can be high (they have 3 levels of service) but the value is there (at least for me) since most of us will only do this 1 or 2 times tops.

No, we did not use them but we considered using them. My family talked with someone at NCSA who used hard sell tactics that turned me off and almost made me laugh. He tried to get us to commit to paying $800 or whatever the price was for that level of service about 4 years ago before the call ended. He did not want to give us time to think over the service and price and have 2nd thoughts about the price. He did finally give us a very limited response time, such as 2 days, after which the service would no longer be available to us. He was a former small college basketball coach. I am not sure why they did not have someone working with us who had any track or XC experience.

I looked over the profiles of other high school distance runners using the service and it was obvious that the top 100 or more high school boys and 100 or more high school girls did not use the service. It looked more like it may have been used mostly by those that may have never have qualified for their state meets. My impression is that it may be of more use for someone looking for somewhere/anywhere to run where they may also receive some money rather than someone who is qualified to run on many collegiate teams.

Even the NCSA free videos and printed material state the athlete needs to do much of the work and need to reach out to college coaches. The high school athlete can see whether or not their times are about the same as the high school times of those already on the team who are top 7 on the XC team and competing at conference championships. If they are fast enough then most college coaches will reply to e-mails and accept phone calls.

The college coaches will look at XC times but how the athlete performs in big meets against top competition is more important. The only times really used are track times. I would recommend finding some indoor or outdoor 5000m track races where talented distance high school athletes may compete. A few college meets may allow top high school athletes to enter if they also allow post college athletes to compete.

I took videos of races and posted them on YouTube where college coaches and others could view them. I would recommend buying a video tripod or at least use a monopod to reduce camera shake.

Other advice I would give is that if the high school student is interested and able to compete at big meets such as NXN and Foot Locker regional meets and also at New Balance Nationals then do so.

Having two or more teams interested may increase the pressure on coaches to offer more scholarship money especially if they are both in the same conference. So the high school athletes should keep their options open when it comes time for official visits and discussions of scholarships offers. The coaches at those schools need to know the athlete is very interest in running for their school but the athlete should also let them know they have an interest elsewhere too.

Also prepare the high school athlete the very real possibility that they may be out one or more seasons in a row at the collegiate level due to injuries. They may have several years of collegiate running where they are disappointed due to lack of progress. They may be one of the top runners in their state or top 25 in the nation in high school but they may never be close to that level of success in college. They may be lucky and have great freshman year at college, be the 2nd runner for the XC team that makes it to the NCAA XC Championship meet, followed by 5 seasons (XC, indoor track, outdoor track) where they may be lucky to run a few races with mediocre times compared to their high school times. This is based on watching the top recruits from the last 4 or more years on my son's/daughter's team. I have really been surprise by the number of serious injuries at the collegiate level.

Make sure the athlete will be happy with the academic program at the school and the logistics of class location and schedule will work out. It means little to be accepted into a highly rated academic school at the college/university only to find out that class schedule will always conflict with the team practice time or find out some portion of the academic training/classes will be held at a campus 1 to 2 hours away from the main campus where the team practices are held.

Getting the “hard sell” was not my experience. I understood that the prices were set and that there were no time limits for buying the product. They do have sales people who sell you the product and they may be involved in other sports than what your kid does. Once you sign up you get a “coach” for your specific sport. Our first NCSA coach was a B1G thrower who talked us through the entire process and was instrumental in helping us position my daughter to accept a modest scholarship to a D1 program. Just the peace of mind that we were educated on the process and the various rules (which change yearly, as they just did) was worth more than what we paid. That is a decision you have to make for yourself.

Hi! I hear about this association, but not use it. I think it's a nice opportunity for all young people who don't want to study and who want to be a professional sportsman. Also, you can ask for essay writing help at https://essayyoda.com/best-essay-help/ and have more time for sport and for other things.

One of my club athletes used the service as a high school junior. She got on campus interviews with several Big 12 schools and ended up getting close to a full ride (85%) scholarship from one of them.

I didn’t really think she was talented enough to be a power 5 scholarship athlete, but the schools clearly took into account that she was also a top notch student and a great kid, so I have to say it looks like the service helped her.

Thank you for such open answer

With technology today, there is nothing any recruiting service does that a family can't do on their own.

Coaches don't want flowery multi paragraph emails.

We want:

Stats with links to official results

A transcript and test score

contact information on athlete, parent and HS coach.

video if available.

Very easy to find coaches emails of the schools that interest you. We will take it from there if you are good enough.

RealEstateCommercialBrah wrote:

Don't bother. Have your athlete be proactive and contact the coaches of the schools they are interested in directly. Look for emails, phone numbers etc and let it be known you are interested in their school and program. Give them reasons why their program interests you and how you would be a contributing factor to the team.

Avoid them. We paid over $3k for the premium PKG and it was all a waste. You'll do better contacting coaches directly.

I'm in HS right now. I used to want to pursue soccer in college, so I looked into them. They called my family a few days later and tried to pressure sale us into getting it, and the price for the lowest tier was like $900 up front. So we said no. I used CaptainU for a bit, which was $20 per month, but now I'm continuing my search by myself. One thing to be said: make sure she's completely committed to pole vaulting if you get NCSA. I started running sophomore year, and discovered I had more of a prayer in that than soccer. If I had gone with NCSA, we would be $900 in the hole. But with CaptainU, I could just switch it off. I maintain free accounts on both websites. None of these websites are necessary though, everything can be done by yourself. They're more targeted towards sports like soccer where game film and camp invites are more important. But still, a 3rd party is by no means necessary if you take initiative.

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