Scholar Athletes - High Value Targets

The greatest challenge for college coaches in any sport is finding enough scholarship money with which to reward and entice athletes to come to the school and represent it athletically. Most coaches will tell you that their 'pie' is rather small compared to the 'sheet cake' of money that the Admissions Office has to award Academic Scholarships.

When coaches screen potential recruits, they will always inquire about the student-athlete's grades. This inquiry has two purposes: first, the coach wants to know if the recruit meets and will be able to maintain the academic standards of the institution. Second, is for the coach to determine if the young person under consideration is a scholar. Does this recruit have high SAT and ACT scores? What is their GPA? Where do they rank in their graduating class?

A recruit who excels in these areas is quite quickly labeled a scholar-athlete. If the coach is impressed with the scholar-athlete's skills and abilities in their respective sport, the coach can now walk this scholar-athlete's application into the Admission Office and make a case for an Academic Scholarship.

If his petition is successful, it becomes a win-win-win all around. The coach gets to extend an offer to a highly-qualified athlete and the scholarship money does not come out of his 'pie'. The scholar-athlete receives a four year financial commitment, unlike an athletic scholarship which is required to be renewed every year.

The scholar-athlete does not sign a Letter of Intent; rather he signs a Letter of Commitment to the school and the sport. And he further win because he gets to play his favorite sport at the school of his choice, and injury or a cessation of athletic participation does not negate his scholarship. He merely has to maintain his grades for the duration of the four years.