CPOA-SW Idaho : FAQ

Question: “Why should I pay for something I can do myself?”

Answer: CPOA offers three things; cost/time effective exposure, guidance through the recruiting process, and the experience to help you make the right decision. CPOA’s Regional Directors are trained to understand the latest recruiting regulations, how to determine potential, and how to help you communicate effectively with coaches to increase interest. This is our full time job. Without CPOA, your son or daughters recruiting process will be a full time job!

Question: “I know I can play in college, but only a few local college coaches have called, and I’d like a better opportunity. Is that possible?”

Answer: Chances are that a lot of coaches would be interested but they have never heard of you. Unless you are one of the top blue-chip athletes in the state, you must market yourself if you want to get noticed by coaches. CPOA will market your ability to more than 2,000 colleges and 18,000 coaches in 50 US States — ensuring that you will hear from multiple coaches and colleges, giving you multiple offers from which to choose. If you’ve heard from none or only a handful of college coaches- you need our help!

Question: “How do I know I’ve got the ability to play at the collegiate level?”

Answer: Talent evaluation is subjective! Your high school or club coach should help you make an initial talent evaluation. In addition CPOA offers a scouting service that can help you target the right level schools.

Question: “Who is an ideal candidate for the CPOA program?”

Answer: We deal with a wide variety of athletes. We have had high level D1 athletes in our program. For examples please see our Hall of Fame. We also have many non-athletic scholarship athletes who receive near full scholarships from academic aid, family need, and leverage. For examples, please see some of our success stories, and a list of schools we sent our clients to in 2009. You do not need to be a NCAA D1 level athlete to work with CPOA. If you have the desire to compete on the college level, we will meet with you and determine if we can help you reach your goals. We don’t work with just anyone, but can help athletes with a wide range of ability levels.

Typically, our clients fit one (or more) or these categories…
1. A desire to save money on college tuition.
2. An average or above average athlete who is overlooked and desires to be recruited.
3. A high level athlete who wants to maximize exposure in order to play at the highest level possible.

Typically, our clients meet some or most of these criteria…
1. Above average athlete
2. Strong student
3. Supportive family
4. Strong desire to compete in college
5. Well-rounded with leadership experiences
6. Willingness to consider schools further from home

If you meet ALL of these, you are a PERFECT candidate for the program. If you meet some or most, we can help you with your recruiting and help you find the best college and connect you with the available scholarships!

Question: “When should I start making an effort to get the attention of college coaches?”

Answer: As soon as you show potential. Many CPOA clients enroll in our service in their sophomore or junior year. In fact, in a recent survey, more than 65% of college coaches prefer to start recruiting during the sophomore year. Unfortunately, you can’t be too early. We all wish this wasn’t the case. We all wish that we could just enjoy high school and deal with the college decision after our senior season. However, coaching is a business. You have to remember, college coaches have full-time jobs as coaches- it’s all they do. It’s competitive and recruiting starts EARLY. The pot of scholarship money is limited, so the recruitment process should be started early. The earlier it is started, the more money and opportunities that will be for the student-athlete. The key is not to wait too long. The recruiting process is well underway by the time an athlete enters his or her final year of high school. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL YOUR SENIOR YEAR! Most college coaches already know about potential prospects by the athlete’s sophomore or junior year! CPOA can bring you direct to the college coach who really needs you, but does not know anything about you at this time!

Question: “I’m going to a camp or showcase and I expect lots of college coaches to see what I can do. Will that work?”

Answer: A college coach usually goes to camps or showcases specifically to watch someone already on his or her list, not to “discover” new talent. During my eight years as a college basketball coach I would often attend showcases or recruiting events. A few days before the event I would get (or request) a list of the kids who will be in attendance. I would then take that list and cross reference it with my own recruiting list. Then I would make a plan (which court and which time) to try to make sure to evaluate all the kids already on my list. Of course if a a kid really stood out that wasn’t on my list….I MAY take notice of them and add them to my list. To give you some estimation on numbers, here is a likely scenario… At a showcase with 200 athletes, maybe 20 of them were on my list before hand. I would typically get evaluations on those 20 and maybe add 5 names to my list to start recruiting. The other 175 went unnoticed! The bottom line is I never went into an event just randomly looking for kids- I had an evaluation plan. If you utilize the CPOA service, college coaches will know about you and your ability — and you’ll be on coach’s watch lists and part of their plans!

Question: “My coach has told me not to worry about a scholarship since he will take care of it. Should I rely on that?”

Answer: You should check your school’s history on scholarships received in the past and expect about the same results in the future. Find out from your coach what kind of help you and your teammates can expect. However, you should make your own plans to get exposure at the schools you want — nobody cares more about your future than YOU! No matter how long your coach has been coaching, we still have more contacts than they do. This is our expertise, our business. They are busy with their full-time job. This is ours. While their word and recommendation are essential in the recruiting process, it’s our system of marketing that creates exposure and leverage in maximizing choices. Think your coach can do what we do? Our first mailing alone may cost their coaching stipend!

Question: “My parents and I plan to write to several colleges to see if they are interested. Why should someone else do it?”

Answer: That’s better than doing nothing at all, but you don’t know if that school/coach has a roster spot available or has money available for scholarships. CPOA will market your skills to all colleges where you can play and perform academically — allowing the coaches to determine if there’s interest thus saving you time and giving you more choices from which to choose! Not every school needs a student-athlete with your skills — and it will take you alot of time and effort to determine which specific schools need you. CPOA will help you identify the schools who need YOU cost and time effectively! Also, coaches expect a certain bias from parents and athletes. An objective source, like CPOA, has more credibility presenting your skills and accomplishments.

Question: “What if I know enough about college recruiting already?”

Answer: If you’re comfortable with your knowledge level of these issues, then you may not need us. If you’re not, let us help increase Your Recruiting IQ!

Are you on the recruiting lists of enough college coaches? Even if you are, where do you rate? Are you the #1 choice? #10? #25?
What is an EFC; what does it mean to a family and how do coaches use that information to determine how much financial aid the student-athlete may receive?
NCAA regulations prohibit Division III schools from awarding athletic scholarships. How, then, are student-athletes attending these schools and playing sports at greatly reduced costs?
Do you understand the seven steps of the Recruiting Funnel and the role of the student-athlete?
What are the two main reasons why talented student-athletes are not recruited?

Question: “What are the different types of financial aid?”

Answer: CPOA deals with all four types of aid, not just athletic scholarships. For the overwhelming majority of potential college athletes, athletic aid will be the smallest amount of aid given. Remember, it’s the bottom line price, not how much athletic scholarship money a school gives you, that is most important!

Aid Opportunity #1
Financial Need Based Aid. Based on your family’s Expected Family Contribution Number (a figure calculated by the US Dept of Education). Aid can come in the form of grants, loans, and work-study.

Aid Opportunity #2
Merit Based Aid. Based on a specific College or University’s interest in you and a specific ability. Abilities in academic pursuits, the ability in music, drama or the like can create opportunities for aid. Colleges and Universities utilize aid to attract student to attend their school.

Aid Opportunity #3
Athletic Aid. Based on a specific College or University’s interest in you and a specific ability in athletics. Abilities in athletics can create opportunities for aid. Colleges and Universities utilize aid to attract student to attend their school.

Aid Opportunity #4
Leverage Aid. Based on a specific College or University’s interest in you and the relative offers you may have received from competitive schools. This type of aid is not need, academic, or athletic- it’s simply business. The more financial aid offers you have the more leverage you will have!

Question: “What are the major recruiting mistakes families make?”

Answer:

FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY - Many athletes we begin working with feel confident that they are already being recruited because they’ve heard from a few coaches. This “contact” comes in the form of letters, emails, occasional phone calls and even an invitation to attend a camp so they can “get a better look at you”. Unless you are completing questionnaires and getting weekly phone calls from coaches, you are NOT being seriously recruited. Let’s take a look at camps. College coaches put together camps in order to generate revenue. They will invite hundreds of players to attend. Do the math: if 300 players are invited and spend $500 each, how much does the college make over a couple of days? That’s right, $150,000. Remember, they may have only 1 roster spot available, but they’ll invite as many players as possible to generate revenue. So ask yourself, are you really being recruited, or is that money better spent elsewhere?
TARGET SCHOOLS ABOVE YOUR ATHLETIC ABILITY - Very few athletes will ever play at the top tier programs in the country. These schools have the luxury of selecting from the top blue chip athletes and begin tracking them by their freshman year in high school.
WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN - The earlier you start the process, the more success you will have. Your window of opportunity closes with every game you play.
MISJUDGE A TEAM’S NEEDS - Just because you’re interested in a school does not mean they’re interested in you. If the school already has 5 athletes that play your position, do they need another one?
CONTACT TOO FEW SCHOOLS - Want to stay in your state so your family and friends can watch you play? How many others think the same way? Nothing limits your options more than just focusing on a small number of schools.
LIMIT YOUR OPTIONS BECAUSE OF UNDEREXPOSURE - The more schools that know about you, the more offers you will eventually receive. You’ll have options to choose the best school for you.
EXPECT YOUR COACH TO DO MOST OF THE WORK - Although many athletes play for a high-profile high school or a travel team, families are on their own to figure out the best way to land a scholarship.

Question: “How do I know it’s not a scam?”

Answer: I sometimes come across this phrase. Sometimes, I even hear from interested student-athletes that their coach has told them, “If they ask you for any money, then it’s a scam.” What a disservice that coach is doing to THEIR athletes!

As in almost any industry, there are people that will take advantage of people. This may be true to some extent in the sports marketing industry. However, I know there are people that take advantage of athletes and families when running ‘businesses’ like showcase events, showcase camps, and AAU tournaments. Why no one even questions that these people are simply trying to make money blows my mind! Sports marketing companies like CPOA work closely with families to SAVE THEM MONEY. Of course we are a business, but we offer a product that is very beneficial to our clients, a true win-win!

If your coach thinks it’s a scam, ask them to sit down with me and let me explain how the program works. If they don’t have the time to do that, then how much time to they have to help you get recruited? Do they know what we do? Did they use CPOA themselves? Have they had athletes in the past use CPOA? Well, how then do they know? Also, have they spent 8 or more years as a college coach (specifically a recruiting coordinator)? Well, how do they know how the process works? Sure, they may have had some athletes they coached move on to play in college. But do they even know what was their financial aid package was? Could it have been better? If it was a few hundred dollars a year better using us then we would’ve made them money. They may be telling you with a good heart that they think it’s a scam. They may think they are helping you. Are they? This is YOUR college decision!

If you think it’s a scam, go look at the Better Business Bureau website and our A rating! Better, browse through our websites and read up on the sports marketing businesses. Best, contact me and let’s set up a free no-pressure and no-commitment meeting where I will walk you through the process and how it REALLY works. If you still think it’s a scam after that, then keep your money!

BOTTOM LINE - We don’t make false promises or guarantee you a scholarship. We don’t ask you for money up front. We don’t use tricks or push you to sign up and then not deliver. We don’t target uneducated families or withhold information. We simply show you how we can assist and let you decide what’s best for you.

Question: “How do I know if I’m being Recruited?”

Answer: Once you know how to read the signs you can very easily tell if you are in the recruiting game or on the recruiting bench.

You are In the Recruiting Game if:

• Dozens of college coaches are sending questionnaires directly to your home address or to your email address
• Dozens of college coaches are calling your high school or club coach looking for more information
• Dozens of college coaches are following up with you once they know of your academic and athletic abilities, and they may want you on their team

You are On the Recruiting Bench if:

You are getting few questionnaires from college coaches
Questionnaires are being sent to the school rather than your home or email address
College coaches are not contacting your high school or club coach
You are getting invitations to summer camps, mini camps, or invitation only camps – these are not recruiting materials
You are getting invitations to combines, clinics or showcases – these are also not recruiting materials
A college coach requests information from you and there is no follow up information or feed back
You have attended or are planning to attend high level showcases or tournaments and you expect college coaches to notice you from among the hundreds or possibly thousands of athletes at the event
You think you will be miraculously discovered and a coach will show up at your doorstep
You think it’s the responsibility of a coach or a guidance counselor to get you an athletic scholarship

Now you know the differences between being In the Game and being On the Bench; where are you? Get in the game today and take control of your recruiting destiny. Remember, you are either In the Game or On the Bench!

Question: “What are the steps of college recruitment?”

Answer:

Questionnaire: This one is simple. By returning your questionnaire, your personal letter of interest, and your CPOA profile to them promptly, you’ve then supplied him/her with all of the information they need to begin your evaluation.
Letter: In your 2nd reply to a school, if the coach did not ask for a video in his letter back to you, be sure to let him know that you have a video that you’re very proud of and you will anxiously await his request of your footage.
Video: Not until a college coach has requested and viewed your highlight video can you be considered a serious candidate in his/her recruiting process. NEVER mail a college coach your highlight or game footage unless he/she has asked for it. Due to the massive volume of unrequested videos delivered on a daily basis to college coaching staffs nationwide, thousands of videos go unviewed every year. You must be prepared for your opportunity and promptly deliver your footage upon the coach’s request. This step is when many athletes are “weeded out.” For that reason, we recommend professional assistance in the production of your all important video representation. Lasting impressions are often created with a particular coach in the viewing of the first five minutes of your footage. “THERE IS NO WAY ANY COLLEGE COACH CAN FALL IN LOVE WITH ANY HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE UNTIL HE HAS SEEN YOU PLAY.” Be realistic enough to understand that not every college coach is going to be impressed with your talents, simply due to the hundreds of videos that they review year after year. The only way you’ll ever know if you’ve passed this critical 3rd step, is if you hear back from the school that you mailed your video to within 30 days.
Phone Call: You cannot expect to receive a phone call in your senior year unless a coach has already seen you compete as an underclassman. With July 1st being the earliest date that the NCAA allows direct phone contact with graduating seniors, in all sports except D-1 and D-2 football, it is critical that your junior year athletic talents and academic accomplishments have been reviewed. Coaches will rarely, if ever, make a phone call to a senior athlete they have not seen play. When that all important phone call comes, you must be upbeat and positive regardless of the geographical location or level of play of the college that is contacting you. During your phone interview, be sure to ask questions regarding a possible visit to his/her campus to show your interest in the program. You can be assured that they would love to have you visit their campus.
Visit: There are only 2 types of visits a college coach can arrange for you. One is official and the other is simply unofficial. In an official visit, the college absorbs the transportation costs and on an unofficial visit, the parents supply the plane tickets/transportation costs. On either visit, the athlete will be treated the same with room, board and entertainment supplied by the school he/she is visiting. There is no way any high school senior is ever going to select his/her college of choice without first visiting the campus. Often enough, this is the time that the high school athlete is extended a scholarship offer.
Offer: The day you receive your first offer, you may want to mail a copy to any other colleges that you are seriously interested in, to let them know that you have other programs showing contractual interest.

Question: “Why Use College Prospects of America?”

Answer: You Have Only One Chance to be Recruited. Every year, hundreds of outstanding athletes wait to be recruited — only to discover they’ve been overlooked or only hear from a few coaches. WHY? They lack exposure. CPOA will market your academic and athletic ability to the hundreds or thousands of coaches in your sport of choice.

To Get the Best Education at the Best Price. Athletic scholarships enable qualified student athletes to get a quality education at a reduced cost to the family. CPOA will help you to connect with the colleges that need student-athletes and have financial aid available. The more coaches interested — the more leverage you build to find the right financial aid package.

To Stand Out in the Crowd. All high school students compete for admission at colleges across the country. College athletics may help you set yourself apart from thousands of applicants — college coaches act as on campus admission counselors — and CPOA can make sure they know about you!

To Find the Right College Experience. Selecting the right college is one of the most important decisions a high school student will ever make. The right location is important, as is the size of school and classes, and the appropriate curriculum are just some of the factors students use to determine the right school. By marketing your athletic and academic skills to a wide range of schools with the CPOA Program, you’ll have many different options to choose from — including schools you never thought of!

CPOA Helps YOU to Negotiate the Best Price. Most college scholarships are partial — which means they only pay for a portion of the total cost of tuition, room, and board. By promoting the academic and athletic abilities of a student athlete to multiple colleges, a family can compare scholarship offers and negotiate the best financial opportunity.

Students are Overlooked. Each year, qualified students are overlooked by colleges and universities because of limited funding and staff for recruiting. College coaches, from all division levels, cannot afford to recruit qualified student athletes — even though they have available roster spots and scholarships! This means lack of exposure and opportunity! The right college coaches do not know anything about you. You need to be pro-active in marketing yourself to college coaches to get the best education at the best price.

CPOA Helps YOU Market Your Abilities. After a personal consultation, CPOA will create custom marketing profile and deliver it to as many coaches as possible, across the country, at schools where you can compete. By using direct mail, email, video and personal phone calls, CPOA ensures that the right college coaches know of your ability both on the playing surface and in the classroom! More than likely, there is a roster opening available for you to continue playing your sport in college. However, without CPOA, you aren’t aware of this lucrative opportunity. And, without CPOA, the college coach who has the roster opening and the available scholarship money is unaware of you! We only contact coaches at schools where your grades and test scores qualify you to compete academically and athletically. We are in constant contact with Division I, II, III and NAIA coaches.

CPOA Also Helps YOU Understand the Entire Recruiting Process. Do you know what your FAFSA Expected Family Contribution Number is? What questions should you ask a college coach? When is a scholarship offer an actual offer? What are NCAA recruiting rules? What are the odds of a high school senior getting an offer? CPOA will help you answer these and other important questions throughout the entire