One of the hardest parts about our job is giving the hard hitting advice and guidance. We sometimes have to be the ones to deliver bad news or “crush” a student-athlete’s dream. But for every hard time we have, there are 100 great moments or conversations. That being said, our job is to make sure expectations meet reality.
John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach of the UCLA Bruins once said…
“Without proper self-evaluation, failure is inevitable.”
Why do we need to self-evaluate?
When you decide to take the step to become a college athlete, there are a couple things you need to do. The first is to have an honest self-evaluation. With a self-evaluation, you need to take into consideration the level in which your golf game is at as well as your academic standing. This is going to give you the best chance of success. If you need help with this, check out our services for the introductory service that contains a full player assessment.
With your self evaluation you might find out a lot of things about your abilities. Are you the star student-athlete on your high school team? Or does someone else have that spot? Are you playing top amateur events around the country? Are you sticking to local one day events? All of these things need to be taken into consideration.
You are also going to want to remember that high school athletics and college athletics are two completely different animals. When taking the step from high school to college, that is a big step in athletics and it is something that should not be taken lightly. We are fortunate in our country to have so many educational opportunities for all student-athletes of many different skill sets.
What are my college options?
Now let’s take a step into the your college options as a student-athlete.
A huge part of the recruiting process is being honest about your playing ability and the schools you are interested in. We see numerous amounts of players that have a low 80’s scoring average but the top 5 schools on their college list are some of the top programs in the country…things just don’t add up.
While having big dreams and high expectations are wonderful, there comes a time when realistic goals have to take over. We highly suggest keeping in touch with lots of college coaches – you never know what might happen in your high school years that could affect your college career, both athletically and academically.
So many of the athletes we work with assume the only route for a successful college career requires attending a Division I school. Did you know that the NCAA sponsors 24 sports across three different divisions? There are 350 schools at the DI level, 302 schools at the D2 level, and a whopping 449 schools at the D3 level. This means if you want to compete at the college level – you have approximately 1,100 schools to choose from.
Overwhelming? Sure – but then we break down which schools sponsor golf – on the men’s side – golf is offered at 284 universities at the Division 1 level, 182 universities at the D2 level, and 231 at the D3 level. On the women’s side – golf is offered at 243 universities at the D1 level, 161 universities at the D2 level, and 175 universities at the D3 level. These numbers already seem more manageable. There is clearly a path for each student-athlete.
(To learn more about these numbers, check out our page GOLF BY THE NUMBERS)
With honest self-evaluation, the team at Path Fore Success can make sure your college experience isn’t a failure. Every package we offer includes a player assessment which lets us take a deep dive into not only your golf game but the mental and academic sides as well. Together, we will come up with a path that makes your high school and college golf experience one that you’ll never forget!
Do you need help through the junior golf recruiting process? Contact the team at Path Fore Success today! Send us an email today at info@pathforesuccess.com to get started today! For more posts like this one, check out our blog here: Path Fore Success Blog. You can also follow us on Instagram & Twitter for more!
