You are a high school athlete who wants to play in college and earn a scholarship. Should you pay for or hire a recruiting service to help you? If you have done any research into getting a scholarship you have seen these websites that promise big things and in most cases cost big money. Do they deliver on their promise and can they really help you get money for playing?

The most popular are the athletic profile based websites. For a fee, money, you can post an athletic profile that is promised to be seen by hundreds of coaches. They say they will blast your profile to schools across the country and scholarship offers will come rolling in. Is this the truth?

Well, they will take your money and they will blast your profile to schools across the country. As for coaches viewing your profile online, yes and no. These services will fax your profile to hundreds of colleges, but along with the profile of the other hundreds of registered athletes. It is not possible for a coach to take a stack of profiles and sort through these to figure out who to call. Take a look at the profiles, every athlete looks the same. There is not much of a call to action for the college coach. Also in DI and DII, coaches do not have the time or the patience to sort through online websites. Most of the views you will be getting are from other users, high school athletes online.

The other type are companies that for hundreds of dollars will make a highlight tape for you. They promise a professional highlight tape that will stand out above the competition. This is true, the tape will cost you hundreds of dollars, but what matters in the tape is your talent, not how well the tape is cut together.

Bottom line, save your money. Getting a college athletic scholarship is incredibly competitive. If you want it done right and with success you need to do it yourself. By doing it yourself it shows the college coach that you have ambition and determination. A fax from a website says nothing about you. The more you spend making a highlight tape, does not improve your performance on that tape.

If you want a college athletic scholarship, the earlier you start the better. The competition is becoming greater every year and by starting earlier in your high school years, you do give yourself an advantage.

No longer can you wait until your senior year and expect to be in a good position to get an offer if you had a great senior athletic season. While that does help, the competition has been working quietly for years behind you. If you are a senior and are reading this, you still can get an offer, but you really have your work cut out for you and need to start now and do it the right way without wasting any time.

If you are in your sophomore or junior year, you are in great time to start thinking about and putting a recruiting plan into place. Start by looking at your G.P.A. and SAT/ACT tests. Not having the grades is the number one reason why talented athletes don’t get any looks from coaches. If you are behind on your grades, make it a priority to do whatever it takes to bring them up to par.

From an athletic standpoint you should attend summer camps and combines the summer before your junior and senior year. Don’t attend just any camp in your sport, but attend a camp that will maximize your exposure and increase your recruiting stock.

While sophomores should just focus on developing their athletic ability along with their grades, juniors need to start adding more focus to the actual recruiting process. Begin to develop a game plan for college and begin laying the necessary groundwork and personal assessments that will guide you through your junior and senior year of competition. As a junior it is also important to make sure your games and matches are getting filmed as this is one of the top items used when making contact with colleges.

It is never too early to start working towards a college athletic scholarship. Just be sure you are following a plan that gives you step by step instructions what to do every year of high school.

The competition for earning and being awarded a college athletic scholarship is getting harder every year. There is a correct path to take to get one no matter the sport you play. These 5 mistakes are the biggest that I have seen every season.

1. You don’t have the grades.

I’m sure we have all heard of the talented athlete who should have gotten a scholarship, but was left sitting home in the fall because they could not get into school. In addition to having to pass the NCAA Clearinghouse, athletes must also meet the minimum requirements to get into the college where they are being recruited.

2. High School athletes who only want to play NCAA Division I.

Part of being awarded with a roster spot in college is being able to take a true measure of your talent and put your ego aside. If you are good enough to play DI, then by all means, go for it. But if you are not, you may have a hard time getting an offer and should look at DII schools or smaller conference DI.

3. Starting the recruiting process too late.

As the scene becomes more competitive each year, parents and students are starting earlier in their high school athletic career to get a jump on the other students. Do not wait until your high school career is over to think about playing in college. If you are a sophomore or junior, the time to start is now.

4. Getting hurt during the season.

I realize that if you get hurt it is not your fault. But you can’t use the injury as an excuse not to get an offer. There is a right and wrong way to treat injuries that occur during your career.

5. Not knowing what coaches are looking for.

You have been working most of your life at your sport. Don’t waste years of training by not knowing what coaches want in a recruit.

As a parent of a son or daughter that wants to earn an athletic scholarship, it can be both an exciting and stressful time. A parent can be a great resource to their child and can be the deciding factor that helped get them into school.

Or they can be a nightmare to the coach recruiting their child and actually hinder the process doing more harm than good. It is a difficult time for you going through this process because it is so important to both your child and you. A full-ride could pay for all of their schooling, which would be quite the relief.

The 3 main mistakes we see are:

1. Parent’s who wait too long because they just have no idea what to do.

2. Parent’s who assume the high school coach will do everything, because up until this point, the coach has advised and coached your son or daughter’s entire athletic career.

3. Too many parents wait for the college coach to find their kid.

As a parent, you can’t sit back and wait for anyone else to help get your kid recruited. Not your kid, not their current coach, not the college coach that promised to call back. You need to take a pro-active approach and get your kid recruited to play college athletics.

Throughout their high school career there are steps you should take aside from what the current coach is doing. By laying groundwork early you can achieve a greater success rate later on in the recruiting process.

If you are going through the process now there are several steps you should be taking to help get you kid an athletic scholarship. The main point we stress is too communicate with your child. Their head will be filled with the excitement of talking to coaches and your main job should be to help them stay grounded in reality, navigate the recruiting process, help communicate with coaches and make sure you and your child make a decision that is best for them and your family.

As nontraditional students, keeping your health and sanity is a must. Every college student learns about the dreaded ‘freshman 15.’ What no one talks about is how much more likely gaining 15 pounds or more is for those of us who are no longer in our twenties. As we age, our metabolism slows down, making it easier than ever to bring home the freshman 15 and some of his brothers. Once they move in, it is difficult to get them to leave. Spending hours everyday in front of a computer, sitting in classes, or reading books adds to the problem.

There are several ways to help prevent weight gain while attending college.

1. Walk to your classes. It is very tempting to drive from one campus building to the next, or jump on the campus bus, but unless the next class is too far away to get to in the length of time between classes, walking will give you some exercise. The fresh air will help you think better when you get to the next class, too.
2. Sign up or join the campus fitness center. Spend at least 30 minutes three times a week using the campus exercise equipment. If you have never used it before, be sure to talk with the fitness center monitor for instructions on using equipment. Also, you might check in with your doctor or the campus nurse to make sure you are healthy enough to exercise.
3. Take advantage of the campus swimming pool. Swimming is a good all-body workout, and can help you avoid adding those extra pounds, or even help you get rid of a few.
4. Drink water instead of soda from the machines. Water is calorie free, required for health, and can be carried from home or purchased at the campus bookstore. Don’t substitute juices for soda. Most juice has as many or more calories as soda.
5. Ride a stationery bike while reading your textbooks. Since you don’t have to watch where you are going, you can give your attention to what you are learning.
6. Form a walking group or yoga group with like-minded students. Whether it is because misery loves company, or because it gives you someone to talk to while exercising, a supportive group can help motivate you to stay with your fitness routine.

The most important things you can do for keeping your health and sanity when attending college is to eat right and get enough rest. Take a good multi-vitamin to help you maintain the schedule most college students endure. Many doctors recommend taking extra vitamin C during cold and flu season. This is sound advice for college students, since you will come into contact with a large number of people on campus. Getting enough rest will also help keep your immune system operating at peak capacity.

The freshman 15 is not a foregone conclusion. With the right diet and exercise choices, you can prevent those 15 pounds, feel better, and cope better with the hectic schedule imposed on college students. Get away from the computer. Put the book down. Get outside and get some fresh air. Your body and brain will thank you for it.

In preparing for a workshop I was doing for professors entitled “Input, Throughput, Output,” where I used the metaphor of a conveyor belt, I found the greatest clipart!  It showed a guy sitting at his desk and the desk was a conveyor belt.  I want you to get that picture in your mind…and then ask yourself whether your desk is a conveyor belt or, uh, maybe something else.

• Is your desk maybe a toxic dump?
• Is your desk possibly a clogged up drain?
• Is your desk a place for incoming, but not much outgoing?  Sort of an inbound terminal?

So let’s go back to the idea of ‘desk as conveyor belt.’  You have to deliberately design your desk to function smoothly or it certainly won’t happen.  I know that from experience!  If we use the word PREPARE as our acronym, here are some tips to get you going:

P - Partition your desk/workspace into its various functions.  Think about the top of your desk as VERY pricey land (real estate).  Do you have it apportioned appropriately?

R - Reduce the options of where incoming work (mail, folders, forms, etc.) can go.  If your desk and office are not functioning like a smooth-running conveyor belt, part of the problem may be that you (and others) put things all over the place.  This gives you the sense that you have incoming EVERYWHERE.  And for many, that’s true.  It’s an overwhelming feeling and leads to frustration rather than productivity.  Figure out a place where all of your ‘incoming’ will go (Hello?!  How about an inbox?)

E - Eliminate as many knick-knacks, pictures, plants, and other paraphernalia from your desk as possible.  Your desk is a place where you work.  Put the photo-gallery/memory-lane display somewhere else.

P - Place what you is functional FOR YOU in easy-to-reach locations on your desk.  You want what you use often to be within easy reach and the items you don’t need as often further away.

A - Allocate the appropriate amount of space for the kind of work you do - at any particular time. There is not a specified amount of space that is ‘right’ for every faculty member.  If it’s finals week and you are in the midst of grading projects, papers, and exams, then allocate your working space for that task.  At other times, if you are in the midst of writing a grant, then allocate (and re-allocate) your space so that it’s serving you for the current work you’re doing.  Visualize your work space as fluid.

R - Route work back OUT of your office.  A conveyor belt keeps moving.  Sometimes, faculty members have offices where a great deal comes in but very little goes back out.  Set up systems that route out-going…OUT.  When mail is ready to be mailed, have a place for that.  If you have work that needs to go home with you, have a place for that.  If you have materials that need to go with you to class, have a place for that.

E - Educate others about your new system.  If you have been a professor for any length of time, you - and those around you - have gotten used to the way that you do things.  As you begin to set up your desk (and office) as a conveyor belt, you’ll need to educate others about how your system works.  And they may need reminding.

Keep the visual image of a desk as a conveyor belt.  Imagine paperwork, projects, requests, and so forth that come into your work space, are then dealt with, and then go right back out….everything is smoothly running because you have systems for “input,” systems for “throughput”, and then systems for “output.”

The competition for baseball scholarships in college is tough. There are 11.7 NCAA Division I scholarships per school. NCAA DII only has 9 and NAIA schools have 12. The most scholarships available are at NJCAA or junior colleges who have 24 scholarships. The NCAA and NAIA classify baseball as an equivalency sport which means the scholarships can be divided into partials and awarded out to more players than scholarship numbers. Meaning if you are awards a DI 50% or .5 partial scholarship, the coach has 11.2 more to award.

You will face a lot of competition for a baseball scholarship and it is important that you treat recruiting serious and like a job. Those who do are rewarded. Here are some of the most common mistakes see athletes make year after year.

1. Not believing in your talent. As hard as it is to believe I see many high school baseball players that should be playing in college but do not think they are good enough. Sometimes recruiting comes down to who wants it more once athletes reach a certain talent level.

2. Giving up during the recruiting process. Getting a scholarship is hard work. Many times athletes who are used to success are not prepared for the brutal nature of earning a scholarship. Those who can press forwards after being turned down by school after school are the ones who win in the end.

3. Choosing the wrong summer team. Playing in summer leagues has almost become a necessity. College coaches are not able to recruit during the season because they overlap. The summer is the main recruiting season for baseball. Don’t choose a league with you friends, choose a team that will maximize your exposure.

4. Neglecting your academics. This is something that is preventable and should never happen. By just getting over a 3.0 GPA you make it 100 times easier for a college to accept you academically and recruit you. If you are behind on your grades, make every effort today to turn them around.

5. Not being flexible. We are talking about being able to touch your toes here. College coaches want athletes who can play multiple positions. If you want the scholarship be willing to play and be able to play around the field.

Remember, these are just 5 critical mistakes I have seen and continue to see every year. Start your recruiting process early to get a baseball scholarship and treat it like a job.

Iowa State University is well known for their technology programs and research, producing some of the world’s leading theorists, writers, and even astronauts, but what of their sports programs? The Cyclones of Iowa State compete in the Big 12 Conference of the NCAA’s 1st Division, a conference generally recognized to be one of the weaker ones in the NCAA, and it’s safe to say their sports program doesn’t have quite the lustre that their academic pursuits do. In fact their men’s baseball and swimming teams recently got shelved due to budget constraints, leaving the school with just 6 men’s teams, while still fielding 10 women’s teams. Many other team sports do still exist at a club sport level, including men’s baseball, hockey, and swimming, though they don’t enjoy the benefit of NCAA Division 1 competition or exposure.

The Cyclones nickname first came about in 1895, after Iowa State routed Northwestern 36-0, to which a Chicago Tribune reporter remarked that Northwestern would’ve had more success playing against a tornado. Iowa State immediately adopted the name, which was also fitting given the area’s propensity for tornadoes, and created Cy the Cardinal to be their mascot. Their logo has undergone several revisions, with the most recent version of a graphically intensive and busy logo of a half-cardinal, half-tornado, a style of logo popular in the 1990’s, being scrapped in favour of a more distinguished logo featuring a capital I superimposed over the word State, in a new font type the school is calling cyclone.

During a men’s football game at Jack Trice Stadium in 2005, Cy the Cardinal famously took a backseat as the team’s mascot when a real tornado touched down in Ames, Iowa, very near to the stadium. Fans were evacuated to the parking lot or the nearby Hilton Coliseum until the danger had passed. Iowa State would use that as motivation is the game, as they would upset the favoured Colorado Buffaloes 30-16.

Iowa State competes against Kansas State, the University of Colorado, the University of Kansas, the University of Missouri, the University of Nebraska, Baylor University, Oklahoma State, Texas A & M, Texas Tech, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Texas. Iowa has won 14 conference championships over the years, but none in more than a dozen years, as the school has slashed funding to its sports programs.

Iowa State has few major rivalries, with the most notable being their clashes with the University of Iowa, in which the Cy-Hawk Trophy is put up for grabs. The trophy features both schools mascots, Cy the Cardinal, and Herky the Kawkeye, emblazoned on the front of the trophy, with a football player running with a ball atop it, much like the Heisman Trophy.

One sport where Iowa State receives national attention is their wrestling program, which has won 8 national titles, and produced a number of world class wrestlers and Olympians. Most recently, Cael Sanderson, the current head coach of the Iowa State wrestling program, won gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens following a four year collegiate wrestling stint in which he went undefeated with a record of 159-0. Cael has led the current program to three straight conference titles, and a 2nd place finish nationally in 2007.