Put yourself in a college coach's position. Which would you rather get: a college recruiting profile with very little information or a detailed, glossy sports resume that a player has clearly put a lot of effort into?

It's important to know the goal of each piece of the recruiting puzzle. You send emails because you want to get responses. You go to tournaments because you want to get seen. You create a college recruiting profile because you want a coach to pause and say, "Hmmm, this is a player I need to keep an eye on."

The good news is, it doesn't take that much effort to get your college recruiting profile to have that effect on a coach. Spend 30 minutes on it, and you'll make huge strides.

5 Things That Have To Be On Your College Recruiting Profile

1. Pictures, pictures, pictures - Be more than a name and text on a page. Show coaches who you are. Action shots are great, but you should also include a headshot and a candid shot of you playing your sport in the front yard. This shows a love for the game, but also lightheartedness.


2. Recruiting event schedule - Keep an up to date list of the college recruiting tournaments you're going to so coaches know where they can track you down.


3. Updated academic info - Nothing is more frustrating for a coach than getting a college recruiting profile with no academic info. It's impossible to tell if the player is academically qualified. Include as much information about test scores and grades as you can.


4. Athletic history - List each team you have played for while in high school. List the events those teams have played at and the teams you compete against on a regular basis. This creates context so college coaches can compare you to other players they know.


5. Recommendations - Attach recommendations from your club and high school coaches to your college recruiting profile. This allows college coaches to have a little color commentary on your ability while they check out your profile.

Once you've sought college recruiting services, you must make the extra effort to enhance your profile.

Ahhh, winter break. Egg nog, 14 hours a day on the Wii, and a Mount Kilimanjaro of presents. It's the perfect time to kick back and do absolutely nothing -- uh, if you're trying to not make a college team.

If, on the other hand, you actually do want to play in college, you can get huge recruiting mileage out of your winter break, and still get plenty of solid time on the Wii. Here's what your New Year's resolution should be: by January 1st, you should find a group of 10 schools and send the coaches at those schools an email with a link to your CaptainU profile.

Not a big deal, right?

Sit down at the computer and resist the temptation to go to Facebook or ESPN. Instead, search for a few of the college teams that interest you. Have a look at their team pages, their rosters, and their coaches' info. Boom. Done. 5 minutes a team. Just like that, you'll have learned a ton. Enter a few quick thoughts on your CaptainU Recruiting Log. Do you like the school? If not, dump it.

Repeat this 10-ish times. Look, that's less than an hour total.

Next, create a great CaptainU profile. Throw a few pictures on it. Add your grades and test scores. This can be accomplished in 15 minutes. Finally, write a quick note that you can send to each of your coaches. Include the link to your CaptainU profile. Each time you send an email, personalize it with a few details about that specific school. College coaches will appreciate it.

All told, this can be done in 2-3 hours. Spaced out over 2 weeks, that's 8 minutes 34 seconds a day. Come on. You can make this happen and still beat Halo 3 893 times!

What if I identify an additional college when I have already made a lot of progress with my original list of colleges?

Say you've been diligently self-recruiting for five months. Your mother's friend comes over for dinner and talks up her alma mater. If you're convinced, all you have to do is a little catch-up work for that school.

Fortunately, you have your cover letter saved on your computer and your CaptainU profile is close at hand. That very night, send them off to the coach at the new school and get things rolling.

Say you just sent a college coach an email. A day passes, then two days, then a week and you still haven't heard back. What should you do? Here's a suggestion: don't frrrreak out and convince yourself that he's not interested.

Instead, gather your wits and write the coach a brief e-mail explaining who you are and what you sent him most recently.

If you send a second, or third, or even fourth e-mail and you get no response, it's time to give the coach a call. Pick up the phone and dial. Without accusing him of anything, ask why you haven?t gotten any response. The answer may be very helpful.

He may say that he?s been very busy and has had little time to work on recruiting—in which case you've probably done yourself a great service by calling him. You?ve advanced your cause and done his work for him. On the other hand, the coach may say that frankly he really doesn't think that you are right for his team. If this is the case, you have two options:

• It's quite possible that he?s made up his mind. Still, if you are really interested in this school you can be persistent and urge him to see you play before he writes you off. Be careful about expending too much energy on it. This could be a dead end.


• Alternatively, you can let this school fall by the wayside and say to yourself, "Alright, this is probably not going to work out. I'm going to concentrate instead on the five schools whose coaches responded positively to my cover letter and resume."

Some coaches' information packets do not include player profile sheets. If the packet you receive doesn't include a player profile, you should still respond promptly.

Immediately e-mail the coach to tell him that you got his mailing. Your e-mail should be similar to the accompanying note described previously. Let the coach know that you have read through the literature he sent. Mention your favorite details, for example "It sounds like you had a great pre-season trip to Sri Lanka."

Indicate that you are eager to move forward with recruiting, and that you will call or email again in the near future.

As soon as the information is available to you, send each college coach a schedule of your games and tournaments. Use CaptainU to add your tournaments and game schedule and then send coaches the link to your profile.