Recruiting Off The Field
It is not everyone’s goal to continue a kicking career in college or beyond, but this even applies to you if you are trying to make your high school or middle school team. What I am talking about is your off-field actions.
I’m sure at some point you have heard your coaches or parents tell you to be aware of what you are putting out for the public to see. This is a different age of media coverage, and the media will look for the smallest thing to bump up their ratings.
There are countless stories of athletes in the news for posting a controversial statement or picture on their Twitter or Facebook. What I am stressing here is to think if your parents, coaches, or team chaplain would approve of your statement or picture. If there is a question in your mind, then don’t post.
I remember very clearly my freshmen year, the first thing the Georgia Tech coaching staff and administration required all athletes do was to attend a meeting in which they had a guest speaker come in. This guest speaker began talking about how all of us, as athletes at a large university, are now under a microscope and to be very careful on anything we say or post, especially on social media.
As the speaker goes through the slide show, we begin seeing very embarrassing pictures of people we recognize. I started looking around the room and fellow athletes began turning red and covering their faces. These extremely embarrassing pictures and statements they had made on their “private” Facebook profile was now on display for everyone to see.
What the speaker had done is create a fake profile with a picture of a very attractive girl or guy and then friend requested every single student-athlete. As we call it today, the athletes had been “cat fished.” At that point I knew there were two things I could do. 1) I could set my profile to private and let only people I knew very well see what I posted. 2) I could clean up my personal profile and make sure all past, present, and future posts were acceptable.
If you are in middle school or high school, don’t think you are immune to this. There are news reporters, parents, coaches, and teachers that see what you are doing. Your coaches want someone they can trust with good judgment, and could easily be the deciding factor when two guys are battling for a position.
A fellow Georgia Tech player put it very well when he said during recruitment, “I am a good athlete and I can play at a D-1 school, but I know if I get into trouble then they will just replace me and I will be forgotten.” There is a reason NFL and college scouts look deeper than what they see on the field. They want to know you will be a hard worker and continue to improve for the next four+ years of your life. Let everything in your power be an advantage over others, one of those being a clean image.
