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Recruiting is not about
waiting for opportunities,
it's about creating opportunities.
I can not stress enough how important these next couple of months are for high school juniors. If your athlete has any aspirations of playing their sport in college, do not let anymore time go by. Start doing something to help them now.
First and foremost grades. Junior year grades are conceivably the most important in an athlete's entire educational career. Why? Think about it, the grades that an athlete gets in June will be the only grades that they have to talk about until the next grades come out...in January. Then it could be too late!!! I tell all my athletes you can either "cry or crow" come report card time. College coaches would much prefer the "crowing". So juniors...do whatever it takes now, only about a month or so before the crowing or crying starts.
Then we have showcases, tournaments, meets and camps. Important for all aspiring athletes to attend camps. College coaches need to see what you can do in person in order to recruit you and coaches will make their way around the spring and summer circuits. A great performance can lead to a college scholarship offer.
But, I must preface attending these camps and showcases with this in mind: these events are money-makers for the colleges, coaches and companies putting these events on. They want as many kids to attend as possible. And college coaches are not necessarily looking for new talent, they are going to primarily see the guys and girls that they already have on their list.
So, the general rule of thumb is to only attend camps at schools where you already have an established relationship with the coach. Don't waste your money attending a slough of camps and showcases in the hopes of getting found...it just does not work that way.
Whether you are an A4A client or not, feel free to contact me with questions here on how to create the relationships.
This is a very, very important time of year for your athlete. You get one chance at college recruiting, so you might as well do it the right way!
Please feel free to forward this on to anyone who you feel might be interested.
Thanks for all your support and continued referrals.
Steve
Steve Britschgi
President
Advocates for Athletes, LLC
650-255-0766
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What We Do
Advocates for Athletes (A4A) is a local, hands-on consulting and coaching business created to help educate and guide student athletes and their families through the college recruiting process, with the ultimate goal of obtaining a college athletic scholarship and/or admittance to a school of their choice because of their sport.
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Where are the A4A Athletes
going to College?
Here is a partial list.
Colleges
The U.S. Naval Academy
Providence University
Princeton University(2)
UCLA (2)
Amherst
Tulane University
Loyola Marymount University(2)
Lewis and Clark University(2)
Dominican University(2)
Western State College of Colorado
U.C. Berkeley(2)
Texas Christian University
Brown University (2)
University of Utah
Cal Poly Pomona
Claremont Mudd Scripps
Georgetown University(2)
Carroll College
Tufts
Chaminade University
Kenyon College
U.C. Merced
U.C. Davis
Carnegie Mellon University(2)
Pomona Pitzer University(3)
Duquesne University
Southern Illinois University
Fresno State
University of Redlands (4)
Notre Dame De Namur University
University of San Diego
University of Colorado at Boulder
Colorado College(2)
Cal State East Bay University
Washington State University
Trinity College (Conn)
Leslie University
Willamette University
Rochester Polytechnic Institute
Cal State Dominguez Hills
Dennison University
U.C. Santa Cruz
Chapman University
Sacramento State
San Jose State (2)
University of Washington
Lafayette University
Arizona State (2)
Davidson University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
University of Pacific
Cal Poly
University of Puget Sound
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From the Desk of:
Susan Zaro, LMFT, BCB
Sports Health Counseling
Biofeedback for Mental Skills Training
"The key for me is to forget about results and concentrate on execution." Orel Hershiser,
Los Angeles Dodgers.
How do athletes arrive at this place of letting go of the many distractions and pressures of performance? Many athletes are familiar with playing well in practice but not up to their potential during a game. In practice an athlete is focusing on the task. There isn't the pressure of an outcome of winning or losing. Their mental focus complements their physical training. When an athlete leaves the practice arena and faces a team or challenging opponent or a game that matters, the athlete often becomes distracted with internal dialogue that sounds like:
*Don't mess up this game.
*I'm ranked higher, I should win.
*I have to beat this opponent.
*Don't let the team down.
*If I don't play well the coach will bench me.
*There are scouts in the stands today. I have to perform well.
These types of distractions trigger a fight, flight, freeze primal response in the body. Athletes are typically unaware of the extent to which thoughts influence physiology and the impact it has on performance. Biofeedback is an easy training tool that provides real time data to athletes regarding how the body is responding to the mental dialogue and physiological response to the environment.
A simple Psychophysiological Stress Test helps the athlete recognize the link between thoughts and the perceived stress of competition and reaction time, the ability to think clearly under pressure, and emotional management. Once the athlete has an individualized blueprint of the stress cues that negatively influence their performance, an individualized biofeedback training program can be designed that will enable the athlete to more effectively address and manage these issues.
For additional information regarding biofeedback,arranging for a Psychological Stress Test or a free 30 minute phone consultation contact Susan Zaro, LMFT, BCB @ www.susanzaro.com.
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From The NCAA:
There are more than 460,000 NCAA student-athletes, and fewer than two percent will go pro in their sports.
For the rest, the experiences of college athletics and the life lessons they learn along the way will help them as they pursue careers in business, education, athletics administration, communications, law, medicine and many more fields. Education is a vital part of the college athletics experience, and student-athletes treat it that way. Overall, student-athletes graduate at higher rates than their peers in the student body, and those rates rise each year.
The chart below shows the probability of competing in athletics beyond high school - both college and professionally. These percentages are based on estimated data.
| Student-Athletes | Men's Basketball | Women's Basketball | Football | Baseball | Men's Ice Hockey | Men's Soccer |
|---|
| High School Student-Athletes | 538,676 | 433,120 | 1,086,627 | 474,791 | 35,198 | 410,982 | | High School Senior Student-Athletes | 153,907 | 123,749 | 310,465 | 135,655 | 10,057 | 117,423 | | NCAA Student-Athletes | 17,984 | 16,186 | 70,147 | 32,450 | 3,964 | 23,365 | | NCAA Freshman Roster Positions | 5,138 | 4,625 | 20,042 | 9,271 | 1,133 | 6,676 | | NCAA Senior Student-Athletes | 3,996 | 3,597 | 15,588 | 7,211 | 881 | 5,192 | | NCAA Student-Athletes Drafted | 46 | 32 | 254 | 678 | 7 | 101 | | Percent High School to NCAA | 3.3% | 3.7% | 6.5% | 6.8% | 11.3% | 5.7% | | Percent NCAA to Professional | 1.2% | 0.9% | 1.6% | 9.4% | 0.8% | 1.9% | | Percent High School to Professional | 0.03% | 0.03% | 0.08% | 0.50% | 0.07% | 0.09% |
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From the Desk of: Beatrice Schultz:
Westface College Planning
Congratulations to all our seniors! College acceptances and financial aid offers have finally arrived and your powerful decision making time is here. YOU get to choose your best academic, athletic, social, and financial fit college.
PayScale recently unveiled their annual interactive ranking of colleges base of return-on-investment (ROI). Check out Westface College Planning's Senior Scoop where we discuss how ROI can help you understand one aspect of "financial fit" for your college, career, and choice of major.
Parents and students often ask: Does college ranking matter? Is Ivy League worth it? Will a degree from these highly regarded colleges really make a difference in my future career? It's a commonly debated question, and this month's Westface College Planning's Featured Find explores that very idea.
Your next step is to build your college funding plan and map out your financial life. We can help you take your next step on the path to creating a clear college funding plan. Sign up for a workshop or give us a call today!
Beatrice Schultz, CFP� | College & Retirement Financial Planning
All the best,
Beatrice Schultz, CFP�
Westface College Planning
College Funding Specialist
Beatrice Schultz, CFP� | College & Retirement Financial Planning
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Testimonials :
Feb 8, 2015
Dear Steve,
Thank you for your guidance, mentoring, clear process, and discipline. You transformed a mysterious and potentially daunting multi-year recruiting process into manageable steps with clear goals. As parents trying to navigate the complex world of DI football recruiting, we were so glad to have you there at every step along the way. Your confident, can-do, upbeat approach made us feel like we had a calm and competent coach in our corner at all times. You helped Ben set goals, develop a list of target schools, understand the many NCAA rules and regulations, draft letters to coaches, and create a great resume and highlight reel. We appreciated your advice on the myriad of football camps and junior days, and so much more. You were phenomenally responsive and always happy to answer our questions and offered a calming influence when things heated up and decisions needed to be made. Without your experience and wisdom, we would not have had a clue where to start and we are confident it would have been a much more stressful process. In the end, Ben had four Pac-12 offers, numerous Ivy League offers, and many other options.
Thank you Steve and A4A for your help!
Mary Lea Kirven and Busy Burr
Parents of Benjamin, U. Washington, Fall 2015
Advocates for Athletes, LLC
February 2015
I highly recommend Steve Britschgi, his valued team, and Advocates for Athletes. Often times as a parent of an athlete, there is a great deal of information in the market as to what is the most appropriate plan to gain exposure for your student athlete. Plainly stated, it is very confusing.
Steve Britschgi and Advocates for Athletes truly offer a value added program that guides the athlete in the most efficient way to gain market visibility which is turn will provide results. The ownership of responsibility is put upon that student athlete, which clearly provides a goal oriented path as to what the athlete claims he or she wants to be a part and parcel of. The individual sport in not the main concern - The process is.
His coaching around identifying schools, sending out letters, and the follow up associated with that is wonderful. Indeed Steve and his team are advocates for your student athlete.
Sincerely,
~Steve Papapietro
Father of Christopher, committed to University of Pacific 2015
*******************
Hi Steve!
Just wanted to say hi and thank you again for all your help! I have been at Carnegie Mellon for two weeks now and today was our season opener. Check it out at http://athletics.cmu.edu/sports/wsoc/2014-15/releases/20140829hpgpi0. It has also been great to play with Megan Bartoshuk again - she is the one that referred me to you! Anyway, I really believe this is a fantastic fit for me, for school and for soccer, and I really appreciate your process that brought me here.
Hope all is well,
~Sienna Stritter
********************
Hi Steve!
I just wanted to let you know what a wonderful fit UCLA has been for me! I absolutely love the campus, my swim team, and the education I am receiving. I am really happy to say that I am sure that I made the right choice in choosing this school. I am definitely looking forward to swimming my sophomore year too! Thanks again for all the help you gave me, I can truly say I would not be here if it wasn't for you.
~Rachel Owen
Previous A4A Student Athlete
Graduated Spring, 2013
**********************
Steve,
Thank you for all your guidance and help in assisting my son find his way on to a college campus with a ball in his and a scholarship in his bank account!!
Your attention to detail and your true desire to help him made the world of difference in his life. While Zayn is a smart, strong, quite young man who is silently confident your guidance and coaching helped him to openly and willingly be confident to speak highly of himself, sell himself, and take ownership of his achievements. These are enhanced skills he will take with him throughout the rest of his life.
Your willingness to meet him near his school and job and accommodate his very busy schedule was appreciated. Also your efforts of continuing to check in and make sure he was on track was one of the keys to his success.
Zayn achieved his dream of transferring to a university that would afford him the academic excellence he demanded as well as be a part of a system were he could be a key contributor.
I have to also thank you for all the talks you had with me and your prompt communication throughout the who process. I was often unsettled and concerned about his future and you never gave off a negative or discouraging message.
Your faith in Zayn and his abilities academically and athletically will never be taken for granted or forgotten.
I am envious of your position to help families and student athletes achieve their dreams because I know there is a demand for this. I am now your advocate! I will do anything I can to help you if you ever need it... and will recommend you to everyone I know going through "the process".
Wishing you continued success,
~Susan Kirkendoll
Mother of Zayn, Carroll College
***************
Dear Steve,
I am so grateful to you for giving our daughter Rachel the confidence to go after UCLA. She is going down for orientation this week and she is still thrilled with her choice. This last weekend at a swim competition, it was fun to share with another swim parent the value you added to the college search experience. Without your assistance, I don't believe we would have found the complete match in both school and team.
Thank you again,
~Alicia Owen,
Mother of Rachel- UCLA, Fall 2013
****************
Steve:
Conner and I wanted to send you our hearty thank you's for all your help with Conner's college application/positioning, and more importantly, for the enormous role you played in the successful results he had in his process! As you know, he used this process to finalize his choice (he got into his first two; and decided not to apply to any more, with glee), to finalize the size/division of school to go to, to develop relationships with coaches at several division levels, and to narrow down his search to the school that really hit him in all the right places.
The steps you helped him through, as well as your personal involvement, were spot on. Conner may be one of the more stubborn humans on the planet, but he followed through really well on this. He succeeded in the early application process in getting great coach support (along with good grades and exceptional SAT's), and being completely done with the madness of college admissions at about the same time most of his friends were just starting with the frenzy. He is extremely excited about both school and baseball at Lewis & Clark. We recommend anyone thinking about college and athletics, at D1, D2, or D3 levels, to talk with you as we have an extremely high level of trust in you and in the process you took Conner through. It helped in a broader way than just the nightmare of the college application process, and as a parent I have huge appreciation for that.
All the best-I am happy to talk to any perspective clients about the good work you do.
Best, Bob
***************
"A4A was a godsend to our Student Athlete. Steve provided invaluable guidance on the recruiting process, advice throughout and the all-important ongoing check-ins with our son. We had no idea how long and how difficult the journey of getting recruited to a Division 1 football program would be. Steve and A4A helped us objectively evaluate our son's potential and match his goals to achievable results.
You definitely need an "Advocate" in your corner during the recruiting process - and they don't get any better than Steve and A4A. We can't thank you enough for being there for us day or night, and making it all happen. The end result of all of the hard work is that our son, Shane, committed to play Defensive End at the United States Naval Academy. We are all very happy with this result and highly recommend A4A!"
~Steve and Tammy Artim
***************
"We wanted to take the time and let all of you know how grateful we are to have spent the past year working with A4A.
Steve, never would I have imagined that a word, "Process" would ring so true in regard to helping our daughter navigate the NCAA/Academic institutions.
As a result of A4A's extensive knowledge, patience and understanding, our daughter Lilly will be attending and swimming at a division one school in the fall of 2013!
Your knowledge and guidance created a low stress, less worry atmosphere in our household thus allowing our family to enjoy the college journey. The consistent support and advice you provided to our daughter along the way has made her more confident and smart about her choices. The experience has taught all of us that patience, persistence and following the "Process" pays off in the end.
Thank you for believing in our daughter and for providing such a valuable and knowledgeable service."
All the very best,
~Robin and John Nelson
Redwood City, CA
Parents of Lilly, Duquesne University, Fall 2013
***************
"Navigating the student athlete college recruiting path can be a daunting and confusing process. We were fortunate to have A4A's services to help with this process for our daughter who plays soccer. Steve was very professional and extremely flexible in working one-on-one directly with our daughter, while keeping us abreast of current activities. Steve was also extremely helpful in the final stages of discussions and negotiations with the top schools on our list. The process was ultimately successful in that we had several options available for our daughter to play soccer in college at both the Division I and Division II level. I would recommend A4A's services for anyone looking to get professional guidance and assistance with the recruiting and college selection process."
~John and Kim Miller
Parents of Lauren- Cal Poly Pomona, Fall 2013
***************
"Thank you for all your guidance and help throughout this process. We couldn't have done this without you!! "
~Karen Bruneman
Mother of Brooke- Lesley University, Fall 2013
***************
"Steve, I am a true believer in your program and in A4A and what you have done. If you remember we came to you late in the game. Bemi was a great athlete in football (All-Conference as a junior and senior) but had zero, I repeat zero, interest from any school. More importantly, he had no one helping him or telling him what he needed to do even
to have any colleges look at him.
You sat down with us over lunch, laid out a very simple game plan and then you pushed to execute it. From the basics on what to do with ensuring Bemi focus on improving his SAT scores, to making a highlight video and then mapping out the schools that fit a major that he wanted to do with his life. I was impressed by how much 1-1 time you committed to with Bemi, how you coached him on what to do, how to send the emails to the college coaches, how to talk to the coaches, and how to follow-up. More importantly, you stayed on top of everything. You have a "failure is not an option" attitude and its contagious. It is also clear to me that you really care and you work to ensure that the kids you take on are successful and get a chance at a scholarship and more importantly a future education.
As you know we just got back from a weekend trip to Western State College in Colorado where Bemi has received a scholarship offer to play football there. There is no doubt if anyone wants to go to college to be a student athlete, your program is the way to get them that visibility and a chance. I will be happy to recommend your program to anyone. Please send any doubters my way.
Thanks again for all your efforts".
***************
"When our son decided that he wanted to play sports in college, we weren't sure of how to go about getting information out to college coaches. After countless hours of searching and feeling overwhelmed by the whole process, we decided to seek help, and that is when we contacted Advocates for Athletes (A4A).
After our first session with A4A, we felt like a huge weight had been lifted. A4A gave us so much information that we would have never been able to obtain on our own. With the expert knowledge and information they provided, and the one-on-one help, it made the whole recruiting process a lot easier. A4A gave our son the confidence and tools not only to sell himself to college coaches, but a confidence that he will be able to use throughout his life.
Thanks to the great service they provide, our son has signed with a great college, and is looking forward to being a college athlete. I would recommend A4A to any high school student that is interested in playing sports at the next level. Working with A4A was one of the best things that our family has ever done."
~Mother of a former St. Francis High School football player recruited to University of San Diego who has since transferred to play at Colorado.
***************
"The A4A program has helped my son tremendously. My son has given a verbal commitment to Fresno State this past summer as a Junior, and has already taken an unofficial visit to the school.
The program that A4A customized for my son utilizing the Advocates for Athletes playbook has been a huge help during this crucial time in his life. If I could summarize the changes that I have noticed in his approach to everyday life, his time management would be number one. The A4A program has really helped him prioritize his day to day activities. I have noticed that he is "goal setting" much more than before and incorporating many of the strategies that Steve and my son worked on.
The program works and Steve's diligence and genuine caring for his student athletes is very apparent."
~Tom Paroubeck
Father of Jordan, the 69th pick of the San Diego Padres in the 2013 Major League Baseball draft.
***************
"I wanted to share with you our family's appreciation for the service that Advocates for Athletes has provided us. A year ago the task of selecting the right school for our daughter was overwhelming. Frankly, once we met with Steve and learned about the extensive research he had done on this issue and the process he had developed based on his findings we knew we made the right choice. An important side benefit in all of this is that our daughter has taken ownership in what will become her future. It has been a great lesson in learning for our family and his deliberate approach has taken much of the anxiety out of what is an otherwise difficult and complicated process. You can count us among the "advocates" for Advocates for Athletes."
~David Bartoshuk
Father of Megan Bartoshuk. Carnegie Mellon, Fall 2013
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Thank you!
Thank you for taking the time to read our A4A Newsletter. If you have any questions or comments please contact us.
Please forward this Newsletter on to anyone you feel might be in need of our services or interested in the college recruiting process.
Sincerely,
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A4A Resource Partners
*The Riekes Center for Human Enhancement
*Michael Romano, "Mr. Test Prep"
*BAWSI, Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative
*Susan Zaro, LMFT, Sports Health Counseling
*QWERTY Education Services
Westface College Planning
Performance Hoops, John Folonis
The South Bay:
Extreme Fitness&Sports(Campbell)
Tutoring Club(Almaden,Cupertino,Los Gatos and Willow Glen)
For details and contact information on each of our Partners please visit our website @ www.advocates4athletes.com.
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