COACH SCHOPPER’S College Basketball Recruiting InformatioN
Every student-athlete should find the best college fit: relationally or socially, spiritually, academically and athletically.
* I’m a basketball coach (specifically girls coach) so everything I share is with that in mind or from that perspective. But almost all of the information will apply to all sports.
Let’s Start with the Background Info
My name is Jeremy Schopper. I’m the Head Girls Basketball Coach for Decatur School District. We’re a small, rural district in Northwest Arkansas. Over 30% of our population lives in poverty and right at 50% of our population are either Hispanic or Marshallese. My wife is the District ESL Coordinator and all five of our kids attend one of the three schools. We’re really blessed to be allowed to love, serve and live among our community.
I’m also the General Manager of the Women’s Program for AAO Flight – which is the premier Basketball Club in Northwest Arkansas.
We (my family) just finished going through the recruiting process for our oldest daughter. And even though I’m a HS and AAU coach it’s a lot different when it’s your child and you’re going through the recruiting process as a parent. With that in mind, we decided to share what we learned on our process so that others might be able to benefit from our experience.
Our little college recruiting site is different in that we’re not trying to monetize the information or any services. Also, most of the information here is not going to apply to D1 level kids who are playing on the high-level circuits. If you’re already getting attention in the 9th and 10th grade then just keep doing what you’re doing!
If you have any questions or we can help you in any way please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Here’s the contact information (just click on any of the three):
We are constantly adding content to this site. So please check back regularly for new updates and information. If there’s something you’d like to see then let us know!
Your Don’t Have to Pay a Recruiting Service to Get a Scholarship Opportunity!
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO
Step 1: Create a Twitter account. Be active and Be Positive.
If politics, religion or other potentially controversial issues are important to you, then great, they should be. That’s good for you. Just remember why you’re doing this . . . to get a college scholarship. Not win people over to your way of thinking. It’s probably best to find other avenues and opportunities to do that. Once you’re getting to know a Coach there will be an opportunity to share personal thoughts, etc.
- Start following every college coach and their program profile that you might even possibly be interested in. And even if you’re 100% sure you’d never go there, follow them anyway. Why?
- Because you might change how you feel.
- They might be your best offer financially.
- They may recommend you to a coach where you would want to go to school.
Then, start tweeting and retweeting positive things. When someone gets an offer tell them congratulations. When someone posts a highlight send them some love. When someone posts something thoughtful, then thoughtfully engage with them.
But why do I need to get on Twitter? Twitter isn’t my thing, none of my friends are on there.
Because Twitter is where college coaches hang out and do a lot of recruiting. It’s also where Club/Summer Coaches hang out. It’s where college recruiting takes place. So just do it!
* It’s common for athletes (especially basketball players) to post themselves working out, shooting, dribbling, etc. There’s nothing wrong with doing this, even though some of them look pretty silly. The reality though, is that relative to your recruitment, it really doesn’t impress coaches. Anyone can dribble, shoot, do push-ups, etc. Especially when no one is guarding them. Focus on posting game-related highlights and film.
Step 2: Create highlight a video showcasing your entire skill set and post it on YouTube.
A Mac is best to use for this. iMovie makes it so easy that even I can do it. But you can also use Adobe products. A lot times you will be able to get Adobe free through your high school.
You should plan to include game film from both your high school and summer ball games. Take the best clips from about 5-6 games and keep it to no more than four minutes long.
Be sure to show yourself playing defense, hustling, passing, hitting 3’s (if that’s part of your game), attacking the basket, etc. The point is, don’t put together a highlight film full of you JUST shooting 3’s or a bunch of dunks (if you’re a guy). Everyone playing in college can shoot and most guys in college can dunk. It’s not that impressive. Showing yourself hustling after a turnover is much more impressive than knocking down a 3, I promise!
The purpose of the highlight video is to get a coaches’ attention and get on their radar screen. That’s it. If they like what they see then you may get an email, text or maybe even a call. But ultimately, to move forward they will have to see you play live and/or see game film. So be ready with your best game film.
Step 3: Post your highlight video on Twitter and tag people/profiles that have a big following and who are supportive of your HS sport (especially those in your geographic area). They will usually be happy to retweet your post.
There’s a lot of good people out there who are in the “business” of coaching, teaching, mentoring and just really loving kids for good reasons. You’ll usually be able to spot them pretty quickly. When you tag someone don’t be afraid to ask for a retweet. The worst they can say is no.
The other side to this is that there are bad people out there. This is the Daddy in me talking. Be careful when choosing who to share your personal info with. And pay attention for the hustlers who are in it to make money, get famous, or for who knows what other negative reasons.
Check out these links to easily locate schools:
NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics)
NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association)
Step 4: Create a list of every college you MIGHT be interested in. Don't leave anyone out because you never know what might happen.
Step 5: Look up the email for every Coach on the staff at each school on your list.
We are working on completing a comprehensive list of all the coaches in the U.S. As soon as that’s ready we will post a link here. For now, you’ll have to hustle a little and put in some work.
Step 6: Take time to craft a nice, PERSONAL, letter to each Coach on your list.
Be sure to include the YouTube link to your highlight video and ALL of the contact information for you, your High School and AAU coaches. Don’t get lazy on this part! You can create a form letter, but make sure to personalize it for each school and coach. Coaches get a lot of emails, it’s on you to make sure that your letter doesn’t get the delete button because your were fake or just went through the motions.
Click on this link to check out the letter our daughter sent out to coaches.
Step 7: When a coach reaches out you should respond ASAP!
Respond as quickly as possible with Enthusiasm, Appreciation and Gratitude! Understand that you’ve made it past the first step! But also remember that they’re reaching out to a bunch of kids in your class. So stand out with how you respond!
As a Summer/HS Coach, one of the things that college coaches have told me multiple times is that it impresses (or turns them off when they can’t) when a kid has the personality and ability to have a thoughtful and engaging conversation with them.
Not all basketball recruiting services are created equal. And some aren’t worth the money.