Every parent of an athlete who aspires to play college football wants to put their child in the best position to achieve their dreams. College football recruiting is undeniably competitive and it becomes increasingly competitive when parents factor in the rising cost of a college education. As a parent of a football player, you must realize that it’s not always the best high school players who land the scholarship money. College sports are a business and the ones who know how the business works get compensated.

Once your son gets to high school, it is essential that you do your due diligence as a parent to take calculated steps, to ensure your child is in position to become a college scholarship level student-athlete. There’s no time for error! Here are some of the top reasons talented, deserving, football players don’t receive the college scholarship opportunities they should. Most recruiting mistakes can be prevented, so be sure to share this with others.

• Procrastination – Parents. This is the number one killer of most athlete’s college opportunities. Stop thinking that you have time! Prepare your child early for the SAT/ACT, utilize your resources to get a tutor for the core courses that you know your child stuggles with, that are critical for college. The student-athlete that doesn’t procrastinate on these matters is the student-athlete who receives the scholarship offer.

• Too Much Faith in HS Coach – Please stop putting your child’s college future solely in the hands of his high school coach. That’s not his responsibility. Yes! he should make a call every once in a while. Yes! Your son’s coach should give your son a good recommendation when a college coach stops by the high school if he is deserving. Remind yourself that recruiting is not his job requirement. His job requirement is to coach football. Ultimately, it’s up to the parents of the athletes to find help and support to enure their kids are being exposed to colleges.

• Un-Realistic Goals and Expectations – It’s very important for parents and their athletes to have realistic expectations and goals for college. Get a trust-worthy and qualified evaluation of your son’s football film and academic standing, once they hit the varsity level. Once you have that assessment, you will know which colleges you should target. Any scholarship offers or financial aid is a win! You have to have realistic schools to target to put your kid in the best position to receive money for college.

• Choosing the Right Summer Camps– This becomes critical once your child is a junior in high school. Too many parents waste money sending their kids to college camps that aren’t interested in recruiting their kid. 30% to 40% of college football recruiting classes are made up of athletes that attended that colleges camp or a camp that their coaching staff may have attended at another university.

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It is a fabulous opportunity if you send your son to the right camp! With the film and academic evaluation completed, start to target the schools that make sense. The ones who respond to your interest are the colleges camps you should attend. It shows the staff that your family is indeed bought into their program and it gives the coaches an opportunity to work with your son. It’s a great chance to test drive the product before they buy and you sign. College coaches always recruit the athletes who “show-out” at their camps!