One powerful way to do this? Social media!
Schools can help their students through the recruiting process by promoting them on social media! Doing so will drive important exposure to college coaches. Below are some specific ways to make this happen:
Posting Highlights
Since college coaches are unlikely to watch players live for the foreseeable future, one of the only ways of assessment is via game film. An easy way for high schools to share game film is over social media. By posting highlights to social media, athletic departments can create a centralized location of game film for college coaches to easily access.
This doesn’t just have to be for star athletes either! Schools can post highlights from all players across all sports. This will create an equitable spread of recruiting content, even for non D-1 recruits. Athletes shouldn’t have to be a star player or play a major sport to get a chance to show their abilities and secure scholarships/walk on opportunities!
Feature Accomplishments and Awards Earned
Another way schools can promote their student-athletes is by sharing their accomplishments and awards on social media! Athletic departments can use social media to announce who has won school, league, state, or national awards in past years. A great way to do this is by using a “Rewind” graphic to commemorate award winners in this past athletic season.
On top of this, celebrating even the smaller achievements on social media is a great way to promote all students, not just the best athletes! If an athlete broke a record in the fall season, promote it on social media - this is a great way to promote athletes even in less mainstream sports, such as track and field or swimming.
Recognition for Work off the Field
Lastly, schools can use social media to showcase what student-athletes do off the field, helping them develop a full resume for recruiting. If an athlete is in the school play, runs a club, participates in community service projects, or earns any academic achievements, this should be posted and celebrated by the school!
It will allow coaches to see how truly well-rounded certain student-athletes are. While there are a lot of great athletes out there, college coaches are looking for high-character student-athletes. They want to recruit people who are great teammates and community members. If high schools can help paint a bigger picture of their student-athletes, it can really help colleges get a better sense of the people they are trying to bring into their program!
Wrap Up
For the Class of 2021, and possibly 2022, recruiting is bound to be different. Athletes won’t have the ability to show off their talent in live games like in years prior. That’s why schools have to be willing to help get their students exposure in this unusual time, and social media can play a huge part.
By posting highlights, featuring athletes achievements, and recognizing their off the field accomplishments, schools can use social media to help their students in the recruiting process and help them find their perfect school!
- Jake
Jake Engelberg is a blog writer at Gipper. Gipper is a platform that helps high school athletic departments create professional sports graphics for social media - in seconds, on any device, and without needing any design experience.
Learn more @ gogipper.com/athletics
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