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Recruiting agencies - Are they worth it?

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    #31
    You can do the highlight video and editing on your own, doesn't take much. You can buy a good used camcorder cheap on ebay and then some cheap editing software (good free ones usually come with the name brands like Sony or Canon).

    Tape the games and edit the good parts.

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      #32
      Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
      Recently my husband and I were approached by a college/sports recruiting agency based in New England. They claimed my child was a great candidate for their 'program' because she is a good player and has good grades. For a fee of somewhere around $4,000 they put together a video and then shop my kid's resume to various colleges and programs with the hopes that they will be able to find her both merit money and athletic money that I would not be able to find on my own. They use their 'contact's, and 'prior coaching' as qualifications. Their promise is that they do all the legwork for us and because they have the contacts it is much easier for them to get the $$ from the schools...thereby making the fee we pay them totally worth the money saved in scholarships (both academic/merit and sports).

      Has any highschool parent used one of these agencies and was it worth it? There are several in New England.
      These services are a joke and a scam.

      I got suckered into a telephone "interview" with one of these services for my daughter. They gave me a long schpeel about what their service offers and how much they could do for my daughter. When they were done I said "Well, we've already identified a dozen schools that meet my daughter's requirements for major course of study, distance from home, size and expense - other than sending resumes and film, which we can do on our own, what will your service do to get my daughter on one of those teams?" The silence was deafening.

      The only advantage these services MIGHT provide is an ability to mass distribute information to programs that subscribe to their service. If you don't care about where you go to school, what you study, tuition, the level of play ... etc., then I'm sure these services will get you lots of responses from schools in the lower levels of D1, D2 and D3 that use these services to supplement their recruiting. But if you care about getting an education in college and are competent enough with a computer to use the College Board search engine, you can easily put together your own list of schools and contact them on your own. Instead of spending $4K on a service spend $2-300 on a decent quality hi-def video camera and tripod.

      And yes, it makes a difference to coaches how an athlete becomes interested in their school. they will spend more time looking at a prospect that has a genuine interest in their school as opposed to someone who is just trolling 100's of schools looking for a team to latch onto.

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        #33
        I agree that all of it can be done by the athlete and his/her family and services generally are not needed. However, if someone wanted to go that route because they just couldn't devote the time (or in the case of one friend the college search was causing too much tension between the student and his parents so to them it was worth handing it off to someone else) then try and find recommendations from actual clients. I would never use one that approached me - very suspicious.

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          #34
          OP here. Good advice from all who offered. Thanks everyone. You too disgruntled human who thinks everyone is deceitful. The story happened exactly as I told it.

          We will not be going the agency route. Appreciate the feedback.

          Comment


            #35
            Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
            OP here. Good advice from all who offered. Thanks everyone. You too disgruntled human who thinks everyone is deceitful. The story happened exactly as I told it.

            We will not be going the agency route. Appreciate the feedback.
            Exactly as you told it? You didn't tell us anything, and there were a hundred holes in the story.

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              #36
              Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
              Exactly as you told it? You didn't tell us anything, and there were a hundred holes in the story.
              Not every question needs to come with footnotes and citations traceable to the Library of Congress, fuktard. Oh, there's a windmill over there! Better go get it, Pancho!

              Comment


                #37
                Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                OP here. Good advice from all who offered. Thanks everyone. You too disgruntled human who thinks everyone is deceitful. The story happened exactly as I told it.

                We will not be going the agency route. Appreciate the feedback.
                Then you don't know how to tell a story. But now, a week later, did you find out if anyone else on your team or within your whole club was approached? Why do you think you were approached, I mean especially since no one had told them yet that your kid is a good student?

                Comment


                  #38
                  Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                  Not every question needs to come with footnotes and citations traceable to the Library of Congress, fuktard. Oh, there's a windmill over there! Better go get it, Pancho!
                  Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                  Recently my husband and I were approached by a college/sports recruiting agency based in New England. They claimed my child was a great candidate for their 'program' because she is a good player and has good grades. For a fee of somewhere around $4,000 they put together a video and then shop my kid's resume to various colleges and programs with the hopes that they will be able to find her both merit money and athletic money that I would not be able to find on my own. They use their 'contact's, and 'prior coaching' as qualifications. Their promise is that they do all the legwork for us and because they have the contacts it is much easier for them to get the $$ from the schools...thereby making the fee we pay them totally worth the money saved in scholarships (both academic/merit and sports).

                  Has any highschool parent used one of these agencies and was it worth it? There are several in New England.
                  Does a woman use the phrase "shop my kid's resume"? And does a woman refer to her daughter as her "kid"?

                  And how did 'she' jump from being caught off guard and clueless to proclaiming that there are several of these agencies in New England?

                  Did the 'agency' come to the clinic just for this one kid, who they didn't yet know met their very high academic standards? Why were they there at all? Wouldn't you think they would have asked the DOC for 5 minutes to address the entire crowd about what they have to offer and describe what kind of kids that might benefit from their services? How did all the other parents feel when "the person" introduced the agency to this one special couple? Seems like a really odd way of doing business, both in terms of "the person" and the "agency."

                  Comment


                    #39
                    Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                    Does a woman use the phrase "shop my kid's resume"? And does a woman refer to her daughter as her "kid"?

                    And how did 'she' jump from being caught off guard and clueless to proclaiming that there are several of these agencies in New England?

                    Did the 'agency' come to the clinic just for this one kid, who they didn't yet know met their very high academic standards? Why were they there at all? Wouldn't you think they would have asked the DOC for 5 minutes to address the entire crowd about what they have to offer and describe what kind of kids that might benefit from their services? How did all the other parents feel when "the person" introduced the agency to this one special couple? Seems like a really odd way of doing business, both in terms of "the person" and the "agency."
                    My point... who cares? Irregardless of whether you believe the literal interpretation of the story (perhaps it's apocryphal, though the OP denies it) it still generates discussion about the topic of recruiting agencies. Other posters have chimed in with other stories. Perhaps it will be of interest to someone.

                    Comment


                      #40
                      Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                      My point... who cares? Irregardless of whether you believe the literal interpretation of the story (perhaps it's apocryphal, though the OP denies it) it still generates discussion about the topic of recruiting agencies. Other posters have chimed in with other stories. Perhaps it will be of interest to someone.
                      Sorry. I like things to actually make some sense.

                      Comment


                        #41
                        Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                        Sorry. I like things to actually make some sense.
                        Understandable. But Talking Soccer is not going to be the place to get that! :- )

                        Comment


                          #42
                          Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                          Does a woman use the phrase "shop my kid's resume"? And does a woman refer to her daughter as her "kid"?

                          And how did 'she' jump from being caught off guard and clueless to proclaiming that there are several of these agencies in New England?

                          Did the 'agency' come to the clinic just for this one kid, who they didn't yet know met their very high academic standards? Why were they there at all? Wouldn't you think they would have asked the DOC for 5 minutes to address the entire crowd about what they have to offer and describe what kind of kids that might benefit from their services? How did all the other parents feel when "the person" introduced the agency to this one special couple? Seems like a really odd way of doing business, both in terms of "the person" and the "agency."
                          I'm in the other guy's camp, why not have the discussion. I'm really interested to understand who this poster thinks is behind this aledged "fiction" and what they feel the awful agenda is behind discussing alternative methods to play the recruiting game? On the other hand it certainly does seem as though someone wants to promote a specific way to go about recruiting and for some reason that doesn't count as having an agenda.

                          Comment


                            #43
                            Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                            Then you don't know how to tell a story. But now, a week later, did you find out if anyone else on your team or within your whole club was approached? Why do you think you were approached, I mean especially since no one had told them yet that your kid is a good student?

                            Jealous much?

                            Comment


                              #44
                              Recruiters from these agencies often attend events and clinics to drum up business, they talk to parents of athletes in the right age group, and athletic capability. In these conversations they often learn about grades.

                              It's not a conspiracy. It's not brain surgery. And it's not worth it.

                              Comment


                                #45
                                Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
                                I'm in the other guy's camp, why not have the discussion. I'm really interested to understand who this poster thinks is behind this aledged "fiction" and what they feel the awful agenda is behind discussing alternative methods to play the recruiting game? On the other hand it certainly does seem as though someone wants to promote a specific way to go about recruiting and for some reason that doesn't count as having an agenda.
                                We know who starts the fictions, especially in the middle of ongoing battles on other threads where has been outed and he needs to re-emerge on new ground. The point isn't about the recruiting service. I actually might have paid for one myself if it was a good one. The point is that the story made no sense. No internal logic at all. And if it is true, I would fire my recruiters for going to a clinic for a couple of hours and speaking to one family. Since my recruiters didn't know if the one targeted family had a good student or not (because the OP has told they revealed that to the recruiters AFTER being introduced), there time would have been spent much better addressing everyone there, sharing the parameters they work under with the entire throng, and then inviting those who qualify to contact them or speak with them right there after the little talk. In other words, my complaint has nothing to do with steering anyone in any direction vis-a-vis recruiting. It has to do simply with a pet peeve about making sense.

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