Yesterday I was invited to attend the Mandeville Soccer Club signing day presentation for high school seniors that are signing a National Letter of Intent to play soccer in college.

I was very honored to be in attendance for the three girls above. Congratulations to Abby Schmidt, Kim Moreau and Elizabeth Manuel! All three will be attending the University of Louisiana Lafayette starting in the fall of 2012!

I have worked with all three girls the past few years on the soccer field and with their college recruiting. They have worked really hard and I am very proud of them!

Congrats!! Hard work pays off! Believe in it®!

Above is a shot of the opening events at the Godaddy.com bowl in Mobile, Alabama. Northern Illinois played Arkansas State this past Sunday evening.

My wife’s cousin, Zach Opsal, is a graduate assistant coach for the NIU Huskies and he got us the tickets. Thanks Zach!

It was a lot of fun!

NIU won the Godaddy.com bowl and capped off a great season that included winning the MAC conference!

Ouch! This is why it’s good to communicate clearly with your parents during the recruiting process and work together as a team. The last thing you want to do is what happened here on National television and now the Internet!

Credit to that reporter for asking the mother what she thought! LSU fans… they sure do love their tigers!

Happy New Year from the CollegeRecruitingWebsite.com team and I! 2011 was a great year and we’ve helped a lot of athletes develop their recruiting plans, build them them their own College Recruiting Websites and teach them the Believe in it® attitude! I’m excited for what 2012 will bring!

The pic above is was the second to last sunset of 2011. I took it on a bike ride in my town of Mandeville, Louisiana.

Remember if you Believe in it® and back that up with hard work, anything in life is possible! Happy New Year!

December 2011 College Recruiting e-Newsletter by CollegeRecruitingWebsite.com

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! The holidays are a great time to relax, take time off from school and your sport and enjoy being with your family. Of course, the presents are great too!

During the school year and your season you are very busy. I talk to athletes all the time about their recruiting and lots of times I hear the excuse “I’m so busy, I haven’t done anything yet, I just don’t have the time”.

Part of being a successful college recruit and athlete is using time management to accomplish all your goals. This holiday season you will a lot of time off from school and your sport so I propose you take the Holiday Recruiting Challenge!

This is Jared Montz and you are reading the December 2011 free College Recruiting e-Newsletter by http://www.CollegeRecruitingWebsite.com.

Holiday Recruiting Challenge
I want you to commit to spending 5 hours working on your college recruiting! Remember recruiting is like finding a job, if no one knows you are looking you won’t get hired!

Step 1 = 30 Minutes
Create two lists. Your first list is your Top 5 dream schools. The second list is 15-20 schools you would be happy to play at. These lists are your target lists of schools.

Step 2 = 2 Hours
Create contact sheets and save them on your computer for each college on your list. Your contact sheet should include the school name, website link, and coaches contact info. Then make a note for each time you have contact with them so you can keep track of the relationship with each school instead of relying on pure memory.

Step 3 = 2 Hours
Write a personal email to each school on your lists. Make it personal to the coach. Don’t send the same exact email to all schools at once. Let them know you are interested in their program and tell them a little about yourself.

Step 4 = 30 Minutes
Finish any miscellaneous recruiting tasks you may have and make a note on your calendar to follow up with the schools you don’t hear back from in a week or two.

For tips on writing emails, setting up contact sheets and using a calendar download a free copy of our College Recruiting Handbook by clicking here.

If you have already done a lot of the first stage recruiting work then I recommend you spend at least 5 hours reaching out to more colleges you are interested in, following up with ones you are currently talking too and complete any other pending recruiting tasks you may have.

Email me at Jared@CollegeRecruitingWebsite.com if you have any questions!

Are you going to take the Holiday Recruiting Challenge?

I’ll leave you with motivational quote by Thomas Jefferson. He says, “I’m a firm believer in luck but I find the harder I work, the luckier I get!”

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Remember if you Believe in it® and back that up with hard work, anything in life is possible! That includes playing your sport in college!

Is promoting yourself to college coaches tooting your own horn? In my opinion the answer is no. It’s not bragging if you can back it up.

This is Jared Montz and you are reading the November 2011 free College Recruiting e-Newsletter by www.CollegeRecruitingWebsite.com. This article will also appear on STACK.com. I regularly write college recruiting articles for STACK.com.

One of our clients asked me this “tooting your horn question” once. He felt like trying to get recruited was like tooting his own horn to coaches.

Recruiting is like finding a job, if no one knows you are looking, you can’t hired.

Trying to get recruited may make you feel like you are tooting your own horn or bragging about your abilities but you are not. Trying to get recruited is like what adults have to do when they are looking for a new job. They write resumes, create websites, email and call employers and try to convince those employers why they would be a valuable asset to that employer’s company.

An adult finding a job is like a talented high school athlete trying to get recruited to play college sports. It’s not bragging if you can back it up. You don’t want to be cocky of course but you need to build a relationship with college coaches and convince them on and off the field why you have what it takes to play for them.

In a NextLevelBallplayer.com article writer David Franco asked Arizona State Coach Ken Knutson, “What advice would you give a high school player looking to play at ASU?” Coach Knutson said, “Send letters and emails. That’s how coaches find out about stuff.”

Next time you think you don’t want to write emails to college coaches because you feel like you are bragging or being cocky think about what Coach Knutson says.

Being proactive and reaching out to coaches to let them know the type of player and person you are is not tooting your own horn… it’s how you get recruited!

Now go get recruited!

This month’s motivational quote is by Kyle Chandler. He says, “Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.”

Have a great November and remember if you Believe in it® and back that up with hard work, anything in life is possible!

Source via STACK.com

Kevin Laue is a 6’11″ center for Manhattan College. Due to a complication at birth he lost is left hand. I love his quote, “I got into this sport just because I was told I couldn’t do it.”

Kevin has the Believe in it® attitude. Read more and watch an ESPN video about him on STACK by clicking here.

Bree McMahon is a true Believe in it® story.  In 2009 she was in an accident at a high school car wash fundraiser which ultimately cost her, her leg.  Despite losing her leg she recently made her college soccer team.

Read more about Bree here and watch the full video interview about her comeback here.

She is an inspiration!

This week’s motivational quote is an excerpt from a Steve Jobs quote.  Steve was the founder of Apple and he passed away last week.  He says, “Stay Hungry”.

Steve Jobs was a man worth billions, had everything he could ever need but he stayed hungry his whole career and constantly produced new world changing technology and products.  He did it because he loved what he did and was hungry for more!

Stay hungry for your dreams!  With lots of hard work, anything is possible!  Steve Jobs started Apple in his garage and I’m willing to bet no one predicted he would be the success he would be in the early days except him.

Earlier this year, the NCAA changed its rules on when college coaches can call recruits. New rules state that coaches can call you once a month, starting June 15 after your sophomore year. Beginning Aug. 1 of your senior year, coaches can then call you twice a week.

For football, the rules differ. Football coaches can call you one time total your junior year between April 15 and May 31; and they cannot make additional calls until Sept. 1 of your senior year.

This is Jared Montz and you are reading the October 2011 free College Recruiting e-Newsletter by http://www.CollegeRecruitingWebsite.com.  This article will also appear on STACK.com.  I regularly write college recruiting articles for STACK.com.

Current NCAA rules do not allow college coaches to text message athletes, so phone calls and e-mail are the main methods of contact and communication.

Now that you know when and how often a coach can call, are you prepared for the call? Do you check your voicemail? Is your voicemail message set up properly? Do you even have a voicemail set up?

Voicemail Mistakes
Before I go into proper techniques for professional voicemail, let’s first examine a few examples of unprofessional voicemails.

• Trick Messages: Your voicemail says, “Hello…Hello…can you hear me?” The coach replies, “John, are you there? Can you hear me?” Your voicemail then says, “LOL, gotcha! Leave a message at the beep, sucka!”

• Ringback Tones: Do you use an inappropriate ringback tone? A college coach doesn’t want to listen to the latest explicit rap lyrics while he’s waiting to leave you a voicemail.

• No Voicemail: After numerous rings, your phone shouldn’t say, “This wireless customer has not set up their voicemail. You cannot leave a message. Goodbye.” You want the coach to be able to leave a message, so set up your voicemail.

• Full Voicemail Box: Check your voicemail consistently and delete old messages, so the coach will never hear: “This mailbox is full and is not accepting new messages. Goodbye.”

• Personalized Messages: Your voicemail should be generic and applicable to everyone. It shouldn’t be directed at a specific person, such as, “Hello, you have reached John’s phone. Leave me a message at the beep. Unless you are Sally—then I hate you and never call me again!”

A Good Voicemail Message
Increase your chances of getting recruited by setting up an appropriate voicemail message. My advice for creating a professional voicemail is to keep it short, friendly and appropriate for everyone, such as: “Hello, you have reached John Smith. Please leave your name, number and a message, and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you and have a great day!”

It takes two minutes to set up a professional voicemail. You spend hours a day training to get better, so spend two minutes to be a better recruit!

This month’s motivational quote is “Never quit because there are different paths to get to the same place.”

Maybe your friend is an All State running back and being recruited by the top football teams in the country and signs with Michigan.  You are constantly improving, not getting recruited by large colleges and sign with a junior college.  After 2 years of dominating at the junior college level you are heavily recruited by the top programs in the country.  You sign to play football at USC.  Your Senior year you are up for the Heisman along with your friend who went to Michigan.

Both in the same place… both took different paths to get there.

Check out this cool video of 16 year old Vincent Lombardo back squatting 520 pounds!  Vincent is a Junior at Mandeville High School in Louisiana.  He plays linebacker and we recently set up his College Recruiting Website and are helping him get recruited!

Have a great October and remember if you Believe in it® and back that up with hard work, anything in life is possible!