Thank you to Lauran Williamson for her knowledge and expertise surrounding student-athletes applying to College. She provided useful information about students being active in their recruitment, scholarships, and parent involvement. Here are the resources that she shared as well as her website!

Topics Covered:

• Difference between D1 - D3 athletics in college applications
• Recruitment intricacies
• Casting a WIDE net
• Tips for contacting coaches at colleges and universities
• Scholarships
• Recruitment timelines

Resources Mentioned:

• Guide for the College Bound Student Athlete
• NCAA Eligibility Center - Students interested in DI and DII schools should register here.
• NCAA Member Directory - use this to search for colleges with your sport at DI, DII, and DIII levels.
• BigJ's Domestic Need-Based and Merit Aid Chart

We're so excited to be here , in

the spirit of growing good humans.

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I am Laura Barr.

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I'm the owner and founder of Emerging

Educational Consulting, and we

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provide one-to-one mentorship for

students from the beginning to end

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of the college application process.

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And we really are, we wake

up every day to help support.

7

Raising good humans and what I

have found in this process is

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that we cannot do this alone.

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It takes a village.

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And so I am delighted to

introduce Lauren Williamson.

11

Fun fact.

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She was my son's college counselor

while she was at East High School.

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So, I have a big warm welcome in

my heart to have you, and I'm so

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excited today to talk about just

this idea of like, what does it mean

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if you're an athlete in college.

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And Lauren, why don't you just

introduce yourself really quick.

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I know you have your own

practice and maybe tell us a

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little bit about that and then.

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Let's go from there.

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Sure.

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Thank you Laura, so much for having me.

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My name's Lauren Williamson.

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I'm the owner and founder of Williamson

College Prep that works with students on

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selecting the best fit, both academically,

socially, financially, and athletically.

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College for students, mostly

working with students in high school.

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I originally was a school counselor

in Denver Public Schools for seven

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years where I kind of started

my practice and my work with.

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Students and loved the post-secondary

planning process so much that I,

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switched sides of the desk and started

working more with students on the

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post-secondary planning process.

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But my background in

athletics has never left me.

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I was a swimmer growing up myself.

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I swam at the division three

level in college and then coached

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at the division one level.

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And when I was at East High School,

did some high school coaching as well.

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So when it comes to students thinking

about their athletic opportunities in

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college, I have the perspective both

from working with high school athletes

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as their coach, working with the school

as the school counselor, and supporting

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them through the recruiting process as

a division one coordinator and coach in

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helping students engage in that process.

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Well, that's amazing and what an

incredible gift you bring to that.

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I'm just gonna dive in right

away, one of the questions that,

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especially when I get clients, it's

like, well, I wanna play in college.

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How do I know if I'm D

one, D two or D three?

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Totally.

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I think this is a pretty common

question because how can high school

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students know they're not in college?

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They just kind of know where they fall

in perspective to some of their peers

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and their high school competition.

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You'd be surprised at how many students

I work with that I ask, are you

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letting your coaches know that you're

interested in playing in college?

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So I usually start there with students

and have them speak and share their

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interests, their passion in the school.

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Sport with their co, with their high

school coaches so that in college

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they can get an understanding

from the coach's perspective of

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maybe what the coach has seen.

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Oftentimes when students are participating

in club sports, the coaches sometimes

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are networked, for example, in diving,

diving is a really, really tight-knit

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community from club to collegiate.

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So if a coach is aware that a, a

high school diver is wanting to dive

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in college, there may be a network

that that student can leverage.

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Outside of really communicating with

the coach, One of the things that I

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love to recommend that students do is

cast a wide net from the beginning.

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, We want students to entertain all

possibilities, we want them to try

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on lots of different hats to figure

out what's the right fit for them.

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But part of the reason that casting

a wide net with kind of division one,

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division two, division three is important

is not only are students sometimes

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trying to figure out which division

makes the most sense for me based

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on my competitive level, but there's

variation within the division levels.

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So sometimes a student might be being

recruited mostly at the division two

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level, but maybe a really high tier

D three school is coming after them.

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Similarly, if a student's targeting

D one, it doesn't mean that D three

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won't be right at certain levels.

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So by casting a wide net, students

can really find out quickly where

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they're receiving feedback from coaches

and lean into that and continue to

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follow the communication as it goes.

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That's great.

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What about, , what about this idea?

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So what you, what I heard you just say is

like keep, start early, like cast in that

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early with the coaches that you already

have, your high school coaches and let

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them know, cause there's this networking.

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What about communication

with coaches at colleges?

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How does that work?

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Definitely.

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You know, one of the big things that

students struggle with at the beginning

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when they're wanting to be recruited

is this concept of getting recruited.

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Even just the terminology and the language

of I want to be recruited indicates

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that the student's gonna be able to

take a passive role in the process.

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And that is not true.

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in fact, when you look at the data,

about 7% of high school athletes.

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We'll go on and play in college.

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So that's a pretty low number.

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And often time I find that athletes

kind of fall out of their, their

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opportunities in college because they

don't realize that they need to take an

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active role in their recruiting process.

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So as you mentioned with the emails

or with contacting coaches, this

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is a huge place where students

can play an active role in being

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part of their recruiting process.

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So what I typically recommend is when

students are beginning the process,

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they hop onto athletic websites.

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There's usually something called an

athletic recruit questionnaire, and it'll

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walk a student through some of the main

data points that college coaches are

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interested in collecting and interested

in seeing from a student in that sport.

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This is really good

when students are just.

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Beginning cuz sometimes they don't know

what types of statistics they should

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be providing to coaches or showcasing

to coaches in follow-up communication.

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So if students start with those

athletic recruit questionnaires, not

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only will they get into some of the

databases of coaches, but they'll also

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just gain more understanding of some

of the information that they wanna

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be sharing in their communication.

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Now I wouldn't stop at the athletic

recruit questionnaire once that's

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finished, the most important step

is to send an email and try to

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reach out and contact coaches.

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And when students are thinking about

do doing this, I offer them a few tips.

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The first is that coaches get

hundreds of these emails every single

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year from perspective recruits,

some of which are gonna be great

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recruits and some of which are not.

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So you need to find ways to

connect with the coach and

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also to encourage a response.

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So to initially connect with the coach,

I'm always trying to think about how can

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we make sure that the sublet j line of

your email gives important information.

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Things like your class year, things like

your position perhaps on the, in the

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sport you're playing in, and also any

kind of like highlights from your career.

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Maybe you're the state champion,

maybe you place top end districts.

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Maybe you're competing

at the Olympic trials.

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You can drop those into the,

the header of the email.

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Also, students tend to go straight to

head coaches, and many times assistant

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coaches are the ones that are dealing

with initial recruiting contacts.

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So making sure that you're mindful of how

many coaches there are on the team, and

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including all of the coaches, if you're

not sure who to include, will make sure

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that that email gets to the right person.

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Once you're then into the email, you

wanna be concise, but you wanna give.

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Important data.

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So anything that's pertinent for your

sport, anything around your academic

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progress that will show you shining

and put your best foot forward.

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Whether that's your gpa,

whether that's the rigor of your

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course load and your schedule.

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These coaches wanna know that

you can cut it academically

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in addition to athletically.

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And at that end of the email, making sure

that you ask a question that prompts the

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coach to really follow up at some point.

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And we can get into.

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Kinda timelines in, in a minute.

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, but when we talk about a question

saying things like, based on what

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you're seeing from my GPA and my

academic progress, plus the progress

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I'm making ac athletically, do you think

I'd be a good fit for your program?

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Can prompt a coach to go forward and

have some follow up with that student?

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Wow.

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That is just, it's just so much

information and it just, it brings

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me to kind of like thinking about

my own practice is often I will have

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students who enter our practice and

they haven't even told me at that

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time that they were thinking about

being an athlete, otherwise I would've

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referred them to you in the first place.

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Right?

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But then I'm like, already knee

deep in and they say things

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like, well, I wanna play in.

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In college.

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And, I know that this idea that

like, once they realize that it's

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not like they're just sitting there

and they're gonna be recruited Yeah.

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Is really the way that it works.

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Is that, I mean, is are you

saying that, that that is just

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not the way that it works?

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It does work like that for

maybe 1% of the top athletes.

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Right?

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So, and we see that in movies.

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So I think that's where it enters

into our consciousness and where

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students, you know, if, if something

comes to us, it's easier, right?

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We would all love for people to come

knocking on our doors with all of the

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incredible opportunities that are gonna

make us successful within our lives.

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But oftentimes it just

doesn't work that way.

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We have to put ourselves out

there and most of the athletes.

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That I work with will go through this

process of putting themselves out there

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to coaches, and making sure that they're

building relationships because coaches

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are not just looking for the top athlete.

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They have to also look for students

who can communicate, who can be

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team members, who are coachable,

who are going to be resp.

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Responsive to a poor call on the field.

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And so some of those personality traits

will come through in some of the initial

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contacts and and communication that

happens between the coach and student.

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And I say coach and student because

I'm sure we're gonna have lots of

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parents listening, in, and parents

out of the goodness of their heart

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really wanna help their students to

figure out and navigate this process.

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But this is a place where, The coach and

the student communication is paramount.

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Coaches do not wanna be talking to

parents in the majority of situations.

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Once you get into financial aid

and questions around that, perhaps

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the parent steps in, but initial

communication should absolutely between

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be between the coach and the student.

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Do you think it's a detriment, like as

far as advice, is it like hands off, don't

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do it like it could hurt the situation?

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Is that something you've seen?

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I have seen it hurt the situation.

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I've seen it where parents

sometimes just can't help it.

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They end up taking over and

the student then kind of

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retreats from the communication.

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We wanna be building these students up and

help them understand that they're capable

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of this communication, and also to make

sure that they feel comfortable with this

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coach, because if they move forward and

they go to play, Play for a team under

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a coach that they don't feel comfortable

working with or being coached by.

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It's not gonna be a good

athletic fit for the student.

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And sometimes when we get swept

up in coaches' responses to these

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emails, students can kind of.

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Cling on to the first thing

that comes their way of like,

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Ooh, this school wants me.

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This program wants me.

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And that's why I do think it's really

important, especially for students

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who are going to college, not just

for the athletic experience, right?

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They're going for the academic,

for the social experience to

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grow their individual selves.

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It's really important.

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For parents and counselors to be guiding

them through a wider process of thinking

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about how that athletic fit really makes

sense, but also how the academic and

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the social fit might make sense for them

so that they can be their best self.

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We know that the majority of

athletes who even play in college,

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remember I said 7% of high school

athletes go on to play in college?

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Well, of the students who play in

college, only 2% go professional.

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Wow, that's so small, right?

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So most of our student athletes are going

to take the incredible values that they've

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gained from being part of a team, from

being part of competition, and they're

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gonna employ them into other places

in their lives as they move forward,

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because most of them are not gonna be

going professional, but there's plenty

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of places that they can maximize and

leverage those within their careers.

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And really this initial coaching

communication with the student,

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it allows the student to.

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Build better effective communication

skills along the way with us as counselors

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or parents supporting them from the wings.

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That's great as a, my community

knows, I often call myself a

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helicopter mother in recovery.

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So those gentle reminders are

very, very helpful cuz it's like

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we want to do the best and we want

to, and we often watch our kids.

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Fumble or take too long or not

reply when we want them to.

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And I, I imagine some of that might

be related to this idea of maybe

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there's money involved in this also.

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And as you know, college has

just become such a huge expense.

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And I think in, you know, in

my practice, I really have a.

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Very strong opinion that parents

should be very involved in the

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college education process because

the investment is enormous.

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And so we include all of our

parents all of the time, but we

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also are guiding and teaching them.

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But I do, I'm wondering about the

money piece because I am feeling

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like there's a big disconnect

between people understanding sport,

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playing sports and scholarships.

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Absolutely.

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You know, and I feel for parents here,

because you think about the thousands

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of dollars that go into cultivating an

athletic passion for a young person,

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and not just dollars, but hours

in time and in emotional support.

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It's huge.

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and that's why I actually think, you know,

you're speaking before about sometimes

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you don't know that some of your students

are interested in playing in college.

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When I see a student who has.

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Spent a lot of time in

their activities or in their

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extracurricular engagement on sports.

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I always ask, What they would think

their life would be without that.

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Mm-hmm.

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And it's funny because before Covid,

they didn't really know how to answer it.

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Now with Covid, they're a little

bit more prepared for that question

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and they have a little bit more

perspective on what life can be

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sometimes without those engagements.

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But it allows them to really, Think

through what, how sports are serving

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them in that point in their life.

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Because life would look very differently

if you're spending 20 hours a week

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going to soccer practices and your

weekends are on soccer games and

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suddenly you're in college and

that 20 hours is now all yours.

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What are you doing with it?

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That allows us to kind of help

students think, think through that.

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But to get back to your question about

the scholarship piece, Because we're

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investing a lot of dollars into our

students' athletic engagements early on.

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What tends to happen is parents

wanna return on investment, right?

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We've put all, we've invested into

this young person, into their skills,

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into their talents, and so the payoff

can be if we get merit, some athletic

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or merit scholarships out of the

deal when they go off to college.

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So the first thing that parents

need to know is that there are

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two divisions within the NCAA

that offer athletic scholarships.

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Division one and division two

will offer athletic scholarship.

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Division three does not offer

any athletic scholarship money.

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So if a student's being recruited

by a D three school, they won't

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see any, discount to their tuition

coming because of athletic talent.

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Now with division one and division two,

it's about 2% of high school students

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that will get some sort of scholarship.

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So again, the number is very

low when it comes to the money

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that students are seeing.

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And you think like to be part of that 2%,

you need to be kind of in that realm of.

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Coaches are coming to you,

you're not going to them.

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Now that doesn't mean there's no money

to be had for others because at a

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lot, at a lot of schools, schools are

not giving a full ride scholarship.

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They have an amount of money

that they then get to distribute

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between their different recruits.

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And depending how valuable that coach

sees you as being to being on a member of

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their team, they may give you a certain

amount of money in proportion to someone

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else they're bringing in that given year.

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So, And so it is absolutely recommended

that once a student knows that a, a

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coach is interested in them, they're

co, the communication is continuing.

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They're having communication over

time about progress in the sport.

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It is totally encouraged for the student

to bring up with the coach that finances.

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Is a part of the game here for the

family, and that they are trying to

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understand what the opportunities could

look like, how that coach distributes

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money within their teams, within

their recruits, so that they can start

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kind of peeling away the layers of

the onion to better understand how

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that individual coach and individual

team is allocating funds, because it

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won't be the same from team to team.

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And so that can lead

sometimes to certain schools.

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We, we talked about casting

that wide net, right?

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Like you cast it wide.

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Some of those schools might not come

back with anything, and if you know

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that you need $10,000 a year to support

your efforts at a certain school,

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then that can, learning more about

how the coach is distributing the

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funds can help you to understand what

the reality of the situation may be.

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Now for Division three,

division one and division two.

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The other thing that I really like to

remind families is if the, you have an

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athlete who is also a stellar student.

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I'm talking a's B's and Cs in high school.

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There is, there are schools that were,

will offer them merit scholarships.

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And so the coach can usually working

with admissions, get an understanding

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based on the academic profile of the

student athlete, what type of money will

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be coming their way because of their

incredible achievements in the classroom.

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And that can really help us

student to understand, okay,

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here's what I'll get because.

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Of my athletic talents, here's what

I'll get because of my academic talents.

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And then by filling out the FAFSA

and the CSS profile, students can

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understand what they will get need

based and kind of come to understand

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what the full package looks like.

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Will, just a follow up question on

that, will any of those negotiations

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happen before the admissions letters

come out, or is that more when

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the admissions letters come out,

there's that kind of negotiation.

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Yeah, usually coaches will

have some offline conversations

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with, students so that they can

understand what the pot looks like

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or what it generally looks like.

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You know, coaches don't wanna waste

their time either, so if a student

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can't afford the school based on.

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What the coach knows they're

gonna be able to offer and what

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the student's gonna be paying.

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They wanna move in, ma, move

forward and get that spot filled

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with an athlete who will be able to

contribute athletically, but also be

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able to afford the college as well.

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So there is some level of conversations

that I have seen happening between

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families and students, and also

with coaches hooking up families

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with the financial aid office to

sit down and have conversations

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there to get better understanding of

what things will really look like.

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Thank you.

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I'm gonna go back,, I'm gonna go back

round to something that you also said

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that was, this idea of reaching out

to the coaches, assistant coaches.

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And, what happens when you don't hear

back, especially, you know, you, you

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write that email, you curate that

subject line, and then you hear nothing.

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What is the appropriate response and

how should parents guide students?

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Yeah.

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So the first thing that I tell

students is, take a breath.

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It is okay.

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It's like, let's take a breath.

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We can figure out what the

next step that you can take is.

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there's many reasons why

people don't respond to emails.

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One could be that they're

not interested, okay?

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So, but we're not gonna go there

yet based off of one email.

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Another reason that a, a coach might

not be responding is they might not

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be able to communicate with you yet.

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Students can reach out to coaches

throughout the process, but there's times

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in which coaches can and can't communicate

directly with student athletes.

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And it's important for students to

come to understand their timeline.

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This does vary by sport, but all

of the recruiting calendars can

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be fined on the NCAA website.

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. They're just emailing to put themselves

in front of a coach so that a coach can

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maybe start to track and kind of take

a look at their progress over time.

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So when a student doesn't hear back

initially, I always think about

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where are they within the process?

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You know, what?

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What year are they in?

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Are we in a period where coaches

can't communicate with you?

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Or is it a period where you can, and

a lot of recruiting is happening.

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So once we think through where we are

within that recruiting process, the

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next thing we can do is think about

what a good follow up will look like.

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So ideally, that athlete has

made some progress between the

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first email and the second email.

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And I would recommend that, you know,

sometimes students are like, Hey, I'm

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progressing every day, and I'm like, yes.

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That's great.

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That's awesome.

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And.

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We're not gonna email every day.

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That's a little bit too much.

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But thinking about things around quarterly

communication or thinking about things

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around, you know, if you emailed at the

beginning of a high school season and

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you've since concluded your high school

season, that could be a really touch,

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good touch point for you to connect with

a coach who maybe hasn't responded to say,

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Hey, and hit reply all to that initial

email you sent so that you create a.

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A chain of communication as opposed to

a new email where they're kind of like

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scurrying through their inbox to find

everything, hit reply all and say, Hey,

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I just wanted to follow up with you and

let you know updates of my progress.

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, sometimes students.

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In certain sports, we'll need

highlight videos and maybe they

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included that in their first email.

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Maybe they didn't have it pulled

together yet, and for the second email

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they've got the link pulled together.

391

They're able to include that in the

email and then they can kind of move

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forward at the end of that second email.

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I do, I recommend something that

can be very scary for students

394

and I tell them from the onset,

I'm gonna recommend something.

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I know you might not like it, but

I know you can do it and I will

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support you and help you through it.

397

And that is to conclude the email by

saying something along the lines of, I'm

398

really excited to hear your feedback and

if I don't hear back from you in a week,

399

I'm gonna follow up with a phone call.

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And phone call is when their eyes like

light up and they're like, , and you

401

know, I, I listened to a podcast once

that made this make a lot of sense to me

402

from an adult parent perspective to better

understand our students in that when I

403

was younger, We would be sitting around

our dinner table with our family and our

404

telephone that had a cord on it that was

hooked up to the wall in our kitchen would

405

ring and my mom would get up and she'd

pick up, pick it up and say, you know,

406

hello, this is the Allison residence.

407

And I would listen to her.

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Have that conversation.

409

And so I was exposed to the,

these telephone communications

410

as I was growing up.

411

And if you think about what we do now

with our phones, you know, we answer a

412

call and we usually leave where we are

to gain some quiet, to gain, you know,

413

some space away and some isolation.

414

So students aren't always privy

to having seen models of what

415

telephone communication looks like.

416

So the way that I help them to

prepare for this is we role play.

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We say, okay, you know,

you've now written in a week.

418

You're gonna call.

419

You've gotta call.

420

And so what this is gonna look

like is they're gonna answer,

421

they're gonna say hello.

422

And you can role play it out with

your student of, you know, hi,

423

this is coach so-and-so and so, and

you like launch into your spiel.

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And again, a lot of times

coaches don't want to.

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Waste your time.

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They don't wanna waste their time,

and so they're gonna be honest in the

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communication that they have with you as

much as they can be given where they are

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at that time in their recruiting process.

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So great.

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Oh my gosh.

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We have three minutes left and I feel

like I could talk to you for three hours.

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So let's see.

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What do I wanna, oh, I know,

let's do timeline real quick.

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So, when you talk, it seems like we're

talking, maybe there's two questions.

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One is, okay, you're a freshman

and you know you wanna play.

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Then what about if you're like a

senior, we call 'em rising seniors.

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A rising senior right now,

and you're like, I just had

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the best season of my life.

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I just slammed out my summer and

now I wanna play like answer that.

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And then we always stop on time.

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So I promise that to my family.

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So on your market set, go.

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Okay, so as a freshman,

talk to your coach.

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Start to build a list of schools that

you're interested in, athletically,

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academically, and socially, so that as

you enter, , finish your freshman year

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of high school season, you're able to

send that initial email, fill out the

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athletic recruit questionnaire, and start

to put yourself out there to coaches in

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sophomore year for the Rising Seniors.

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If you've killed it this

year, Just go for it.

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You never know until you put

yourself out there and send

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an email, make a phone call.

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Yes, you may get some nos, but if you get

a yes, it's gonna be totally worth it and

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you're gonna be really proud of yourself

for having put yourself out there.

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The coaches will help you to

understand where they are in their

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recruiting timelines as well.

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And so with each additional coach you

contact and connect with, you'll gain more

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and more insight into where your sport is

in that given division at any given time.

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Beautiful.

459

Lauren, thank you so much.

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I think one my last thought of

everything that you've said is that

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there's one thing going on, which

is raising an athlete and raising an

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athlete who not only is an expert at

their sport, but also , has a sense of

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character as they are in that sport.

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Sport.

465

Right?

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That they bring that to the table.

467

Yeah.

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And then there's also that piece

around raising, good humans

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who can manage disappointment.

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Because what I have noticed is that

there are so many students who start

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reaching out and they do get a lot

of nos and nos and they're like,

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wait, I thought I was pretty amazing.

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And you know, and that's kind of rough.

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And I think that's something in our

practice, and I know you do the same.

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That like part of that.

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Growing a good human is growing that

grit for being able to manage that

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disappointment but never to give up.

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And that at the very end you can

go to the rec center and play

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a club and enjoy your sport.

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So I cannot thank you enough.

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You are so amazing.

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I'm so happy we're so blessed to have

you collaborating and I was blessed

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to have you as a coach for my son.

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So thank you very, very much and we will

have you back to talk more good stuff.

485

Thank you so much for having me.

486

Thank you.

487

Talking later.

488

Thank you, Lauren.

489

Bye.

490

Bye.