Getting to know Austin Doan a Junior Offensive tackle of Romeo High School.

How would you describe your playing style?
Hard, Aggressive, Ruthless and Intense

Who’s your favorite pro athletes?
Ndamukong Suh, Calvin Johnson, Jake Long and Ben Roethlisberger

What’s your favorite pre-game song to get hyped to?
ACDC – Thanderstruck

Who has been the biggest influence in your sports career and why?
My dad, because he is always helping me and supporting me know matter what the case is.

What are your long term football goals? (college, pro, coach, etc…)
College and Coach

What other sports did you play growing up?
Basketball, Baseball, and Hockey

What are your top 3 keys to success as a student-athlete?
(training, practice, film review, etc.)
Training, practice, and discipline

Check out Austin’s profile and video on SportsForce

Many parents and student-athletes believe that once they receive a letter from a college coach they are being actively recruited. In reality these letters are apart of a large marketing process where college coaches send letters to hundreds and often thousands of other student-athletes and families across the country.

What does being actively recruited really mean?

Typically, being actively recruited means you are receiving PERSONAL emails or letters. It is important to realize the difference between a personal email from a coach and a mass marketed letter to thousands of students.  Further, if you receive a call from a college coach after July 1^st of your junior year, you are getting actively recruited. However, if you are a football or basketball player you can receive phone calls in April and May of your junior year. Families and student athletes must realize that just getting letters in the mail does not mean you are being actively recruited.

A SportsForce Story

One of our staff members, Nate Nelson who was the college recruiting coordinator for Stanford and Princeton’s football programs and played football at University of California at Davis (NCAA) fell victim to the actively recruited myth. Nate came out of San Diego and was a very solid football player in the class of 1997. He started getting letters from colleges as a sophomore and junior and thought he was for sure going to get recruited his senior year. Suddenly, his senior football season passed and he was left with nothing. No schools interested, no opportunities, and he had to scramble to find a school that would be a good fit for him.

Nate did receive letters from UCLA and USC his sophomore and junior years but their interest fell off. Bottom line, he wasn’t on their recruiting board. He was NEVER getting actively recruited and was only getting marketed to by college programs. The school that he ended up going to was a Division 1-AA School called UC Davis. It did end up being the exact right fit for him athletically and academically. But, the stress that him and his family had to deal with because he was an unsigned senior is easily preventable.

You don’t want to fall into the same trap that thousands of families do each year during the college recruiting process.

Our staff of College Recruiting Experts has developed a proven Step-by-Step College Recruiting and Athletic Scholarship system so you can know what to do and when and how to do it.

To get started today take advantage of our FREE 30 Day Trial.

If you have any questions or you would like to learn more about the college recruiting process and our custom highlight video packages contact one of our college recruiting experts at

858.350.5889 or visit www.sportsforceonline.com

As the school year winds down, many students start to get a little tired and start looking pretty hard towards summer. High school seniors are so notorious for this that there is even a word for it: senioritis. Just because you’ve been accepted to a college and cleared for graduation is no reason to let your grades and academic and athletic performance slip.  Read on for some tips to help you enjoy your senior year without tarnishing your record.

Avoid the Schedule: Gym, Lunch, Gym, Pottery

Don’t set yourself up for a lackluster semester by not challenging yourself. Sure, badminton can be challenging and so can making a clay pot, but how will these look on your transcript? There’s no reason not to take classes you have been looking forward to all high school in your senior year, just don’t let this be your entire course load. Keep yourself challenged to stay engaged and show colleges that you are a serious student. Consider taking and AP class if you have not already, if you work hard and pass the AP test for a certain subject, you’ve already taken care of some college credits.

Stay Engaged by Doing Things You Love

It’s easy to get bored senior year and try to forget about high school and look at your college years ahead, so find projects that will keep you engaged in your high school life.  Working on the school newspaper or yearbook is a great way to do this. These will help you stay up to date and involved in your school. Also, just because you’re graduating doesn’t mean the school paper will stop going out, so being held to deadlines will keep you in the right frame of mind and keep you from slacking off. As a bonus this extracurricular activities are great experience as you build your resume.

Search Out Academic Options

In your final months of school, you may feel like you’ve got high school mastered. So why not take a college course or two early to challenge yourself and stay ahead of the game. Try the local community college for these classes. Many high schools will count this college course credit towards your high school credit and some schools even allow for early dismissal from regular hours to attend college courses. Check with your guidance counselor for your options, you may even be able to knock out a Gen Ed or two. Just make sure your future college will accept these credits, so you don’t end up taking the same class twice.

Stick with Sports, Even if Your Main Season is Over

If practice is the only thing getting you through your day as the school year winds down, then so be it. Just don’t let that fall to the wayside, too. Sports can be a great motivator to go to school, so even if you’re major season isn’t the spring stay involved with any spring sport as an incentive to go to school and stay in school those final days of your college career. Remember, colleges don’t stop looking at you once you’ve been accepted, that final transcript matters, so don’t tarnish it with senior skip days and sliding grades. Enjoy your senior year, just not too much!

Be sure to visit our Education Page for more resources for student-athletes and parents.

To get more advanced recruiting tips, strategies and advice, visit our website and sign up for our complimentary SportsForce College Recruiting Guide and updates below.

FREE sign up for SportsForce College Recruiting Guide:

http://www.sportsforceonline.com/resources/resources_recruiting_recruiting_guide.html

Article courtesy of SportsForce, Home for professional College Sports Recruiting Profiles, Highlight Videos, Tips and Tools – www.sportsforceonline.com

Over the summer we shared some tips on how to prevent athlete burn out. These tips may not have rung too true at the time, as many student-athletes do get a break over the summer. Now that you’re deep in the school year and the season, it’s time to check out those old tips and see below for few more.

1. LEARN TO RELAX: Life as an athlete is extremely busy and stressful. Slow down and take at least 15 minutes a day to relax; read a book, listen to some music, or write in a journal. You’ll find that taking a few minutes everyday to recharge your batteries will give you more energy to perform well on a daily basis.

2. FIND A BALANCE: Sports are time consuming and can easily become the single focus in your life. Force yourself to find a balance between sports, school, extracurricular activities, and a social life. This will help prevent you from getting both physically and mentally exhausted.

3. MORAL SUPPORT: You need support and encouragement to succeed in athletics. Make sure you have a parent, coach, or teammate who acknowledges your achievements and dedication to the sport, and who will encourage you to continually improve your game.

Be sure to visit our Education Page for more resources for student-athletes and parents.

The SportsForce blog reported on a story like this back in February, which you can see here, and SportsForce would to share an earlier article that extolled the virtues of athletics for girls. Bringham Young University concluded a study in 2007 that stated that playing high schools sports increase the chance of a woman graduating from college by 41 percent.

Playing on a high school team increases young women’s odds of graduating from college by 41 percent, according to recent BYU grad Kelly Troutman and her mentor, sociology professor Mikaela Dufur, who report their research in the new issue of the journal Youth & Society.

“If the goal is for girls to get a higher education, our findings favor the idea of girls playing high school sports,” said Dufur, who played in the marching band but did not play on any sports teams in high school. “Not only are girls good for sports, sports are good for girls.”

Beckett Broh, a sociologist at Wittenberg University in Ohio who is not affiliated with the BYU research, concluded in a 2002 study that athletics help students’ academic performance during high school more than any other extracurricular activity. Broh said school administrators facing tight budgets should take the new BYU study into consideration before putting an athletic program on the chopping block for the sake of cutting costs.

“This is pretty powerful evidence that interscholastic sports are worthy of our education dollars,” said Broh. “This is one of the first few studies that have done a really careful look at long-term benefits of sports.”

Troutman and Dufur analyzed a sample of 5,000 female students from the high school class of 1992 who were randomly selected to participate in the National Education Longitudinal Study. Those students, both athletes and non-athletes, completed surveys in 8th grade, 10th grade and 12th grade. Six years after finishing high school, the participants completed a final survey that included questions about post-high school education.

Visit the BYU website for the full article and browse all of our Girls Sports pages at SportsForceonline.com

The 7th Annual SoCal Hoop Review was held April 10th and 11th at Cal State University Dominguez Hills and Lynwood High School in Lynwood, CA. The tournament was open to all high school grades including seniors. Both AAU teams and High School teams took the chance to compete.

The tournament showcased top talent from across the country and gave players a chance to show off  their skills in highly competitive games in front of top college coaches, scouts, as well as media. Check out the highlight video below.

To visit the SportsForce Boys Basketball Home page click here.

Sport: Baseball Positions: Catcher Height: 6′3″ Class: 2010 School: Scripps Ranch High School San Diego, CA

Wynston Sawyer, batted .700 with two home runs and eight RBIs at the Lions Baseball Tournament this past weekend. This performance earned Wynston the recognition of being named the MVP of the 6A Division for the tournament. Wynston also contributed to the now 12-2 Scripps Ranch Falcons with two doubles, five walks, three stolen bases and six runs scored.
To view Wynstons’s complete SportsForce profile click here - http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/wsawyer

Scouting report courtesy of SportsForce – Home for college Sports Recruiting Videos, Tips, Tools and Premium Services – www.sportsforceonline.com

This post is courtesy MVPToday.com

The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPN RISE, announced on Friday that Corey Hawkins of Estrella Foothills High School is its 2009-10 Gatorade Arizona Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court, distinguishes Hawkins as Arizona’s best high school boys basketball player.

Hawkins is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced in March.

The 6-foot-3, 180-pound senior guard led the Wolves (31-1) to their third straight Class 3A state title this past season, averaging 36 points, 10.1 rebounds, 4.6 steals and 3.7 assists per game.

The returning Gatorade Arizona Boys Basketball Player of the Year finished his career as the state’s all-time career scoring leader with 3,154 points and also set the single-season scoring record with 1,152 points this winter.

The 2010 Arizona Republic Small Schools Player of the Year, Hawkins scored a season-high 65 points in a win over Chino Valley High on Feb. 2.

Hawkins has maintained a 3.14 GPA in the classroom. He has volunteered locally as a youth basketball camp counselor and participated in a humanitarian effort to collect and send shoes to earthquake victims in Haiti.

“Corey Hawkins has a work ethic unlike any player I’ve ever coached and he’s made himself one of the most complete basketball players in the state,” said Estrella Foothills High Head Coach Ty Amundsen. “He has made such an enormous impact on our team and on our program as a whole.”

Hawkins joins recent Gatorade Arizona Boys Basketball Players of the Year Taylor Rohde (2007-08, Pinnacle) and Jerryd Bayless (2006-07, St. Mary’s) among the state’s list of former award winners.

Hawkins has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball on scholarship at Arizona State University this fall.

Coach Kentera and XX1090 Sports Radio hosted SportsForce CEO Andrew Beinbrink recently to discuss the changing time line of college recruiting, the importance of video in the recruiting process and how SportsForce is working hard to help high school student athletes in every way possible. Check out the interview below. Coach Kentera highlights high school sports every week for XX1090 and is himself very familiar with college recruiting as he’s been a mentor to hundreds of student athletes guiding their careers in many ways including placing over 100 students at the college level and having 37 players drafted or sign professional baseball contracts. Check out the full interview below.

Sport: Basketball Position: Forward Height: 6′7″ Class: 2010 School: Lincoln High School San Diego, CA

The Lincoln Hornets started out the season with the goal of taking the Division II state title and they are just steps away from it. A balanced team, with strong performances coming from many members, this week senior forward Victor Dean took the chance to step up against Compton. A captain for Lincoln, Dean scored a game high 19 points, the majority of which came after the half as Lincoln picked up momentum to take the lead after being down in the first half. Lincoln defeated Compton 60-52 and secured the Southern California Section D-II Title. Dean was also named to the first team for the All San Diego Section Basketball Team. Dean and the Lincoln Hornets will face off against Mountainview St. Francis in Bakersfield this weekend in search of the state title.

To view Victor’s complete SportsForce profile click here – http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/vdean

Highlight Video and Scouting report courtesy of SportsForce – Home for college Sports Recruiting Videos, Tips, Tools and Premium Services – www.sportsforceonline.com