Most student athletes have the dream of successfully being recruited and getting to play for their favorite Division I school. However, it’s a hard fact that this isn’t going to happen for everyone. Courtney shared last week about the benefits of DII, DIII and NAIA schools, but there was another great option we didn’t get a chance to learn about: junior college. Junior college does not have to be looked at as a last resort. In fact junior college can be a great time to knock out some core classes while developing your game to play at that DI school or wherever the next level might be for you. Below you will find some reasons junior college might be the right fit, and why not to rule it out.

Develop Yourself Academically

Like a four year school, you have to remember that your junior college experience isn’t just about sports. Junior colleges (JUCOs) offer an amazing opportunity for smaller class sizes and more professor interaction. The jump from high school to college can definitely be challenging academically, but junior college acts as a great bridge between the two. You’ll get used to the college workload, but your chances of being lost among hundreds of other students in a lecture hall are a lot slimmer.

Develop Yourself Physically

Sure, there are cases like LeBron James, who stood 6’7” weighed 225lbs as a 17 year old, but for many of us, we’re not so lucky (or such freaks of nature). Junior college is a great time to develop yourself physically and develop your game. The junior college sports scene will give you a chance to play against some top athletes and develop a skillset to handle them. Staying engaged in your sport in the two years following high school will help you to increase your abilities and give you a chance to get your body in top performing shape as you continue to grow into it. Maybe it will even help you become the next Aaron Rodgers.

Show the Four Year Schools Your Commitment to Your Sport

Playing at a JUCO will show colleges how committed you are to your sport. The willingness to continue to train and compete show cases determination. JUCO gives you a chance to up your game, and in turn show college coaches how much you have improved and how dedicated you are.

Get a handle on your courses

Take advantage of the smaller class sizes and close knit environment by taking core classes to help you be prepared when you make the jump to a four year school. It’s important not to look at junior college as a lost opportunity and spend your time taking pottery classes (though one might be fun!) and find out core requirements or Gen Eds for you major and take those classes. Many classes transfer over, but be sure to do your research about which credits will transfer to a four year school, so you don’t find yourself taking Writing 101 twice, because your first attempt didn’t transfer.

Lastly, Save Some Cash in the Process

Junior Colleges offer cheaper tuition than four year schools. As you play your sport for two years and knock out some core classes, you’re saving big bucks. Some state schools even offer programs for reduced tuition if you have completed your associate degree at an area junior or community college.

JUCOs are a great choice to ready yourself academically and physically for four year programs, they aren’t just a last chance option, they are a great option for many athletes. Don’t forget about Aaron Rodgers, either, he’s just one of many JUCO success stories.

Visit the below links for more information on Junior and Community Colleges

National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) : http://www.njcaa.org/

Junior College Football rankings, programs and more: http://jcfootball.scout.com/

Search for Two year programs at College Board: http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/adv_typeofschool.jsp

Sport: Football

Position: Kicker

Height: 5′ 10″

Weight: 175

Class: 2011

School: Montgomery High School San Diego, CA

Senior running back, Diego Rodriguez has had a stellar season after coming off of reconstructive knee surgery for a season ending injury during his junior year. So far this season Rodriguez has rushed for more than 1,000 yards. Rodriguez had a standout performance against Mar Vista which included two TDs. Rodriguez had an 88-yard touchdown off a kickoff return as well as a 50-yard touchdown in his team’s win.

Sport: Football Position: Quarterback Height: 6’3″ Class: 2011 School: Vista High School Vista, CA

The undefeated Vista Panthers are off to an amazing start this season with the help of senior QB, Christian Gallardi. Gallardi had a standout performance in his team’s game against Great Oak. Vista rolled over Great Oak 30-6 with Gallardi throwing for two touchdowns. Gallardi completed 18 of 26 passes for 322 yards.
To view Christian’s complete SportsForce profile click here – http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/christian-gallardi-football-2011

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

Your academic strength is just as important as your athletic strength. Take time to read the few tips to ensure your academic skills stand out as much as your athletics.

Find the time that works best

Figure out the time that your brain is most awake. We all had those friends rushing to get homework done in homeroom before school started, but for some, mornings may be good time to get work done. Just set aside more time than homeroom alone. If you’re always exhausted and feeling a little brain-dead after school and practice, get to bed early and wake up earlier to give yourself some time to finish assignments, study and research before you even head off to school.

Chip away at big assignments

Procrastination seems like something we all develop in our teen years and have a hard time getting over. It never pays off, but many of us push assignments to the last minute. Instead of ignoring an assignment until the night before, work on it in small doses. This will help for more balance, and help to ease the stress of a big assignment. It will also help you to look at things with fresh eyes and do a better job than if you had crammed all your work into the night before.

Set up study dates

Some of us prefer to work alone, but as you know from sports, things can get done more efficiently with the help of your team. This can also be true for school work. Find someone you know you can work well with, who is also a friend and set up times to work on assignments together. This way you will have something to look forward to come study time and also someone to help you out.

Treat school on the same level, if not higher

At SportsForce, we work hard to highlight your athletic achievements by showcasing your video. But as many of you already know, academics is very important in the recruiting process. It is easy to get in the mindset that your sport deserves all the attention because it is what will get you recruited, but colleges look for academic strength too. Don’t put your schoolwork on the backburner. Think of all the time you devote to athletic training and work to put in equal time towards your academics. Seeing a strong athlete and student is a great selling point for college coaches.

Get extra help when needed

This is a tip that can be applied to college and high school. There is absolutely no shame in going to a teacher or tutor for extra help; that’s what they are there for. In classrooms it’s sometime unavoidable that not everyone is on the same page understanding material. If you feel lost, ask your teacher to meet with you to get extra help. You will absolutely benefit and teachers will appreciate the initiative you put in.

Working towards a goal or a dream can be incredibly taxing. We understand our clients are working towards the goal of playing their sport in college. Early practices, late practices, double sessions, weight training and more, plus academics, work and a social life are a lot to fit in for the student athlete. Many athletes do an excellent job of creating a balance of the many demands in their life. But sometimes, becoming burnt-out may seem unavoidable. Below you’ll find some tips to avoid the burn out and keep that balance going in your life.

Check In With Yourself

Only you can know if you’re headed for a burnout. Every now and then, do a mental check-in to make sure your head is still in the game and you’re still on the path you want. Are you overtired? Are you stressed out? Is your schedule out of control? Take some time to do inventory of your day to day life and ensure you are happy and still working towards a goal without overworking yourself.

Continue Playing All the Sports You Love

There is much debate on specializing within the world of student athletes. Essentially, there are two schools of thought. Some may argue that only focusing on one sport is the best way to ensure a college roster spot, while others say playing multiple sports looks best to coaches. Many, however, will agree that playing multiple sports helps to avoid the burnout. If you like soccer and baseball, play both if possible. The switch between sports can help to avoid a burnout and shows coaches dedication on another level as well as an ability to balance. To learn more about the importance of multiple sports, click here.

Take a Break

While there is the opportunity to play your sport year round between club teams, camps and high school, it is important to take some time off. Take a few days or even a week to rest your body and mind. When you get back to your sport and training you will feel that much more energized!

Reassess ad Reorganize

Sometimes you don’t just need a break, but you need to shake things up completely. Would getting your workouts in in the morning free up more time for homework at night? Is it really necessary to stay out really late on Friday night to be dragging for Saturday morning practice? Along with checking in with yourself, sometimes you need to reorganize and prioritize things in your training plan. This can range from checking how you are fueling your body to what time makes the most sense for you to squeeze in a weight training session so you still have a social life. See what works for you!

Enjoy

It’s pretty hard to burn out on fun. As long as you are enjoying the journey as a student athlete, keep working hard. Some athletes may never feel burnt out. As long as you’re still enjoying yourself and training the best you can, keep moving towards your goals!

Additional Resources

If you are feeling stressed about the College Sports Preparation process then contact us for advice and sign up for our free guide HERE to learn more about the process and action items to take

Women Talk Sports recently shared an article from the Patriot News in Pennsylvania about the lack of sports icons for young girls. The article highlighted how many of us are hard-pressed to name a top female athlete outside of maybe a tennis star. It’s no surprise that women’s sports receive less attention than their male counterparts, but according to the article, the media is also fond of separating out certain players from their equally as talented teammates to make a media star. SportsForce not only supports the importance of the team mentality, but also ensuring our female sports are getting just as much exposure as our male sports, so needless to say, I was very interested in this articles topic.

For an example of this media treatment of female athletes, one must look no further than Mia Hamm of the 2000 US Women’s Soccer team. The article explains,

Hamm was the media darling from the beginning, and not by choice.

“The media wanted Mia, and that’s all they wanted,” said Jaime Pagliarulo, a Hershey native and former U.S. national team goalkeeper, who played for the Trojans in high school, and then played college soccer at George Mason University. She was in the national team player pool in 1996, and made the team again in 2001.

According to Pagliarulo, Hamm tried to share the spotlight with her teammates.

“She would say, ‘I’ll do interviews, but I’m bringing so-and-so with me’,” Pagliarulo said. “She recognized that it would take more than just her to carry the women’s soccer movement across the country.

“You’ve got a team of 24 players than the fans adore and love, but she was forced into the spotlight, and she did her part to try to distribute the press and the spotlight. That went for Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain too.”

After the Olympics, the team’s stars were separated out to different teams within the fleeting Women’s United Soccer Association, which lasted only three years before folding.

The lack of women’s sports icon does a great injustice to young female athletes. Though many may have their favorites, the media does not present them as ubiquitously as they do male athletes. Sports Force works hard to empower female athletes to take control of their future. We hope to help all of our young female athletes make it to the college level and beyond to help change the face of sports to include a few more females in the spotlight.

–article content courtesy Women Talk Sports and Patriot News

Over the past few months, SportsForce has been conducting free seminars to help educate athletes and their families on the road ahead and what to expect. SportsForce team members cover a variety of subjects at every seminar , but also share one constant message: it is never too late to work towards that roster spot. Team members highlight an entire time line of preparing for college sports, but are sure to remind young athletes never to get discouraged. Never give up at the high school level, the college level and beyond. Persistence pays, and there has been no greater recent example than Daniel Nava. As a Boston-girl myself, I was instantly aware of Nava’s great start for the Red Sox. If you didn’t get a chance to read the headlines, Nava became the fourth player in history to hit a grand slam in his first at bat in the majors, and just the second player to do so on the first pitch he saw.

At first wind of this story, you may think that Nava is a golden child of baseball who has been barreling towards the majors since high school. Not so. Nava is a great example of pursuing your dreams until you get there, and never letting “no’s” get the best of you. Fox Sports shared some of Nava’s story:

Nava, 27, was 4 feet 8 and 70 pounds when he entered high school, took growth hormone — prescribed by a doctor, not some major-league enabler — but didn’t have a growth spurt until his sophomore year in college.

He was cut by Santa Clara his freshman year and ended up team manager, washing uniforms. He then left the school because his family couldn’t afford the tuition, played two years at junior college, only to return to Santa Clara — on scholarship — for his senior year.

No major-league team drafted him. The Chico Outlaws of the Independent Golden League cut him. Nava took a year off, thinking — again — that his career might be over. But the Outlaws gave him another shot.

Then, in fall 2007, the Red Sox signed Nava, paying the Outlaws the princely sum of $1 — yes, $1 — for his rights, with an additional $1,499 to follow if he made a minor-league team out of spring training.

Now here was Nava less than three years later, replacing Josh Reddick on the major-league roster and filling in for the injured Jacoby Ellsbury and Jeremy Hermida, playing left field at Fenway on the same ground once treaded by Red Sox greats Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice and Manny Ramirez.

Good thing they got there when they did — Daniel hit his grand slam off Phillies right-hander Joe Blanton with none out in the bottom of the second inning, and later added a lead-off double off reliever Chad Durbin in the fifth.

At 27, Nava’s debut is no miracle, but the result of hard work and persistence; the kind of hard work that can earn a college roster spot and beyond. To read the full Fox Sports article visit: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Daniel-Navas-parents-watch-a-milestone-moment-for-their-son

For video of the grand slam visit: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8987563

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

Ryan Fobes, a SportsForce athlete and second baseman for Eastlake High School in Chula Vista, CA, has accepted an athletic scholarship to play for the University of Sioux Falls Men’s Baseball team. SportsForce caught up with Ryan and asked him a few questions about his recruiting process and ultimate decision to play for the USF Cougars.

What factors made you decide on the University of Sioux Falls?

Sioux Falls is a tightly knit community and one of those towns where ‘everyone knows everyone’. I think attending a University that you can be up close and personal with is important.

Were there any other schools you were seriously considering?

I was seriously considering attending Whittier College. However, I just didn’t get that feeling where you know it’s going to be the right fit like I did with Sioux Falls.

What are you most looking forward to most about playing for the University of Sioux Falls?

I think the team’s chemistry is what has carried the team to a record breaking season this year, along with coaching. The Cougars have a great young coaching staff, who really know the game of baseball. Coaches who teach you the little things about the game are what make you a better ballplayer.

What advice would you give to other student athletes looking to play in college?

Grades. Grades. Grades. You don’t have to be the best player on the field to get a scholarship. Work ethic in the classroom is just as important as on the field.

Congratulations to Ryan for signing with the University of Sioux Falls! Be sure to visit Ryan’s SportsForce profile (http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/rfobes) or check out his highlight video below.

Sport: Boys Volleyball Positions: Middle Back, Outside Hitter Height: 6’2″ Class: 2010 School: Hoover High School San Diego, CA

Senior Jorge Cabrera helped to lead the Cardinals to a conference win that put them in first place in the Central League. Jorge and the Cardinals defeated Clairemont 3-2, giving them a 9-0 record in their league. Jorge finished the night with 32 kills, 24 digs and 10 blocks. The Cardinals record stands at 15-2.
To view Jorge’s complete SportsForce profile click here – http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/jcabrera

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