By far the biggest enjoyment that we get out of doing what we do is hearing and seeing the excitement of a student athlete after they have just heard from a coach at a school on the top of their list. Fortunately, we get to hear that quite often these days as the A4A athletes are on a roll.
There is however, one story that is at the top of our list, and that is Kyle Reid's.
One of the best I have had in A4A's 6 1/2 year history. A true inspiration to all inspiring student athletes.
A little less than two years ago, I started working with a young man by the name of Kyle Reid. Good kid and good athlete with a big smile and a grandiose plan to earn a DI college football scholarship.......as a QB. Four issues confronted us: 1) QB is the toughest position to earn a scholarship for; 2) Kyle had just transferred out of Bellarmine and into Los Gatos High School and was not slated to be the starting QB as a junior; 3) He was 195 lbs and needed more weight and more speed...in a hurry! And 4) He mostly played safety his junior year and then 3/4 through the season banged up his ankle so we had very little highlight film.
Despite these hurdles, Kyle was bound and determined, so we set some big goals and he went to work. Kyle bought in like no other, absolutely working his tail off to fulfill his childhood dream. He changed up his diet, gained 10 lbs of muscle, hit every workout goal we set, ran track to get faster and worked feverishly on his arm, footwork and reading defenses. He also smashed his GPA goal, earning the best grades he had ever gotten.
Guess what? Kyle had an awesome senior year, not only starting but leading Los Gatos to the CCS semifinals, making First Team All-League and was named Santa Clara Athletic League Most Valuable Player.
And on February 1st his childhood dream came true. He signed his National Letter of Intent (scholarship offer) to play QB next year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I am very proud of this young man and so happy for him. Really good kid with great character, a positive person with a "never say lose" attitude. Just goes to prove one of my favorite all time sayings is alive and well......hard work really does pay off!!
"The A4A program has helped my son tremendously. The program that A4A customized for my son utilizing the Advocates for Athletes playbook was a huge help during a crucial time in his life. If I could summarize the changes that I have noticed in his approach to everyday life, his time management would be number one. The A4A program really helped him prioritize his day to day activities. I have noticed that he is "goal setting" much more than before and incorporating many of the strategies that Steve and my son worked on. The program works and Steve's diligence and genuine caring for his student athletes is very apparent."
~Tom Paroubeck Father of Jordan, the 69th pick in the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft....from Serra High School.
We received a call from a St. Francis High School parent back in October interested in getting help with her son’s dream of playing collegiate soccer. At the time, her son had just joined a new soccer club, and along with the club fee, they claimed that they could help him with his recruiting efforts. The mother decided to see what the club could do for her son and decided to put off working with A4A.
Four months later, the same mother called saying she needed A4A’s help. Her son was distraught because he had followed the directions of the club (they basically gave him a handout and said to follow the directions) and sent out some kind of communication to a certain list of college coaches, and they did not get a word back from one school. Not one response!!!
We began working with this young man in February. We went through the education of the process and the “right" ways to contact coaches, what they want and what they don’t like, totally changed his resume/profile, researched schools and created a new list of 60 schools that he had an interest in going to, and wrote and sent out a compelling letter. He received communication back from 40 schools. That’s right, 40!!! He has actually received a total of 50 emails back so far, with 10 of those being from different coaches at the same school. Unreal!!
That means he is now on 40 school's radars and the relationships have begun. The previous A4A record for a student athlete was 35 responses when letters were sent to 50 schools. The average number of responses is 20. That means our athletes are communicating with an average of 20 coaches. Pretty cool! This young man and his mother are ecstatic. We are not talking about a five-star, ESPN athlete here either, but a good player with good grades, test scores and good character.
A4A has been working with this senior baseball player for sometime. When we first started, the athlete was a skinny young man that was just hoping to play at the next level. His father just wanted us to find a school that would be a good fit for his son. The first thing we did was to create goals both academically and athletically, most importantly was to get some muscle and mass on him. He followed the process, started working out hard, contacting coaches, setting up unofficial visits, working on his game and communicating, communicating, communicating. He bought in and worked the A4A process to a T.
We received a call from the father on Friday excited to let us know what was going on with his son. He proceeded to tell us that his son has now put on a total of 20 lbs. of muscle, is playing great baseball, grades are solid and he has been accepted to and given spots on the team at 3 of his top 4 schools (so far) and had been offered 2 very nice scholarships. He was clearly ecstatic!!
The point here is this. You have one shot at college recruiting for your athlete. Don’t wait to get started, or wait for schools to contact you! Start now and do it right with someone who knows!