I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It has been a pleasure to share insight about junior golf, college recruiting, and my own journey with you over the past year. This wraps up my 6th year as the RecruitPKB College Consultant and I look forward to another awesome year for the PKBGT, RecruitPKB, and the growth of girls golf in 2019!
Many players will say “yes I’m open to anywhere, I just want to play college golf.” But in reality, when it comes down to it they are often very picky about the factors they want and don’t want in choosing a school. Don’t get me wrong that is part of going thru this process is to figure those things out and find a school that fits you best. But when you take into account enrollment, academics, location, cost, team ranking, majors, and other factors a recruit can quickly go from “anywhere” to “nowhere”. It is certainly understandable and commendable to have certain criteria and expectations with your education. Many of you have worked extremely hard to earn good grades and accolades so don't feel pressured to sacrifice that if that is an important factor for your decision. Just keep in mind when it comes to recruiting the [...]
The assumption, many times, is that a coach is going to ask you a lot of questions because you, as the recruit, are the one being “interviewed”. Don’t always assume that to be the case because many times a coach will expect the recruit to be prepared with questions to ask and may even expect the recruit to lead the conversation. I recently had a player experience this with an initial call with a coach who didn't ask her any questions and expected her to do all of the asking. Thankfully she was prepared with lots of great questions and kept the conversation going. In most cases, a coach does this just to see if you are prepared and able to show the initiative to ask your own questions, but in some cases, coaches will honestly just be kind of lazy and not willing to do their [...]
Yes, tournament scores are probably the biggest initial factor in determining a coach’s interest in a recruit, especially when they are just looking at a resume. In order for a coach to take the time to learn more about a recruit their tournament scores (not handicap and not high school scores) typically need to fit in a particular range. The next important numbers for a coach to check, especially for selective and very selective academic schools, are your GPA and test scores. From there coaches have their own way of deciding what sparks their interest, it could be the swing video, a well-written intro email, a follow-up phone call from the recruit, Trackman/Flightscope numbers, a recruit who has played other sports, or the source of the referral for that recruit. Obviously, the coach is going to want to see a recruit play but many of these factors [...]
While I know it may be tough as a parent to want to help your son or daughter through this process to make sure they get everything done in a timely manner, it is very important that players write ALL of their emails. I know their schedules can get really busy and recruiting tasks may get put aside for school work and practice, but parents writing emails for the recruit is a major red flag among the college coaches. There are several reasons that it is important for the player to write the emails: 🚩 Once the coach meets or talks to the player and their language and ability to speak doesn’t match up to their emails then a coach is going to see through it. 🚩 The player needs to learn the responsibility of keeping up with the emails and replying in a timely manner, a [...]
I wanted to take the time to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! There are so many things to be grateful for so I hope you will enjoy a wonderful holiday with your family and friends. Recruit PKB College Consultant Brandi Jackson
One of the hardest parts of my job is talking with families who have gotten behind in the process and realize they have missed out on a lot of opportunities. They see other players taking visits and committing to schools while they struggle to get coaches to reply to emails. Many times these are players who are just as good as the ones getting all of the opportunities. It's tough to hear these stories of players who really want to play in college but struggle to find somewhere to play. If you're not one of the top 5 players in your recruiting class in your state then the process can quickly pass you by. You must be the one recruiting the coaches and not waiting for them to recruit you. Once the thought of playing college golf comes into the equation you need to set some goals [...]
"If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you" This is just one of the many great quotes about the necessary impact of facing challenges. This is quite possibly one of the most truthful quotes you can find about life. You can also easily apply it to golf and your development as a player. I could sit and write for hours about this quote but I will keep it to just a few tidbits about how this applies to a young junior golfer. As with anything in life, if you aren't challenging yourself then you will never learn how to grow and develop as a person or an athlete. Take a minute and think about all of the big moments in your life, both good and bad, which ones do you feel that you learned the most from? Typically those are going to be the more "trying" [...]
I find myself very conflicted on the motto of "Dream Big" but also understanding in a setting like college recruiting what it can lead to through the process if you aren't realistic in your dreams and goals. If you have such a high standard for where you want to play college golf but physically, mentally, or maturity wise you aren't able to reach that dream, then you will end up feeling like the opportunities you have aren't good enough or you won't even give yourself the chance to find opportunities that will allow you to succeed in college golf. Yes, I hope you all have big dreams! Whether it's golf related, or your academics, or your future career, whatever it is - DREAM BIG! As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I had a BIG dream when I was just 8 or 9 years old that I wanted [...]
While some goals and dreams are going to be general, do your best to keep them as specific as you can. This may mean that you need to readjust as you get closer to reaching your goal or dream to make it more specific to your current progress. As I mentioned the other week, I had a dream when I was 8 or 9 years old to play on the LPGA Tour, and while then it was obviously understandable at that age to not be very specific about that dream, as I got older I never readjusted to set a more specific dream. I technically did live out my dream to "play" on the LPGA Tour so I can't be mad at 8-year-old Brandi, but what might have happened if I had set my dream to finish top 10 in a tournament, or maybe even win an [...]
