Successful Parenting

If you son or daughter wants to play college sports, it is important that you and your student athlete understand the recruiting process and that you are doing what is necessary and and off the field to get noticed. An expert in the college recruiting process can help.

A couple of tips:

Editors Note: This blog is part of a special series on dads which originally ran in 2012. Because it is timeless we are sharing it again.

With summer camp season approaching, student-athletes anxiously await their opportunity to jump-start the college recruiting process. Camps can give athletes the opportunity to compete against other athletes from around the country. They are especially attractive to athletes who are trying to get discovered by college coaches.

But it is important for you as parent to help manage your athlete's expectations about what attending a sports camp can and can't do.

Being the father of an athlete is a challenging yet rewarding role. At MomsTEAM we think sports dads deserve to be honored, not just on the third Sunday in June, but for an entire month. So we have designated June as National Sports Dads Month and invited some veteran sports dads to share their wisdom by responding to a series of questions (the same ones we asked sports moms in May).

So far this month we have heard from a fascinating array of fathers, from a former Major League Baseball general manager, to a Minnesota hockey coach and safety advocate, from a sociologist with an expertise in gender and sports to a pediatric sports medicine doctor.

Does playing for the right team, club or high school guarantee getting recruited for college is a question all parents of elite athletes end up facing sometime along the way as their children continue their growth as athletes.

The answer is simply no.  An athlete definitely has to play the sport they love with a commitment to being the best they can be. This can be accomplished at all levels of clubs, but the important thing is that the athlete be competitive with other top players. There is no need to jump from club to club.