Put Me In, Coach: A Parent's Guide to Winning the Game of College Recruiting [Paperback]

Laurie A. Richter (Author), Gail M. Kearns (Editor), Peri Poloni-Gabriel (Cover Design)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0615213332 | ISBN-13: 978-0615213330 | Publication Date: March 1, 2009 | Edition: first

PUT ME IN, COACH is an award winning, must-have guidebook for parents and their student-athletes who want to be recruited to compete in athletics at the college level. Because of limited roster spots, only a handful of high school athletes will play their sport competitively in college and even fewer will get NCAA or NAIA scholarships. For your child to be one of them, you need a game plan, and the earlier you start, the better. If you are the parent of a student-athlete who is better than most in high school athletics, but college coaches aren't lining up at your door, you will find PUT ME IN, COACH indispensable. Advice and personal observations from 40 college coaches will help you understand how to market your child so coaches take notice, how to get money from any school even those that don t give athletic scholarships, how to identify the colleges that are the right fit for your child, how to understand recruiting from the coaches point of view, and how to make the right impression and get the most out of campus visits. PUT ME IN, COACH has won the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award and the Next Generation Indie Book Award, and was a finalist for the USA Best Books Award.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The greatest compliment to Laurie Richter's book for parents concerning college recruiting is that our coaches--the guys who have spent years doing this--found it to be a solid road map of the how to's of the business. It is accurate, fair, and gives valuable insight to parents and young people who are making one of life's most important decisions for a college-bound athlete. I have always said that recruiting is like dating, and you need to know all you can about a person before you get engaged. This book helps you figure out how to do that. --Mack Brown, Head Football Coach, University of Texas at Austin

From a coaching perspective, recruiting is an inexact science. This book provides a refreshingly accurate and honest assessment of the recruiting process and solid advice on how to manage it. Sports and educational opportunities are plentiful, but finding the best fit scholastically, athletically, and socially should be the primary goal. This is an excellent guide. --Jody Conradt, Head Coach, Women's Basketball, University of Texas at Austin, 1976-2007

No one's going to get noticed sitting on the bench. Put Me In, Coach: A Parent's Guide to Winning the Game of College Recruiting is a hands on high school athlete parent's guide to helping their child get the chance they need to win that prestigious sports scholarship. Advocating starting as early as possible, it's an athlete's guide to preparation for college. A complete and comprehensive manual to the path to college athletics, Put Me In, Coach is invaluable. --Midwest Book Review--

Richter's book guides parents through each step of the recruiting process, starting with actually deciding whether or not college athletics are a good fit for you and your child. Besides drawing on her personal experiences, Richter reviewed statistics from the NCAA, talked to college-bound students and their parents and interviewed college coaches from a range of sports and schools. The result is an honest tutorial that stresses the importance of researching potential colleges as early as the ninth grade. --North Shore Magazine, March 2009--

Richter's book on recruiting hits the nail on the head. Put Me In, Coach, A Parent's Guide to Winning the Game of College Recruiting is a thoughtful and detailed look into everything a student athlete and his parents need to know before attempting to find a school that best fits the student's needs. Put Me In, Coach is full of common sense tips for the prospective student athlete. --Lincolnshire Review, A Pioneer Press Publication. January 8, 2009-- Put Me In, Coach has a lot of great info. It will help the student athlete who wants to get recruited, better navigate a process that has become a lot more complex than it used to be. --Kristine Lilly, Two Time Olympic Gold Medalist Women's Soccer

From the Author

Every year, hundreds of thousands of high school athletes hope to play their sport in college.  Most will find the recruiting process complex, frustrating, exhausting, and shrouded in mystery.  It doesn't need to be this way for your child.  I decided to write this book quite simply because it was the book I wished I had found on the shelf when my son started looking at colleges.  When I compared the stories of athletes who had positive recruiting outcomes with those less satisfied, the difference was seldom due to the level of talent.  More often, success came when kids and parents understood the recruiting process, took the initiative to get the athlete noticed, and identified the schools that were the best fit in all areas...not just athletics.  I hope you will use this book to guide your student-athlete toward a happy ending.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Right Fit Press; first edition (March 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615213332
• ISBN-13: 978-0615213330
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,993 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #54 in Books > Education & Reference > Education > College Guides

More About the Author

I am the author of two books about college sports recruiting: Put Me In, Coach: A Parent's Guide to Winning the Game of College Recruiting, and The Recruiting Companion for College Sports: Over 100 Winning Tips. Both books are designed to help you get recruited whether it's for high school baseball recruiting, college basketball recruiting, college football recruiting, or any other college sports recruiting challenge. Anyone can benefit, from those just starting high school athletics, to top high school recruits.

I am the parent of a college basketball player. I have 24 years of market research experience which I put to good use to write these books and I would be happy to share what I've learned about college recruiting and sports scholarships with your organization in my presentation, "Five Things I Wish I'd Known About Recruiting." It's ideal for Booster Club and PTA presentations in high schools.

I interviewed families of student-athletes who tried to get recruited, some successfully and some not successfully. Many of their stories are shared in the books to help others avoid the mistakes they made. I also interviewed dozens of college coaches and share the perspectives of forty of them in Put Me In, Coach. These are ideal how-to books for the parents of any high school athlete who wants to compete at the next level but isn't quite sure what steps to take.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Tool for the Parents of Aspiring College Athletes., May 3, 2009

By 

P. Gregory - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Put Me In, Coach: A Parent's Guide to Winning the Game of College Recruiting (Paperback)

Put Me In, Coach is an excellent tool for the parent of any high school athlete considering playing college sports

As the team manager of a competitive girls' club soccer team, I was hoping to help our players and parents learn about the process of college athletic recruiting including: the differences between Divison I and Division III programs; the availability of both athletic and nonathletic scholarships for athletes; questions a parent and athlete should seek the answers to, to help determine whether a player is "good enough" to play college sports; and a plan to be implemented during each year in high school in pursuit of becoming a college athlete. Put Me In, Coach, addressed all of those questions and much more in an easy to read style. I highly recommend this book for all high school athletes interested in playing college sports and their parents.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A playbook you HAVE to have, February 22, 2009

By 

Brad Bennett (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Put Me In, Coach: A Parent's Guide to Winning the Game of College Recruiting (Paperback)

Wow, I feel like I was just pulled from the parenting bench, coached with the best playbook around and sent into the game. With twin 10 year old boys who are very athletic, I've been looking forward to many years of bleacher-sitting -- hoping someday college coaches would call. This book has shown me that I've got to be as much of a game changer as my boys are when it comes to a possible future in collegiate athletics. The book gives both "big picture" things to be aware of (keep the grade up) as well as very helpful tactical tools and direction (put this info in your letter to the coach). It's a book I'll go back to many times in the years ahead.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A helpful resource, July 22, 2009

By 

Laurel J. Podgorski (Cary, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Put Me In, Coach: A Parent's Guide to Winning the Game of College Recruiting (Paperback)

As a parent of three - two interested in college sports - I had always been under the false assumption that their high school coach would walk them through the entire process.

Sooner rather than later, I came to the unfortunate realization that the parent and athlete were solely responsible for the athlete's collegiate future.

Put Me In Coach, has been a lifesaver for me and my family. It walked us through each decision, and answered most of the abundant questions that I, and presumably most other parents, had in the recruiting process.

I highly recommend this book to any parent who's children have even the slightest chance of a future playing a sport in college.