RECRUITING TIMELINE BY CLASS YEAR

Work the year you are in. Do not skip ahead: a 9th grader with clean film and honest numbers is far more recruitable than an 11th grader with a hundred emails and nothing to show. Everything below is free to do — no service, including ours, is required.

Freshman year

• Start a profile now: height, weight, class year, school, position, and a current photo. Update measurements every season.
• Save every game file you can get. Full-game video beats a highlight reel you cannot verify later.
• Record combine and lift numbers with the date and where they were tested. Undated numbers get discounted by coaches.
• Protect academics from day one — freshman grades are in the GPA a coach and an admissions office will read.
• Learn your sport's division landscape (D1, D2, D3, NAIA, JUCO). Most athletes end up outside D1, and that is a good outcome.

Sophomore year

• Cut a 2 to 3 minute highlight reel: best plays first, jersey identified, no music-video editing, no filler.
• Get one honest evaluation from your high school or club coach on where you realistically fit.
• Attend one or two camps where college staff from your realistic division level are on the field.
• Start a target list of 20 to 30 schools that have both your sport and the majors you would actually study.
• Register your NCAA Eligibility Center account if you are aiming at D1 or D2.

Junior year

• Junior film is the film that gets you recruited. Update it in-season, not in July.
• Email coaches yourself, from your own address: two sentences of who you are, your key numbers, your film link, your grades, and your class year.
• Complete recruiting questionnaires for every target school — that is how you enter their database.
• Take official test scores if your target schools use them, and know each program's academic minimums.
• Track every contact: who, when, what they said, what they asked for next. Follow up in two weeks if there is silence.
• Visit campuses unofficially. Judge the school as if the sport ended tomorrow.

Senior year

• Send senior film weekly during the season to your live schools; add a short season-stat line.
• Widen the list. D2, D3, NAIA and JUCO rosters fill late and many of them fund athletes well.
• Compare offers in total cost, not scholarship percentage: aid, academic money, housing, books, and years guaranteed.
• Ask about depth chart, redshirt plans, graduation rate, and coaching-staff contracts before committing.
• Once you commit, tell the schools that recruited you. Coaches move; reputations follow athletes.

Contact rules differ by sport and division and they change. Two things stay true: you may email, call and send film to a college coach at any time, in any year — the restrictions apply to what coaches may send back — and no rule ever requires you to pay a third party to be seen. Confirm current dead periods and contact dates for your sport at the NCAA and your target schools' compliance pages before you plan a visit.

• Chasing one division level instead of building a realistic 25-school list.
• Highlight reels with no jersey identification, no dates, and no full-game backup.
• Numbers no one can source — a 40 time with no event, no date, no timer.
• Letting a parent write the coach emails. Coaches recruit athletes who communicate.
• Ignoring academics until junior year, when the GPA is already mostly set.

Put this into practice in a locker you control: create your athlete profile. More guides — coach email templates, highlight-video standards, NCAA eligibility and a parent guide — publish during the pilot.