Watching your son or daughter develop into a serious athlete with college potential can be one of the most rewarding and memorable times of your life. At the same time, it can be very stressful if you don't know how to help them attain their goal to play at the college level. Unless you have been through the college sports recruiting process before, most parents don't know where to begin. Time and time again, we hear parents say that they wish they had started the recruiting process sooner.

So where and when do you begin? What are the steps you need to take to help your son or daughter get recruited? What should you avoid?

The first thing you need to understand is that college coaches recruit on the basis of athletic ability and academic performance. Therefore, it is imperative your son or daughter positions themselves to be recruited by taking a serious approach to their school work and by training to meet the standards of college athletes. A student athlete with a 3.5 GPA will have far more opportunities than a student athlete with a 2.5 GPA.

Unless your son or daughter is a nationally ranked athlete, you will have to aggressively market them to college coaches. There are just too many athletes competing for a limited amount of freshman roster spots. From a college coach's perspective, it's a buyer's market.

Beware of "silver bullets" or anyone telling you they can get your son or daughter recruited. There are no silver bullets, including GetMyNameOut. We're an effective tool to help promote your athlete guide you through the process. Getting recruited to play college athletics requires a commitment from both the athlete and parent. In the end, it comes down to their performance on the field and in the classroom that will generate offers.

Join GetMyNameOut today. Our free membership will give you resources to help develop a plan of action for college recruiting while a paid membership ($299) will provide you all the tools necessary to give your athlete national exposure to college coaches.

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