Aug 162011
 

Learning how to get an athletic scholarship may be an important step in funding your college education if you’re an athlete. It can also be a way for you to compete in college and meet new people. Plus, athletes helps you to stay motivated and keep your body in shape. There are plenty of ways you can apply and receive an athletic scholarship. The more steams of them that you explore, the better your chances will be.

First Steps in How to get Athletic Scholarships

First, it is important to point out that you don’t want to just sit around and wait. There aren’t enough scouts to go around, and you could easily be overlooked. If you are planning to attend a Division I, II, or II school, NAIA, or NJCAA then you should apply immediately for such scholarships. Just make sure you do a great job with all of this so that your application doesn’t get ignored.

There are athletic scholarships to such schools that are offered all the time. In many cases, the schools themselves are allocated a set amount of money. Then it is up to them to figure out who they would like to disburse it to and for which sports. If you already have particular colleges in mind, contact them. Talk to their Athletic Director to find out what the application process entails.

How to Get an Athletic Scholarship with Community Colleges

If you will be going to a community college, don’t overlook the chances of getting an athletic scholarship. Talk to them directly to see what they can offer. This is a great opportunity if you love sports and for you to remain close to home as you can get some of your college courses out of the way. You can also build up your skills in a sport and use them to help you get a sports scholarship to the college you are transferring to.

Most of the athletic scholarships out there are partial. This means they only pay for a portion of your schooling and you must find a way to pay the rest. A select few of them are full scholarships, but don’t think you can count on a full athletic scholarship paying for your college. It is a good idea to have decent grades so you can get an academic scholarship as well. Even if you only get a partial athletic scholarship though, the funding can still add up.

Research the Sports Program when Getting Athletic Scholarships

Make sure you carefully evaluate the sport at a given college that you are thinking about participating in. Nothing is worse then hating the coach or the way the team operates. Yet you feel that you are subjected to sticking to it so that you can have funds to pay for college. This is a sentence where you are miserable and you feel chained down so the experience isn’t one that is enjoyable at all.

Contact Coaches before you Get an Athletic Scholarship

Don’t be shy about contacting coaches of various sports at particular schools. If you want to play for them, then tell them. They can’t reach out to all of the talent out there that they don’t know about. Write a letter that explains your positive attitude, your passion for that sport, and even some clippings from local newspapers that talk about you and your teams that you have been involved with.

Try to set up appointments with such coaches at various colleges too. This gives you the chance to interact with them on a personal level. See if you can be around for a practice session too. This gives you the opportunity to meet players on the team, to observe team moral, and to see those particular coaches in action.

Don’t get discouraged either when it comes to athletic college scholarships. They aren’t always so easy to get. Yet if you are a good athlete and you have a desire to play in college, this is certainly worth checking out. As you learn how to get an athletic scholarship, you will also find many of them are renewable. As long as you continue to play and you are making academic progress, those funds will be there the following year.

Bring references of past coaches with contact information and letters from them too. Sounds simple but is the most effective thing you can do. Coaches love talking to other coaches and they will find out more about you in five minutes on the phone then any other method you could use when getting an athletic scholarship for college.

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