If you love basketball, most likely you want to play beyond high school. Here are four key steps you can take to improve your college basketball scholarship options.

1. Do your homework. Research ahead of time what area of the country you’d like to live in, enrollment sizes, urban vs. rural, private vs. public, the majors you are interested in, and be honest about what divisions in which you can potentially compete. NCAA Division 1 is definitely the most competitive; NCAA Division 2 and some high level NAIA Division 1 schools are comparable, and NCAA Division 3 and lower level NAIA schools are very similar. Every school has a different balance of athletics, academics, on-campus social life, and local attractions. It is important for you to have at least a general idea of “your perfect college.” Once you’ve established some parameters, find all the schools that fit your description. This is your foundation.

2. Create your personal profile. There are a lot of recruiting agencies and companies that can do this for you, but it’s not really necessary to have them put it together. Coaches see so many profiles that they tend to blur together anyway. You want to be organized and professional, but you can do this by putting together an athletic/academic resume on your own, or with the help of your school college counselor. Be sure to include: your name, contact information, GPA, SAT/ACT scores, community involvement, academic honors, athletic honors, years of basketball experience, kinds of experiences, positions played, height, weight, standing reach, basketball stats and any other athletic info you have available.

3. Have film available. Don’t only have a highlight reel with you draining shots or making stops. Coaches want to see your full game. They want a full accurate assessment of your skills.

4. Make the effort in the details. Communicate to the coaches what you are looking for in a college: kind of playing style and goals for your basketball career, also what major and vocational career you’re interested in pursuing. Say things like, “I am definitely interested in the Journalism emphasis in your Communications department,” and “My beliefs match up well with the doctrinal statements at your school,” and “I’m really looking to become actively involved with (name a variety of the programs you found that the school has).” You want to communicate that you will be a good fit for their school and their basketball program. Be professional, but be approachable; make sure all grammar and punctuation is correct, and include contact information for your parents, coaches, high school counselors, and yourself. Communicate that you would like to talk with them over the phone and eventually visit the school to meet the team and tryout. Yes, college visits can get expensive. But after your initial contact with coaches, you can begin to narrow down your top choices to two or three schools. You really do need to visit all of these schools, meet the basketball teams, observe the coach’s style, stay in the dorms, and sit in on classes. A website cannot do justice to the actual feeling you experience while on campus.

Your mindset is a crucial key to your basketball success. Your mindset, as well as your parents’ mindset, dramatically influences each other. Your mindset not only affects you but also affects everyone around you.

Consider these two different basketball stories.

A father who was a former college athlete had a son who loved basketball. This son wanted to devote time to becoming a talented player. His dad signed him up to play for a reputable coach in his city. At first, all was well. As the season continued, however, the son began to get less and less playing time. His son would come home and sob in his father’s arms feeling as if his dreams were being crushed. Something began to burn inside this father’s heart; deep anger would seize him every time he saw this man, he could hardly be civil, he hated to attend games, he desired to criticize this man to anyone and everyone.

The father’s friends confronted him and told him to change but he would not listen. Eventually, a confrontation between the coach and dad arose. After a game, the father screamed at the coach and even slightly shoved him. This father was a pastor. Away from the drama, he began to honestly access his own character and felt ashamed. He met with the coach and asked for forgiveness for all the ways he mistreated him.

Today, the coach and the father are reconciled, and their friendship is a testament to courage, humility, and willingness to make things right after going wrong.

Time Out

As you read this story, can you imagine yourself in the role of each character? — The father, the coach, the son, the friends. How does pain affect your character? Research shows the fear of thwarted dreams can cause the greatest feelings of despair and rage.

What we tell ourselves in our minds affects our character. Look at this father’s thought pattern:

• This coach is terrible
• My son is better than some of the kids playing ahead of him
• His future is being destroyed
• I can’t do anything but sit here
• This year is a waste and is ruining my son

Blame, rage, frustration, and bitterness narrow options and shut down potential growth as well as reveal character qualities of fear, impotence, and victimhood.

Here is a much different narrative.
A former college player had a son who loved basketball. His son started getting less and less playing time. The son started to come home discouraged. The father called a meeting with his son and asked if he wanted to change the situation. The son agreed to follow through with what his father recommended.

“First thing you need to do,” the father said, “Is to write down what you are thankful for about your coach and your teammates. Put that where you can see it every day. Next, identify two or three weak areas you are going to attack daily.” The father helped his son find two or three areas while mapping out an additional workout plan during the season to improve those skills. Third, the father told him, “Go into practice with specific goals. Make practice your game day.” After practice, the dad would check in with his son on his goals and hold him accountable for his inner thoughts.

The father told him to change his feelings about sitting on the bench as well. “On the bench, your job is to stay totally focused on the game. Ask what you can learn to make you better. Use the bench as a tool to make you stronger, not weaker. Watch and learn what the coach values. Study the refs and become quick at discovering their preferences. Find the player you will guard and break down his game.”

As the season continued, his son became more mentally tough, and the coach began to call his number more often. With the help of his father, this young man did what is impossible to do; he maintained confidence and rose above.

Time Out

Consider the thought patterns of this story:

• I can learn from this situation
• Obstacles make me stronger
• Games do not make the player, practice does
• My coach does not define me, I define me
• The bench will be my platform to rise above
• Every person who achieves greatness must overcome great difficulty

How about you? If someone were writing your story—how would your mindset be described? Remember, “Each new day is a blank page in the diary of your life. The secret of success is in turning that diary into the best story you can.”

If you want to be one of the top high school basketball players in your state or region, here are five key goals to make.

1. Be willing to work hard. Can you define hard work? For a top level high school and college basketball coach, here is what hard work means. Your attitude and demeanor on the court needs to be intense, focused, aggressive and no-nonsense. Your play should include taking charges, diving on the floor for lose balls, running the floor, constant “in your face” pressure on the ball when defending, strong attack moves to the hoop which are effective.
Effective=ends with a basket.

2. Be powerful. Great high school basketball players are not pushed around. They dictate the tempo, intensity, rhythm of the game. You decide where you want to go or not go on offensive, not your opponent. On defensive, you decide where your opponent goes. You disrupt his or her game. Learn to use your body to impose your WILL both offensively and defensively.

3. Be smart and understand the system. Every coach has a system and philosophy to be successful. You need to know what he or she wants. Some teams require a point guard to have no more than 3 turnovers a game. If you take too many risks on that team as a point guard you are going to sit down. Know what the coach values. Does he or she value conservative play? Does he or she want run and gun? See the big picture and learn how to play within this system.

4. Be strong, fast and quick. These are the separators between high school athletes who will go on to the college level. One of our alum campers playing in the NBA is an amazing athlete a premier shooter, but he is getting beat on defense because his foot speed is too slow to stop a player one-on-one and even though he is 6’7″ he is not strong enough in the post. We want him to do well and encourage him to work on his strength and speed, to get a program and change his game through elevating his quickness and strength.

Be sure to meet with a physical therapist as well as a trainer because you need to know what you must do to prevent injury. Live in the weight room during the off-season.

5. Be humble and lead by example. Care for the team by being selfless and by not being concerned about your name in the paper. Do the little things well, serve others and you will be blessed.

Key Thoughts: God has given each of us natural abilities. A girl who is 6’3″ as a sophomore, really quick, long and strong may not have good skills but she will get letters from Division 1 programs. Coaches recruit body types. If you genetically do not have a Division 1 build, you have a much harder road. You have to rise above the multitude of athletes who all have the same dream. You have to find the separators: speed, strength, wisdom, leadership, shooting, passing, impeccable skills, and the WILL to work harder than your competition.