Almost all colleges and universities have intercollegiate and recreational athletic programs. Many colleges recruit student-athletes for intercollegiate teams. Some offer generous athletic scholarships.

If you are a serious high school athlete (or the parent of one) who is interested in playing at the college level, it is worthwhile to learn about the NCAA (The National Collegiate Athletic Association) and its various policies and rules through which many colleges and universities govern their athletics programs.
 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

The NCAA web site is the best place to start. In addition to finding the requisite forms, you can learn the difference between Divisions I, II and III and find out about eligibility, rules, timelines  and many other topics. High school student-athletes and their parents should read the Guide for the College-Bound Student-Athletes which is available on the web site. 

College Recruiting for Athletics

Unless you are an extraordinary student-athlete, it’s unlikely that the best college opportunities will find you. If you are interested in being recruited to play at the college level, it makes sense for you to contact college coaches and/or register with one of the athletic recruiting services who can assist you.

• beRecruited.com

The nation’s largest online network for high school student-athletes seeking  to be recruited by college coaches is beRecruited.com. The site has about 250,000 registered users with athletes from more than 16,000 U.S. high schools and more than 70,000 different high school teams from across the country.  More than 100,000 high school athletes registered with beRecruited in 2008 and the site has generated more than 3 million connections between high school athletes and college coaches. beRecruited provides a platform for student athletes to connect and interact with college coaches across the nation, giving students the tools to research and build profiles of athletic and academic information, as well as providing coaches with a search-able database of potential recruits. The company was founded in 2000 by a collegiate swimmer for Duke University, in an effort to make the recruiting process more efficient for high school athletes and NCAA coaches.

• Prep Champs 

PrepChamps can help high school student athletes with tools and resources to showcase their skills and improve their exposure to college coaches. PrepChamps features an online platform to connect high school athletes with recruiting coaches.

Other Internet Sites for Athletes

• NAIA – National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
• NJAA – National Junior College Athletic Association

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