PARENTS in the Recruiting Process (Social Media)
Parent's Accounts are JUST AS IMPORTANT if not MORE IMPORTANT when it comes to college coaches recruiting student-athletes.
Everyone talks about how important it is for student-athletes to have clean and good social media accounts to market themselves. Few are talking about parents accounts.
Parent's social media accounts can get great student-athletes names crossed off the list. You may be wondering... HOW?
As parents, you are teaching your student-athletes what is right from wrong which will ultimately create the student-athletes core values. They will take these values with them when they go to college and as many current and former college coaches know, having parents who engage in this drama could mean losing your job.
So, when college coaches have interest in a student-athlete, many times they will go to the parents social media pages to see what they are posting. Is it positive? Is it negative? What are they saying about other people? What are saying on other pages?
When parents think it is okay to post negatively about others on social media, they are telling the kid's that it is okay to mimic this behavior and that it is "normal". That behavior will follow the student-athlete when they get on a college campus and the parent will more than likely continue to post negativity and speak negativity about others to the student-athlete.
The same goes for organizations and coaches who create "drama" on social media. You are telling the parents and student-athletes it is okay to engage in this type of behavior. Do college coaches want student-athletes in their program who have experienced a ton of "drama" and think its normal? No, because they could bring this behavior into their program.
Does your organization have a standard not only for the student-athletes on social media but for the parents? I would love to hear your thoughts!
Rachel Coleman
Owner of softballrecruiting.com
Former DI Coach
Learn more about the recruiting process at: www.softballrecruiting.com