The Blueprint to Getting on Our Radar This Spring

Spring can feel like a dead period. No Friday nights, no new tape to put out, no box scores to point to.   But this is actually one of the most important windows players have.   Most players don't get found by accident. Not in a state like this. There's too many teams, too many rosters, too many guys competing for the same spots. If you're not easy to come across, it's not that people don't like your game, it's that they haven't seen it yet.   So if you want to get on our radar — and more importantly, college radars — it's pretty simple:   Make it easy to find you. Make it easy to evaluate you.   That's the single most important thing.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">We Can't Watch What We Can't Find</h2>   I take a lot of pride in covering smaller schools. That's always been really important to me.   I went to a tiny high school in New Hampshire. Smallest division in the state. Three towns feeding into one school, and my graduating class still only had 94 kids in it. So I know exactly what it feels like to be a small-school player trying to get noticed.   There are a lot of good players who don't come from big programs and don't get talked about every week. That doesn't mean they can't play. It just means they have to walk a different path.   And here's the reality players need to understand:   If it's hard for us — scouts who are only focused on Arizona and know the area well — to find you, imagine how hard it is for a college coach responsible for multiple states... Those guys are sorting through hundreds of names. Watching film late at night. Trying to quickly figure out who's worth pushing up the chain.   If your info is hard to find, you're making that harder than it needs to be. You don't need to market yourself like it's a full-time job. But you do need to help yourself.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Help Us Help You</h2>   When I start digging into a player, I'm trying to answer a few questions fast — who is this, where does he play, what class is he, and does he have updated film. If I can't answer those right away, I'm not spending an hour trying to figure it out.   Not because I don't want to find it — but because there are a lot of players to get through.   Your Twitter profile doesn't need to be anything crazy. You don't need a bunch of graphics or posts every hour. It just needs to give people what they're looking for right away:   <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>A clear name, school, and class.</li>   <li>A real position — coaches don't want to see "ATH" when they're looking for a specific position. List out your primary and secondary spots.</li>   <li>An accurate height/weight.</li>   <li>A Hudl link they can find in two seconds.</li>   <li>A way to contact your coach.</li> </ul>   If everything's right there, we'll dive straight to the film. If it's not, you're already a step behind before anyone even hits play.   And again — that's us, just working Arizona.   College coaches are doing this across multiple states, multiple classes, and multiple positions at once. They're not digging through profiles trying to figure out basic details. They're moving.   So it's really just about not putting speed bumps in front of your own film.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Your Film Should Be Easy to Watch</h2>   Your highlight tape is your first impression, so don't overthink it — just make it easy to watch and easy to understand. You don't need a long intro, a bunch of edits, or anything fancy. Put your best stuff up top, make it obvious which player you are before the snap, and let the play breathe so someone can actually see what's happening.   The goal isn't to make the coolest video. It's to make a quick, clear case for the kind of player you are. That means mixing in the stuff that actually translates — not just touchdowns or big hits. Show the reps that tell someone how you play.   If you're a DB, show real coverage snaps — not just picks. A ball not getting thrown your way because you were so good in coverage is a rep coaches want to see. If you're a WR, show releases, routes, and how you finish plays. Linemen should show real handwork, not just mismatches where you're bigger than everyone. QBs — show timing, decision-making, going through progressions, not just the deep balls.   When you're putting your highlights together, always keep in mind that you're trying to impress college coaches with this, not your friends on Monday.   <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Most Players Have to Help Themselves</h2>   This part doesn't get talked about enough, but it's the reality for most players.   The heavily recruited guys get all the attention. That's what you see online, that's what gets posted, that's what people talk about. It makes it feel like that's the normal path.   It's not.   Most players aren't getting chased. They're not waking up to offers or having coaches reach out first. If they want to play at the next level, they have to be the ones getting their own name out there.   That doesn't mean turning it into a full-time job, but it does mean doing the basic stuff the right way — sending your film out, reaching out to programs that actually fit you, keeping your grades where they need to be, and having those conversations with your high school coaches so they can help push your name when the time comes.   Everyone's heard it: “If you're good enough, they'll find you.” And yeah, sometimes that happens.   But — especially for small-school players — that's not something you can just sit back and rely on. There's too many players, too many schools, and not enough time for coaches to magically stumble across everyone.   There's almost always a program out there that would be interested in you — maybe not the one you grew up watching, but a real opportunity. They just haven't found you yet.   You don't control everything in recruiting. Nobody does. But you can make it a lot easier for the right coach to find you — you just have to put in the effort.

Spring can feel like a dead period. No Friday nights, no new tape to put out, no box scores to point to.