(Part 1 in a two-part series)
Broken Recruiting: Your GPA Matters in More Ways Than You Think
When approaching this subject I always enjoy asking one question first: What does the term GPA mean to you? More importantly, what is the first thing that comes to mind when GPA is mentioned? It’s a simple answer for most that can become increasingly complex if thought about on a deeper level.
Initially most students say, “I think about grades.” Students should dig past their initial responses, think beyond the obvious answer. What else can a GPA mean?
Think Like a Coach 
At the same time I’m asking these GPA questions I attempt to instill a concept that is a huge key in the recruiting process. It’s called, “Think Like a Coach”. A student-athlete who can think like a coach can deliver the results a coach is expecting and put themselves on another tier.
GPA–as most people know–stands for grade point average.
Any coach in the country can make some generalizations about a student-athlete based on their GPA alone that goes far beyond their performance in the classroom. What I am referring to is the direct connection a student-athlete’s GPA has with their character, the type of person they are.
Grades Equal Character
This might be a little confusing to think of at first, but coaches make generalizations quite often solely based on a student-athlete’s GPA. They can use grades to decide if this is a student-athlete worth taking a deeper look at.
Why is this? It’s because they are automatically answering their own questions based on the student-athlete’s ability to be successful in the high school ranks. They are asking themselves if they can see this particular athlete as a leader on their team some time in the future, a good teammate, someone who possesses the maturity to handle college athletics.
GPA Can Facilitate Recruiting or Stop It
Coaches wonder if the student-athlete will be able to handle the college work load. Will a student-athlete fit in both academically and athletically, can a coach see himself around this student-athlete for a 4-5 year period? Does this athlete represent what their college or university stands for? It can be scary for a student-athlete to think that all of these questions can be answered or at least give insight into that student-athlete who has a 3.4 or 2.7 or 4.2 GPA.
As a student athlete, you would like all of these questions to be answered in a positive way and a good GPA could secure that for you. As the GPA starts to slip the questions become harder to clearly answer, they become cloudier, as does your future with that program.
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