Your Recruiting Tape is Awful
So let's fix it.
Years ago back in the old times of CD’s and Roms and physical media, I was an assistant coach at a small state school in my homeland.
And I murdered many dreams in that small office in the mountains sorting through the recruiting mail.
Yes, before email and YouTube back in the darkest of ages, when dirt was but a drooling toddler, there were crude highlight/recruiting tapes sent by snail mail. And man, I have to tell you…if you think recruiting tapes are bad today…you should have seen this stuff.
Camerawork? I’ve seen better transitions in combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell menus. Music? 84% “Eye of the Tiger” and 16% “Generic EDM”. One tape had a kid talking directly to the camera reading off of a piece of paper right next to the lens. The pain. The horror. Then he announced that he was going to run the 40-yard dash and sprinted towards a tree in the distance. After he reached it, a hand came up into the front of the frame holding a stopwatch that read “4.9”. I fell out of my chair laughing. The kid almost fell with his second step and was running up a hill.
What’s the point of this story?
Highlight tapes aren’t much better now. But somehow, the filming is more cinematic and as such - less realistic. Style is clearly valued over substance. Which is fine - as long as you have all of your bases covered elsewhere. So, I’m here to help you guys out.
These are the Do’s and Don’t’s for creating an impressive recruiting tape.
Make sure your number is easily visible/you are easily identifiable
It is shocking how many players just assume the coach will know which number they are without any spotlight or zoom. Actually, don’t use the Zoom. Ever. It distorts EVERYTHING. It may look like a cool edit when a pro cuts a highlight and does the racked focus into the celly, but listen - it’s just impractical. A good angle that sacrifices visual flair for acuity is always preferred.
Do NOT Narrate the Tape
This is not your Tik Tok. However charismatic you think you are at 16-18 years old please subtract 50% of that perception. Now, some of you may totally ignore this rule because you’re class president or got an A in your speech class or something. I’m here to tell you that you cannot trust those ego boosts. They’re not real. You’re only funny in French class and to your mom. And please don’t let your parents narrate it either. That’s even worse.
Make sure the tape has real gameplay footage
The coaches will know if you’re playing against tomato cans. They just will. It takes 20 seconds to find out that you’re playing against the worst team in the state. This is a delicate balance to achieve. You want maximum sauciness but sauce by itself is gross. You need some substance, some pasta, to make the meal work. Don’t do an entire tape of your goals. Show your assists; your hustle plays. Your riding - sprinting to the box or back to the hole. Start the highlight ten seconds before you think you should. The Macro-situational coaches will really enjoy that. They’re sick in the head.
Put all necessary information at the beginning AND end of the tape
What is the necessary information? So glad that you asked. Name, Position, Team, High school graduation year, email, phone number, and (hopefully) GPA. If you’re worried about that info getting intot he wrong hands just make the video private. Do not put a long block of text at the end about how much you want to go to their school and blah blah blah. I’m here to tell you - they don’t care. They want to see if you can ball and if they can get you into the school.
If you’re going to put music to it, make sure it doesn’t suck
No one likes mumble rap. Stop using that trash. It’s recycled beats on top of autotuned nonsense. No, no - don’t get up. Stay on my lawn. This isn’t an age thing, I’m objectively right. Nod to indicate that you agree. Very well. You know what would be great? If you brought back beat-based transitions and drops. I know that’s not supposed to be cool anymore, but it is. How about this - tailor the music to the coach. Are you sending the tape to an old head? Throw some Van Halen or Led Zeppelin or any of the other t-shirts that you wear to bands you didn’t listen to. Mix it up. Send Tufts a DMX remix. Send Utah Death Metal. They will appreciate the variety.
(Probably.)
Pick a good videographer to create your reel
Now, some of you reading this are fuming because you’re one of those young videographers that shoots amazing footage and takes two months to produce a five-minute recruiting video. Don’t get me wrong, the video is incredible, but time is of all essence. It’s the only infinity stone that matters. You KNOW that now. Get the hard edit done first. Please. Time is why you don’t have more assignments or clients. I say this to help; not talk down to. I can’t make a video. I tried it more than once with all sorts of software, failed miserably, and I literally have a film minor and made a documentary once where I faked my own death. College was awesome. Anyway, just trying to help. You’re the key to all of this working. Film editors are the only editors that I think are necessary. Audiovisual mediums require copious amounts of attention and this project, in particular, helps advance a young (wo)man’s future. Take it seriously.
This is a hard process for everyone involved. Players, coaches, parents - you’re all going to be stressed about this. But you need a good highlight to get recruited in some places. It’s less important to the upper echelon guys who are committing as juniors right now, but for every one of those announcements, there are hundreds of other players that fall short and need to find the right school for them. A good tape gets you noticed. Getting noticed gets you on the radar. Getting on the radar gets you into a better school. And what is lacrosse if not a tool to get into a school you absolutely have no business going to?
Exactly.