Millions of high school football players are dreaming of getting college athletic scholarships this time of year. High school football players are anxious to get one of these highly prized football scholarships because they’ve heard these sports scholarships allow them to continue playing football at the college level, and they can also pay for all or part of their higher education.

Many times football student athletes and their parents get caught up in the whirlwind of college football and college recruiting without knowing what a college football scholarship really means. In fact, there are a couple of different reasons to accept a football scholarship, but the main reason should always be to get all or part of your college education paid for.

Many athletic scholarships are only partial scholarships and will pay only for a portion of your college expenses while others are full ride scholarships. These full ride football scholarships pay for all your expenses while you play football, however they typically go from year to year.

While right now you are excited about continuing to play football in college, the most important consideration of your college athletic scholarship should be that it will allow you to obtain a college degree, a higher education that will support both you and your family throughout your lifetime. It isn’t just a way of prolonging your playing career, although it does offer that advantage.

A large percentage of student football players just focus on playing football in college, hoping they will get picked up by the pros. Do these lucky gentlemen make a ton of money? You bet! However, the proven fact is, most don’t get to play pro ball.

So why not have best of both worlds? Train, condition and continue to play the game you love and at the same time get a college education. A college education will allow you to learn more about a particular field, which may be sports, or business, or medicine or who knows. Read the rest of this entry »

Families seem to be in the middle of a perfect storm as they look to send their sons and daughters to college. The stock market has wiped out a lot of the savings people thought they had; college tuition has climbed; the economy has wiped out millions of jobs; house prices have collapsed and destroyed equity; and more kids than ever want a higher education.

Maybe the promising circumstances for you is that your child plays a sport – even plays it pretty well. Sounds like you, right? You wouldn’t be reading this otherwise. So help in the form of an athletic scholarship may well be on the cards. You will need to navigate the recruiting process, and make some difficult judgments about contacting college coaches, bringing on college consultants, negotiating terms (if you are lucky enough to get that far) and all the rest of a potentially complicated process. But for those with prospects, and need, there is just no other way.

And there is no question that a sports scholarship can help pay for that college education. It may not be a full ride – but any contribution would be welcomed by most of us. The challenge for parents though, especially those new to the college recruiting process, is to navigate the unfamiliar terrain in a race where the stakes could not be higher. Hey, it’s only your child’s education!

Jennifer Noonan of College Sports Quest has been counseling high school athletes in Southern California for around 10 years and has advised over 500 families in that time. She warns against leaving everything to the student. It is just too important for the athlete not to have the full backing of the family.

And as Jennifer Noonan she sees it, there are five common misconceptions when it comes to college recruiting and sports scholarships. Read the rest of this entry »