The Recruit-Me Athletic Scholarship Podcast with Brent Hanks · Brent Hanks

Epi 454 Workshop #6 with Elite Academic Academy; What is Recruit Me & a Summary of the 7 Steps to an Athletic Scholarship

·19 min·1 clip

Brent Hanks explains how a wrong-number call led to a key partnership with Elite Academic Academy for athletic scholarships.

This episode is a workshop summarizing the Recruit-Me 3.0 system for securing an athletic scholarship, hosted by CEO and recruiting expert Brent Hanks. It is the sixth installment in a series presented in partnership with the Elite Academic Academy, a California charter school. Brent Hanks is a father of two college athletes and founded the long-running Athletic Scholarship Podcast. The episode provides a comprehensive overview of the seven-step Recruit-Me 3.0 Athletic Scholarship System, which is available for $39. Step one involves selecting target schools using a parameters worksheet that considers school type, location, cost, academic majors, and sports levels like NCAA divisions. Hanks emphasizes that many families mistakenly target only NCAA Division I schools, which can lead to frustration if the athlete is not a D1 prospect. He recommends building a list that includes junior colleges, NAIA, and NCAA Division II and III programs. A key insight is that the optimal time to begin the recruiting process is at the start of high school, as a student's GPA begins then. The parameters worksheet should be filled out "early and often," even as a freshman, to guide research. Hanks suggests visiting local college campuses and using resources like NCAA.org or team schedules to discover schools. Step two is crafting a personalized introductory email to coaches, which Hanks compares to a critical first handshake in a sales interaction. Step three is creating a detailed, one-page player profile with ten sections, including athletic stats, academic information, and a photo. Hanks advises sending this profile alongside the introductory email, but tailoring the timing based on the athlete's readiness for different college levels. Step four is building a personal recruiting questionnaire to streamline future applications and stand out. Step five involves meticulously tracking all communications with coaches using tools like a spreadsheet or a dedicated planner. Step six is sending proactive, brief updates to coaches about awards, stats, or schedules. The final step is making a wise school choice by using a chart to rank schools based on net cost, athletic offer, academic fit, and coaching staff. Hanks states no school will perfectly match all parameters, but the system aims to find a satisfying fit. He shares that his company's partnership with Elite Academic Academy began accidentally after a misdirected phone call from the school's Peak Performance Lead, Andy Allison, a former Major League catcher. The tone is instructional and conversational, directly addressing student-athletes and their families with clear, step-by-step guidance. The style is that of an educational workshop, leveraging analogies from Hanks's past experience in car sales to illustrate recruiting principles. This episode is ideal for high school student-athletes and their parents seeking a structured, affordable blueprint for the college recruiting process. Listeners looking for interviews with coaches or athlete success stories might prefer other episodes in the podcast's catalog.

As heard by us

A practical recruiting workshop that widens the map beyond a narrow Division 1 chase.

Brent Hanks keeps the focus on the basics families actually have to sort through: school lists, competition levels, scholarship fit, and college options that are realistic, not just ideal.

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Why you'd press play

You need a smarter school list before you lock onto Division 1 too early.

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