46 The Sports Scholarships Insider’s Guide
make disciplined choices for themselves that may interfere with
having fun and hanging out with friends or ingesting illegal
substances. Arrests and dumb stunts on YouTube or Facebook
are championship stupid! They can destroy your future. Others
refuse to let their sport or their education interfere with their
social life. If this describes you, you will fail. You must reorder
your priorities!
Doesn’t it make sense to be well prepared for the rest of
your life? If it was easy, everyone would be recruited. It’s not
easy. And too few are. So be prepared to be tough on yourself.
Almost everyone has a will to win. As a track coach, I noticed
that every competitor has heart during the last ten meters of
the race. Too many athletes call upon their will to win only
at the instant of competition. Winners have the will to pre-
pare to compete. Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the
Green Bay Packers, said that the will to prepare was more valu-
able to individual success than the will to win.
If anyone tells you the recruiting process will be easy, they
are mistaken. As you will discover, it is fundamentally unfair.
The truth is that you’re entering a high stakes contest where only
the competition knows the rules. You’ll also learn that every
effort you make will generate substantial benefits.
You now have an opportunity to do what very few young
people do: take control of your future. If you hold tightly to
your goals and use the suggestions to follow, you can obtain
what you want.