66 The Sports Scholarships Insider’s Guide
The answers to these questions can provide a frame of refer-
ence for you as you decide which coaches to send your profile
to. That’s right—you send your profile to a specific coach of
your sport at the college receiving your profile.
Use the list in the last section of the book to locate the
information you need. If you use the foregoing suggestions,
you should receive an excellent response; that is, unless you
send profiles to only Division I programs. Then you can antici-
pate only limited responses.
The truth is that unless you are one of the elite “blue chip”
prospects in your sport, virtually all Division I programs will
ignore you because less than 1 percent of high school pros-
pects are recognized as “blue chip” athletes. Rarely does a non-
“blue chip” athlete get to choose which school he will attend,
unless as a walk-on. Division I programs pick which students
will be attending that school. It’s likely that you purchased
this book because you recognize that you need help realizing
your athletic dreams, so I’m confident that you’ve decided
that, while you’re qualified athletically and academically to
participate and contribute to a college program, you’re not in
that 1 percent that gets to choose the school they’ll attend.
Like I warned, the truth often has a hard edge.
“Walk-On” harsh Reality
You may, however, be offered an invited or preferred—
meaning the coach prefers to give the “athletic grant” to
another prospect—“walk-on” status, perhaps with an induce-
ment that if you do well your freshman year that you might
get a scholarship the following year.
In most cases the reality is that “walk-on” status in Division
I usually means you will get to practice your sport for four years.