The Answer Is Always...

If you've ever filled out a questionnaire, there is always one question that seems to stump a lot of athletes. "Jason, how should I answer this question?" Here is my answer and why I give it to parents and athletes, each time.

When it comes to filling out questions on a questionnaire, it can get kind of daunting. When they start asking for your grandparents work history, you know they are getting a little more detailed than they need to be. If you have the time and energy I would definitely encourage you to fill out the questionnaires for schools you are most interested in AND email them to let you know that you did just that. Don't spend your entire day filling out every questionnaire under the sun either. As a head coach, we stopped sending out the questionnaire to everyone that emailed us. We really tried just to focus on sending it to our top group. We needed a way to declutter all of our inboxes and that was a simple solution.

But what question are you talking about Jason?

The question will come in one of two forms:

"Is West Coast University your top choice?"

or

"What are your top 3 schools right now?"

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This is the question that tends to stump a lot of people and it should. I have often referred to this question as a "TRAP" question. It's misleading at best and mostly dishonest.

How are you supposed to respond to this question? Maybe you answer this question with the schools that are your top choice or your top 3. Either way, if you list a school that is NOT that school you're filling out the questionnaire for, it's a way for them to filter you OUT of their list. Also, say its a D1 school and your top 3 choices are all D2 schools because you have had the most response from those schools and they happen to be D2. Then the school can say, "Well she's is only being recruited by D2 schools, so we aren't interested in her!" These are all things that I have seen and heard happen to athletes going through this process.

So, how should you respond? Always and forever list the school you are filling out the questionnaire for as your top choice. If they give you 3 options and ask for your top 3, then you should answer that school for all 3 options. Now someone might tell me that is a dishonest answer. I can understand that, but the question itself is dishonest. The negative impact of potentially answering that question honestly is too dire. You shouldn't be left off of someone's recruiting list just because they are currently #4 on your list. As I said in a another blog post, more often than not you don't have a top 5 list until you get further down the recruiting process. You certainly shouldn't start with a top 5 list anyway.

It's such a general question without context. Why are these schools your top choice? Why are you filling out this questionnaire? Have you been to camps, or on a visit or been given an offer to any of these schools? Are they just schools you've seen play on TV? None of that information is asked for and so the interpretation is left up to the college coach.

I'm also okay with you leaving this question blank. That's totally fair. Just don't answer it.

By putting that school as your top choice in the questionnaire, you're at least communicating to them that you're serious about your interest and they need to come watch you play.

I've also spoken with several college coaches and have told them that the question is unfair and that they should take it off their questionnaire. It realistically isn't the metric they should be using to help decide whether or not to recruit an athlete.

Here's the best idea - communicate with them in a way that shows the coaching staff that their school is at least ONE of your top options and quite possibly be at the top of their list. Filling something out on a questionnaire will only do so much. Communicate your interest in that school to the staff specifically - Why are you interested? What is it about this school? How badly do you want to play here? Answer those questions.

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