If you have decided you want to go the Junior College route, fantastic! It is a great option many football players take. Players like you, can complete your first two years of college and get a 2 year degree. After, you can transfer to play for a 4 year school on scholarship. Let’s not overlook the fact that Junior College is very competitive and filled with players aspiring to move onto play D1 football. Additionally, players also use this opportunity to transfer to other divisions such as the NCAA D2, D3 and NAIA. NCAA D1 and D2 coaches put serious time into recruiting and evaluating Junior College players, so you can be confident knowing that going the college football route is a good option for you. Going to a Junior College will give you a great opportunity to further improve on your athletic abilities as well as your academics. You will have an extra 2 years to build on your size, skills and athleticism. You will play against a good level of competition, you will get much better and, you will also receive high level coaching and learn what it takes to play college football.
Getting Your Information Organized for Junior College Coaches
The first step in getting yourself recruited to play for a Junior College is to get yourself organized. You need to have a football profile together. Your player profile needs to have all the information a Junior College coach is going to want to see. Make sure you include your full name, graduation year, position you play, height, weight, stats, your email/cell, your Head Coaches contact info and a video of all your most recent high school football highlights. If you want to include things like football achievements and one rep max etc. this is fine, but make sure you have what is needed to prove they are legit. Junior College football coaches have a lot of players interested in playing for their program, so you will want to make sure that your information is clear, concise and makes a lasting impression (for all the right reasons!).
TIP: Leave out the background music in your video. Junior College football coaches prefer players to have no music while watching videos. This will also save you time and effort that is not needed.
Update Your Video Before Sending it to Junior College Coaches
If you still have some film laying around from one of your last senior games or a football showcase or camp or combine you attended, get on it, and update your video! You need to make sure you have all your most recent highlights together before you send it out to a Junior College coach. This is your first impression to the coach. You want to really catch their attention. You can do this by having a well thought out and well put together highlight video. Make sure you select your very best highlights so the JUCO coach has a clear understanding of your talent and abilities. Make sure you keep your highlight video between 3-5 mins. Don’t make it too long. Your video should include your best 25 plays.
Creating a great football video provides you with an opportunity to get on a coach’s radar. It can really demonstrate your athleticism and technical abilities to the coach. If the coach likes what they see in your video, they might request full game footage or more clips so be aware of this and have them ready on-hand. In regards to most positions, college coaches are looking for full-speed, full-padded, game film. For Punters and kickers, you should include mostly skills footage which shows off your specific skill set on an open field.
How to Contact Junior College Coaches
Football Coaches need to see you play to be interested in you. You also want to make sure you are utilizing your time. They way to utilize your time when contacting Junior College coaches is to make sure they are still recruiting and have not completed their roster for the season. You also want to focus in on Junior College coaches who are still recruiting your position. Don’t spend your time contacting JUCO coaches who are recruiting a quarter back if you are an offensive lineman! When you have identified the Junior Colleges that are recruiting your position, you should send them your player profile and video so they can evaluate you.
Can I Get a Scholarship to Junior College?
Yes you can, but not all Junior Colleges offer the same deal. Some Junior Colleges offer full scholarships, some Junior Colleges offer partial scholarships and other Junior Colleges offer no scholarships. Junior Colleges who are competing in either D1 or D3 division have to follow certain guidelines established by the NJCAA. Junior Colleges who play D1 can give players full scholarships (tuition, books, fees, room & board, up to $250 in course required supplies, and transportation costs one time per academic year to and from the college by direct route). However, they do have a limit on how many can be given out. Junior Colleges who play D3 cannot give athletic scholarships.
NOTE: Just because a Junior College plays in D1 doesn’t mean they necessarily offer full or partial scholarships. It is up to the school whether they want to give scholarships or not.
What are the Different Divisions of Junior College?
There are two different divisions in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), commonly referred to as “JUCO” plus, the state of California who have their own division (the CCCAA). These are:
Talking to Junior College Coaches Who Are Interested in You
When a JUCO football coach is interested in you, the first step is to have a conversation with the coach. We recommend making a full list of questions you want to ask the coach about their football program and the school before getting on a call. This helps because it is easy to forget a question when you are in mid-conversation with a football coach. This way, you can make sure you get all your questions answered at the same time. It can also be helpful to take notes, so have a pen and paper with you. Listen carefully to what the coach has to say about the football program, and the details about the role they have envisioned for you at the JUCO.
You can review your notes later to help you make your decision on which school to attend. If you like what you hear, and think that a particular JUCO could be a good fit for you, the next step is to visit the campus! It’s always an eye opening experience to visit a JUCO campus because you can’t really know what it is going to be like until you have physically been there. By visiting a campus you get to see the area it is located in, what type of facilities they have available to you and you also get to meet the football coaching staff who you will be playing for in person. All this information is vital for you to make the right JUCO choice.