TOOLS

To successfully utilize this information, you will need certain equipment. 

First, you will need a computer with access to the internet. Virtually everything you do with regard to the recruitment process will use a computer and the internet.  Specifically, you will be doing extensive research through college websites.  In addition, most of your communication with coaches will be done by email.  Lastly, there are a number of things that your player will register for, and that can be done easily on line. 

Second, you will need an email program with a spell checker.  The approach that this book advocates means that you will be sending emails to college coaches at least one to two times a month, sometimes more.  Accordingly, you will need a reliable email program.  As will be discussed below, all communication is to come from your player and not you.  I suggest that you create an email identity for your player in manner that when the coach receives an email it is coming from her and not you.  If your internet service allows you to have multiple email addresses you can simply create one through it and use your regular email program, after it is configured for the new email address.  If your internet provider does not offer multiple email mailboxes, then you can still accomplish the same thing without changing services. 

There are a number of free web-based email programs that would allow you to create an email address for your player.  The two that I am most familiar with can be obtained at www.hotmail.com and www.yahoo.com.  Once you get the new email account, I suggest that you configure one of your existing email programs to accept and send mail from it.  This would save you the trouble of having to go the website to retrieve the mail.  In addition, a regular email program usually offers more and easier functions, such as an address book and a spell checker.  I have heard of players using "inappropriate" email addresses.  Email addresses would be best to use the player's name, such as JaneDoe@hotmail.com.  Email addresses should refrain from sounding to sexy or too cutesy.  In addition, regardless of the email address, most email programs allow the sender to have a "user" name that appears instead of the email address.  This should be the player's name. 

There are a number of excellent email programs on the market and I cannot say that any one is better than any other one.  However, if you are using a web based email account, then I am recommending Windows Live.  This is a free email program that can be downloaded from the net.  This has all of the features that you will need to use this system properly. The combination of Windows Live and a web-based email account, such as Hotmail, allows emails to be downloaded to multiple computers at the same time.  You will find that this is a convenient function if you have multiple computers.  

IMPORTANT TIP:  Always remember that the coaches are employees of colleges and universities and must be considered educators.  Spelling and grammar should be perfect.  Everything you say and write will leave an impression.  Even if the coaches do not view themselves as teachers, they will not be interested in players who they think will not be successful students.  This is not football or basketball.  The school does not stand to make millions of dollars from your player’s participation in the program.  The student part of the student-athlete equation is important.  Letters and emails riddled with spelling and grammatical mistakes will not send the right message to any coach.

Third, you will need a scanner and/or digital camera.  At various times you will be sending pictures as attachments to your emails.  They must be in a digital format.  You can either create them in a digital format with a digital camera or convert them with a scanner.  Neither the digital camera nor the scanner needs to be expensive, top of the line models with all the latest innovations.  Remember, you are using these to send digital pictures with emails and not for the purposes of printing out 35mm caliber pictures.  All that matters is that pictures have sufficient resolution to be seen.  Any inexpensive scanner or digital camera will do.  If you choose to not invest in either a scanner or a digital camera, you can have your regular pictures put on a cd-rom when they are developed at your local Wal-Mart for a little extra money.  You may find that that will do the trick, however in the long run, I think that you will find that digital cameras and scanners will give you better flexibility, control and options.  In addition, you may want to send things like newspaper clippings and/or report cards.  This will be done much less expensively and more easily with a scanner or digital camera.  You will find that they pay for themselves.

Fourth, you will need the ability to edit photographs.  Sometimes you want to crop or resize a picture.  This requires photo editing software.  This software will always come with the purchase of a digital camera and/or a scanner.  If you choose to not get either a scanner or a digital camera, then there are photo editing software programs available for free on the internet.    

Here are some sites where one or more programs can be downloaded for free:

http://www.vicman.net/vcwphoto/index.htm

http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/serif/ph/ph5/index.asp

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Search/photo_editing.html

http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/imageediting/tp/freephotoedw.htm 

There are hundreds if not thousands of others and I am not recommending any one over the others.  For this purposes, all you need is a basic photo editing package that will allow you to crop and/or resize your pictures before you email them to coaches.  Try some out and decide what is easiest for you to use.  However, before you download anything, check to see if your computer already has photo editing software.  Sometimes it is bundled with other software like Microsoft Word.