Fallon Center for Youth Sports: College Planning & Recruiting Help
The Fallon Sports and the College Planning Center have been working together since 1996 to help students-athletes and their families find their way to the next level. The experience and results are unmatched in Arizona and throughout the southwest. Finding a college is easy, finding the perfect college requires experience.
We encourage students to become accountable for their own actions while guiding them to the perfect match college.
We help to create a roadmap for students-athletes in high school as they navigate their way through high school. We serve as a resource and realistic evaluator to students and their families.
The Process
Step I:
Student completes the Application for Success.
Step II:
Jeff meets, on phone or face to face, with the student and parents to discuss objectives, goals and establish a timeline. Begin preliminary stages of college plan specifically suited for student.
Step III:
Jeff analyzes student's information and creates student plan that includes their “Student Plan for Success” (SPFS), an outline, timeline, an expectation and goals list, financial aid information, college admissions information, NCAA information, recruiting information, contact worksheets, personalized letters to coaches, and much, much more. The SPFS is provided as a resource for the student and their family and is delivered in stages as prescribed by each student plan.
Step IV:
Jeff will perform a follow-up with student to review progress, determine changes necessary in SPFS and answer questions on more one-on-one level.
Step V:
Jeff becomes available as a resource to family and a valuable member of your team.
We contact student-athlete as events take place (workouts for coaches, skills taping, etc)
WHAT IS THE STUDENT PLAN FOR SUCCESS?
A complete list of colleges suited for each student. We spend countless hours each week communicating with college coaches and admissions personnel on what their specific needs are for that year. We use this information with the academic and athletic reality of the student, to form the perfect college list.
The student contacts the colleges and we follow up with the colleges as needed to provide support and serve as an honest evaluator for the colleges.
Programs/Fees:
The College Planning Center Membership (Grades 10-12) $395 Set Up Fee- $25/month
• Group Workshops
• Student Plan for Success (SPFS)
• Two Private Consultations (per year)
• Email guidance.
• Discounts on events.
• Student listed in program and evaluations distributed to colleges weekly.
COLLEGE PLANNING COACHING
• Additional Private College Planning Consultations $50/session
Please call to schedule your private consultation (623) 236-5796
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I have been involved in the collegiate recruiting process long before I even knew I was. As a matter of fact, when I was in high school I did not realize there was such a thing as a "collegiate recruiting process." Like my friends, I thought that because I was good enough, eventually “they” would find me.
Twenty five years later, the process has not become any easier or understandable. As a matter of fact, the NCAA has made it much more difficult for college coaches to find qualified student-athletes, but at the same time there has never been a time where there has been more opportunities for student-athletes to compete and receive financial aid.
When I started studying and researching this process, I was amazed at the lack of truly educated people there are available on this topic. It is NOT something where you can read a book and totally understand what you need to know. I believe it takes years of hands on experiences and research to get to a point where it becomes relatively clear and even then it still can be mysterious.
Nearly every book I have read or most people I have talked to tell me the same things. “There is no information out there concerning this process!” or “It’s so confusing!” However, since the time I have started my research, I have read or at least had my hands on more than 100 quality publications on this topic and the Internet is filled with web sites and in all actuality the information IS out there. The people are out there. Unfortunately there has not been a way to harness all this information and get the right people in place to disseminate it.
If one family finds success, they seem to keep it a secret.
The obvious choice to provide this information is the local high school. As much as high school personnel want to help each child, either they are wary of outsiders who look to profit from unknowing students or just are overloaded with assisting other students. Administrators and coaches do not have the time to evaluate each flyer or brochure that comes across their desk. Most will purchase a book feeling they have done their duty to provide information on the process, but unfortunately that book sits on a shelf or when it is read, the information is old, outdated or presented in a way that the reader just can not understand it.
My goal is through years of hard work and constant reaffirmation to be considered a rock solid source to turn to regarding this process, I will leave no doubt that this is truly a passion of mine. Taking the mystery out of this process and helping student-athletes to get on the right track is one of the keys to our success.
After a confusing "college recruiting process" for me, I was fortunate enough to have found a college coach and Athletic Director who believed in me. A coach who was not afraid to take a chance on someone he trusted and believed in. An Athletic Director who offered a 23 year old college graduate a head coaching position at an NCAA member institution, making him one of the youngest head coaches in the nation. It was then that I was able to begin my journey, my career.
IMPORTANCE OF PRESTIGE
Students tend to choose one school over another simply because of its name. It is amazing what high profile publications, the media and the NCAA have done to this process. From the first day of developing a plan to the month acceptance letters arrive in their mailboxes, students are thinking about UCLA, Harvard and Duke. All great schools, but rarely would I see Grinnell, Swarthmore or Pomona on their lists. There are many reasons for this, but generally speaking the student will chose Harvard because of its prestige. UCLA because of their chances to get to the Rose Bowl and Duke the final Four? As the process develops for each student and reality sets in, it might be apparent that the child will have a much better chance of succeeding at the smaller, less known, but excellent college.
Without fail, during my consultations, I talk about these schools and I am met with disappointment or better yet, suggestions that I do not understand the child. Once I begin to explain the background of Grinnell, the difficulty in getting in and more importantly where some of their past student-athletes are now, I normally feel the tension lifts.
While I was in high school in the early 1980’s, our president was Ronald Reagan. He had a presidential challenger from the Democratic party named Gary Hart who was a strong candidate to challenge Reagan in the 1984 election. Reagan went Eureka College and Hart went to Bethany Nazarene College!
Let the Students Steer their Ship
A MESSAGE TO YOU
At the Fallon Center for Youth Sports, it is our goal that each student take a lead role in their own college planning and recruiting process. We feel when they are able to take charge of this process and direct their parents, coaches and others, it will undoubtedly lead to a successful college search.
We must remember that they need assistance from time to time and that they are in fact, still children. As parents, we need to try to create an environment where we are fostering this leadership ability, without messing up the process and over stepping our bounds. The balance is extremely delicate and we must always remember that the college search is for the students. Keeping this at the forefront is a must.
For many of you, the college plan developed by the College Planning Center is a new process in the life of your child. You have been making the majority of their decisions for them. Letting go is hard, but is necessary. Remember, this is a terrific time for them to emerge from your shadows and become young, responsible adults. They may make mistakes, but let them make them while they are still with you, as opposed to when they are not with you. When the times get tough, many parents feel they need to step in and take over for their children and make the decisions for them. This is normal; you've been doing that all their lives. When you feel this, however, sometimes the best option is to step back and let them handle it themselves. Praise them for all their efforts. This will sustain them as they go forth to begin a new life.
Chart your own course and be willing to change it.
The contents of my workbook, philosophies, and this website are based on my experiences, observations, readings, conversation with college coaches, admissions personnel, financial aid representatives and more twenty years of experience in the collegiate recruiting process. A lot of what I have to say is extremely different from the way many view this process. You do not have to agree with what I say, but ask yourself how many people that you know have seen what I have seen? How many people do you know have personally worked with more than 1000 different families specifically on the college planning of student-athletes? As I say that, its important that I caution you to be wary of the people who tell you that they “know” college coaches and boast about how they can make a call and get you a scholarship. The student-athlete is the only one who can earn a scholarship. This is very important to understand. When I was a head coach in college, I had friends and relatives ask me to take a look at students. If the student could not play we would not recruit him. Remember college coaches get paid to do a job. In many cases it is EXTREMELY important they compete and win. If they value their job and you cannot play there, they will not take you. End of story. I worry about club and high school coaches who give parents and student-athletes false hope by leading them to believe that with their connections, they’ll get them into a college. Maybe they will, but what college? Where? Does it have your course of study? Can you play there? Is there a roster spot for you? What happened to finding the perfect match and not settling? This is very troubling to me. Do I have some connections? Sure. Will those connections get you a scholarship? Of course not! Only the student can do that and DON’T EVER let anyone tell you differently, its just plain poor advice.
Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment” –Stephen R. Covey
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“You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.” Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV 4.5
From the day you graduate from college you will be expected to enter the work force as an adult. These adults spend the majority of their time working. Some people will choose careers, yet others might choose a job. What is the difference? A job is something you do for money, career is your inner desire and motivation. You want to do it, you love it, you’re excited to do it. Therefore it might be important to you that you choose a career upon graduation, instead of the job.
The process of determining a major might come easy for some, but extremely difficult for others. Here is a suggestion of where to turn for help in determining this. Using me as an example, growing up in a small New England town, I now realize there were things I enjoyed, sports and people. However, when I was choosing a major, I did what most people do, I asked around, looked in books, then randomly selected one from a college brochure. Some go to college undecided and eventually chose one because their roommate in college wanted them to have some more classes together. Are these good ideas? Probably not, especially considering our Personal Goal is to create a road map to life-long happiness, and in our case specifically ... a career.
If I had just stopped and thought about the things I enjoyed most and tried to create a road map to get there, I may have been writing my college planning workbooks years ago. Unfortunately, I was never given the information necessary until after I started college. Thankfully it was there that I had the great fortune to meet three men who changed my life dramatically. The College’s Dean of Students, Athletic Director and a top professor. They were able to relay good information to me but better yet, provide me with a vehicle to get there.
We always look for the thing that will ultimately make us rich, secure, happy and successful. Unfortunately, there are too many people getting depressed and discouraged with their lives. They keep looking outside and comparing what others have and what others are. Look inside, it is beneath our skin where we will find what success is really about.
I think, or at least I hope, we all have someone in our lives we can turn to for honest guidance on any matter. Someone who you can totally trust and know that they will always be there for you. For me these three men provided that in a time when I needed it most.
