It turns out there are two kinds of athletes. Those that want to look good, and those that want to be good. Those two words, “looking” vs. “being” drastically changes the perspective that an athlete has on self and their performance. When considering college recruitment, a student-athlete must be honest with themselves, which of these two are they. The answer will significantly impact what environment best suits them.

Looking Good

Athletes who want to look good enjoy competition because of the satisfaction that comes with success. All athletes want to win for example, but there is a difference between having “the will to win, and the will to prepare to win” as Vince Lombardi so eloquently stated. The will to prepare to win is something that you must be compelled to do, because most of the time you just won’t feel like it. In track and field, the athlete who wants to look good would be more concerned with whether they won their “heat” than their overall placement at the meet. These athletes are also liable to quit when they reach a level of competition where they no longer can “look good” without making major sacrifices, especially if there is no promise that they will ever “look as good” as they may desire. Looking good is a matter of perspective.

To describe my high school athletic career as a “looking good” athlete, it would sound something like this:

Basketball

“Throughout my youth I was a dedicated basketball player. I competed on numerous teams and leagues before beginning my high school career. Although I was a 2-year varsity letter winner in basketball I likely could have been 3 under different circumstances. At one of the most competitive private basketball schools in the city we won a private school state championship my junior season, and my Senior year I represented my high school at the private school basketball showcase for the most talented Senior players.”

Track & Field

“As a track and field athlete I started the sport as a sophomore in high school and immediately distinguished myself as one of the top ten 100-meter sprinters in my Section/Region of New York State. Within a year I had won an individual league championship and held two school records. By the end of my Senior year I had garnered three school records, three individual league championships, had medaled three times individually at the sectional level, and had qualified for the New York State Championships.”

The problem with these narrative by themselves, is that they would only partially tell the truth about who I was as a high school athlete. It feels very good to look back on your successes but when you overlook your failures in order to celebrate success, you begin to distort your view of self. It is natural for us to fear failure, even avoid circumstances that promote it. Look good athletes will tend to edit away their failures in their minds, so much so that to them it is as if they never happened. But as an athlete, wins and losses, are a part of the game. When being recruited, it is important to look at the entire picture, because trust me, the coaches who are recruiting will be!

Being Good

Athletes who want to “be good” are preoccupied with being the absolute best they can be. They are aware of what high level success looks like and are willing to evaluate themselves against that supreme metric. I remember asking a younger college teammate of mine, “do you know how to qualify for the National Championship?” He legitimately had no concept of how an event specific athlete would qualify for the NCAA Championship meet in Division 1. It is no wonder why as talented as he was, he never experienced the highest levels of achievement. Ultimately one learns that success is not an accidental phenomenon.

Athletes who want to be good will ask the hard questions. They acknowledge their losses, primarily because they can be the gateway to many future victories. If they don’t get the playing time, they feel they deserve, or lose a competition, they try to figure out why. And they look towards the best at their craft for clues on how they too can make it to the top.

The experience of being good is daunting. It metaphorically feels like trying to climb Mount Everest with numerous peaks along the way to the summit. The climb to the top is what they fall in love with, while acknowledging they may never actually reach the top of the mountain. In the NCAA there can only be one National Champion. Inevitably all other teams and athletes fortunate enough to see the postseason will at some point end their season with a loss. When your career is over and one has no more collegiate eligibility, it is as if the time clock for the climb has timed out, and you finally get to stop climbing. Then, and only then is one truly able to celebrate the victories they had along the way. Even if you did not make it to the top of the competitive mountain, you can look down from whichever peak you are at and appreciate how far you have come, and even the other “climbers” you may have encountered along the way.

To describe my high school career as a “being good” athlete, it might sound something like this:

Basketball

“As a high school basketball player, I competed for two seasons at the varsity level. My Junior season I played on the back of the rotation for a team that beat a Top 25 ranked state opponent and finished within the top 60 of a state with more than 1000 schools. The team won a private school divisional championship though not the highest competitive classification. I was fortunate enough to play against three future Division 1 players at the league competition level, and several more competitive Division 3 players. As a Senior I started most of my team’s games with mixed degrees of success for a program that lost more games than we won. However, we did make the finals of an early season tipoff tournament, and later beat the eventual divisional champions in a neutral sight competition before ending our season. The team did not finish the year ranked in the top 200 of the state of New York.”

Track & Field

“Throughout three years of high school track and field I only competed in the outdoor season, foregoing indoor. I was a multiple time league champion, albeit in a talent pool that only amounted to about 3500 high school students across 8 schools. I did not have success in Invitational competitions, not coming close to making the finals in my events against other distinguished high school athletes. I barely qualified for the New York State Championship out of one of the least competitive Sections/Regions of the state. I was ranked just inside the top 35 Senior 100-meter runners in New York upon graduation, not typically expected to be a Division 1 recruit. I was not First Team or Second Team National Elite ranked as is typical for most Division 1 recruits. However, I was a successful student academically, making me an eligible candidate for small conference academic institutions that often did not give significant athletic aid.”

What matters most is that upon my graduation from high school I was still a “look good” athlete. I did not necessarily understand the realities of who I really was in the eyes of a college recruiter. It is not negative to look at the entire picture, but essential to better understand who I was as a member of a larger athletic world. It is possible that one might consider the aforementioned “being good” description as pessimistic”. But it is also important to note that college coaches do not recruit athletes typically for who they already are, but rather what they will become at the next level. I may not have been ready to win the National Championship, but I was a raw talented athlete who had experienced a taste of winning and convinced the Sprints coach at Lafayette College that I had what it took to grow into becoming a valuable member of a conference championship team. I improved substantially in college although not quite to an… NCAA championship level. The only person that was really surprised by how my career unfolded was myself, because the coaches at Lafayette were much more aware of my potential, and perhaps even my limitations.

This excerpt is taken from the book “Winning the Ship: How to Win the College Athlete Recruitment Game”

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