College Athletics
Pursuing an athletic scholarship or participating in collegiate athletics is no simple task! Here are some guidelines to help you get started. As always, please feel free to contact the Guidance Department for assistance.
Visit www.ncaa.org to review the eligibility requirements. Please see Mrs. Arterburn if you have any questions about the requirements, or to obtain information about your GPA. Here are the requirements in a nutshell:
Complete 16 core courses, 10 before your senior year.
Earn at least a 2.3 GPA in your core courses for Division I, or a 2.0 for Division II.
Earn a SAT combined score or ACT sum score matching your core-course GPA on the Division I sliding scale. For Division II, earn a SAT combined score of 820 or an ACT sum score of 68.
Make sure you register with the NCAA Clearinghouse (www.eligibilitycenter.org) by the end of your 10th grade year.
ACA also recommends that you register with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics at www.playnaia.org.
There are fee-waiver for these registrations based on family income. Please talk to Mrs. Arterburn about that possibility.
Sign a release form with Mrs. Arterburn granting permission to send your transcript to any coach who requests it.
Eleventh grade is the time to start sending your athletic resumes and DVD highlights to the coaches at colleges you would like to attend. It is important to remember to be proactive—don’t wait for them to contact you! Also make sure that you are sending your information to the right person by name (contact the school’s athletic department to find out his or her name), not just to the athletic office.
Important things to note:
Many college coaches say that they would prefer to hear from the athlete him/herself because it shows a pro-active attitude and that the student is particularly interested in that college, so please do not rely solely on your coach or recruitment service.
December is the deadline to replace any grades on your transcript for the NCAA. If there are any grades you are hoping to remediate, we strongly suggest that you do so during your 11th grade summer.
SAT and ACT scores are important, but the higher your GPA, the lower the test score requirement. Please ask Mrs. Arterburn if you’d like clarification, and make sure to visit ncaa.org/student-athletes/future/test-scores to see the sliding scale.