As you talk with college coaches and visit college campuses, be sure to continue to communicate with your coaches. Your coaches can be extremely helpful in determining just how interested particular colleges are and if they are the best fit for you given your abilities and needs. 

Furthermore, given the various contact periods and rules for the NCAA, NAIA, and Junior College levels, your coaches can speak with college coaches when you cannot.

The engagement process with college programs can take a long time and might span months or even years depending on where you are in the recruiting process and how old you are.

As you speak with college coaches, get an understanding of if they want you to make an unofficial or official visit. While you should make as many unofficial visits as you can, especially to schools which you're interested in, having a college coach invite you for an official visit shows they are very interested in you.

Once you visit the campus, be sure to talk to your parents and your coaches about what you like and dislike about that particular school. This should help you update your Target Schools List and have a great understanding of your top choices. Also, follow up with college coaches once you've visited their school to thank them and share what you enjoyed during your visit.

After speaking with your parents and your coaches, develop a more detailed plan about which schools you want to continue to target and the best way to communicate with them moving forward.  The goal is to let them know you're interested in their school but you are receiving interest from other programs as well. This can be a tricky process, so communicating with your parents and coaches is essential.

Getting an offer from a college, regardless of its level of competition, is a major milestone. Whether you're asked to walk-on, offered a small scholarship, or a full-ride, receiving any type of offer is a great first step. The goal is to use this first offer in your conversations with other college programs. Just as athletes compete for roster spots, creating competition and further interest from other programs helps you field even more offers or improve your outstanding ones.

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