Getting Recruited by College Coaches Over Winter Break

Ahhh, winter break. Egg nog, 14 hours a day on the Wii, and a Mount Kilimanjaro of presents. It's the perfect time to kick back and do absolutely nothing -- uh, if you're trying to not make a college team.

If, on the other hand, you actually do want to play in college, you can get huge recruiting mileage out of your winter break, and still get plenty of solid time on the Wii. Here's what your New Year's resolution should be: by January 1st, you should find a group of 10 schools and send the coaches at those schools an email with a link to your CaptainU profile.

Not a big deal, right?

Sit down at the computer and resist the temptation to go to Facebook or ESPN. Instead, search for a few of the college teams that interest you. Have a look at their team pages, their rosters, and their coaches' info. Boom. Done. 5 minutes a team. Just like that, you'll have learned a ton. Enter a few quick thoughts on your CaptainU Recruiting Log. Do you like the school? If not, dump it.

Repeat this 10-ish times. Look, that's less than an hour total.

Next, create a great CaptainU profile. Throw a few pictures on it. Add your grades and test scores. This can be accomplished in 15 minutes. Finally, write a quick note that you can send to each of your coaches. Include the link to your CaptainU profile. Each time you send an email, personalize it with a few details about that specific school. College coaches will appreciate it.

All told, this can be done in 2-3 hours. Spaced out over 2 weeks, that's 8 minutes 34 seconds a day. Come on. You can make this happen and still beat Halo 3 893 times!