Are You Doing What It Takes?

There is nothing wrong with wanting to play in college. There is nothing wrong with wanting a scholarship, wanting recognition, wanting to play at the highest level possible, or even wanting to one day benefit from opportunities like NIL. Those are all real goals, and for the right athlete, they can absolutely happen. The problem with youth sports today is that too many athletes have become obsessed with the outcome before they have committed to the work that actually earns it. Everybody wants the attention, the offers, the validation, and the status that comes with being a high-level athlete, but not enough people are asking themselves what they are doing each day to truly become one.

A lot of athletes say they want to play in college, but when you really look at how they move, how they train, how they recover, how they handle coaching, and how they spend their time, the actions do not match the goal. Wanting to play at the next level is not enough. Saying it out loud is not enough. Posting your highlights is not enough. The real question is whether you are living in a way that supports that goal. Are you training with purpose or are you just showing up? Are you working on your weaknesses or only doing what you are already good at? Are you seeking out coaches who can actually help you improve, or are you only looking for places that make you feel good? Are you willing to be corrected, coached hard, and held accountable, or do you only like development when it is convenient?

That is where I think a lot of young athletes get lost today. Social media has made it easy to confuse visibility with value. A lot of athletes are more concerned with looking like they are on the way than actually building themselves into someone who is ready when the opportunity comes. They want to be seen at camps, they want the nice edits, they want their commitment post one day, but they are not always locked in on the daily habits that separate serious athletes from everybody else. They are not asking enough questions. They are not studying their game. They are not consistently getting in the weight room. They are not taking care of their body. They are not finding the right people to learn from. They are not being patient enough to let development do what development is supposed to do.

Another issue is that many athletes have started treating the path like it only counts if it looks a certain way. If it is not a big-time school right away, they think they are behind. If they do not get recruited early, they think they failed. If their path does not look like the top one percent of athletes they see online, they start panicking. That mindset is hurting a lot of good players. The truth is that for most athletes, the road is not going to be perfect, glamorous, or immediate. Sometimes you may have to start at a smaller school. Sometimes you may need more time to physically develop. Sometimes you may need to prove yourself at one level before earning the chance to move up to another. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, for many athletes, that is the exact path that makes the most sense.

Too many people are in a rush to arrive somewhere they have not prepared themselves for yet. They want college coaches to believe in them, but they have not given those coaches enough reason to. They want opportunities, but they are not separating themselves through discipline, improvement, and consistency. They want the reward without respecting the timeline. What gets overlooked is that college coaches are not just recruiting talent. They are recruiting habits, maturity, discipline, coachability, and upside. They are looking at whether an athlete is serious about improvement, whether they can handle structure, whether they are still getting better, and whether they are worth investing time, money, and a roster spot into. That is a lot different than just being a kid with potential or a good highlight tape.

If an athlete truly wants to play in college, then the focus has to shift from chasing the label to building the substance. It has to become less about saying, “I want to be D1,” and more about asking, “What am I doing right now that makes me a better college prospect?” Am I stronger than I was six months ago? Am I more explosive? Do I move better? Do I actually understand my sport at a deeper level? Am I competing consistently? Am I surrounding myself with people who challenge me and not just hype me up? Am I doing the extra work when nobody is watching? Am I taking initiative, reaching out, learning, asking questions, and putting myself in environments that demand growth?

That is the part nobody can do for you. Nobody can hand you development. Nobody can talk your way into becoming the athlete you have not built yet. And that is why I think youth sports have a problem right now. Too many athletes are being sold the dream without being taught how much substance is required to carry it. Everybody wants to skip ahead to the part where the hard work pays off, but very few are willing to stay patient long enough to actually become the kind of athlete who can sustain success when they get there.

At the end of the day, there is nothing wrong with dreaming big. I want athletes to dream big. I want them to aim high. But the dream has to be supported by action. It has to be supported by development. It has to be supported by a willingness to improve, to be uncomfortable, to take coaching, to trust the process, and sometimes to take a path that may not look impressive at first. A smaller school is not the end of the road. A slower start is not the end of the road. What matters is whether you keep developing and whether you keep putting yourself in position to grow. If you do that, opportunities usually come. Maybe not always in the exact way you imagined, but they come.

The athletes who make it are usually not the ones who were in the biggest rush. They are the ones who kept building. They stayed patient. They stayed hungry. They got better. And when the opportunity came, they were actually ready for it.