Travel Season is Over – What is Next?

The Wholey Blog – Volume 1

By Michael Wholey 8/1/22 9:00 AM EST

A new feature, the Wholey Blog aims to bring insight into the travel circuit, recruiting, and all things basketball providing information to parents, coaches, and players.  The blog will come out monthly and aims to provide educational material to Prep Hoops subscribers.   

So the travel season is over – what is next? You have been on trains, planes and automobiles criss crossing all over the US and you are finally back home in your own bed and got some time to rest.  After playing in tournaments April – July, many people don't know what the next step is.  While you have some down time before the high school season starts back up, here are some tips:

Reach out to your travel coach or program director

After playing in a number of tournaments, a conversation with your travel coach or program director is highly recommended.  Ask them if you can set up a time to meet or arrange a phone call.  Once you have a date and time set up to meet, write down a set up questions that would be helpful for you.  Your travel coach and/or program director just watched you play for the entire spring/summer and they have an opinion on how you performed.  Ask them questions like:

Make a highlight video

After playing anywhere from 20-50 games, surely there is some video of your games.  It is always a great idea to get copies of these for your own personal use.  Having copies of game films is a wise idea so you can rewatch games and self evaluate.  It is also a good idea to make a 3-4 minute video, highlighting whatever you feel are your biggest strengths such as shooting, ballhandling, rebounding, defense, etc. I would post this in on your social media account as well as upload to youtube and have a URL link that you can send to college coaches.  PRO TIP: Do not use mainstream popular music, find copyright free music so none of the social media platforms or youtube block your video for copyright infringement violations.   

Make a player bio

Develop a one page PDF that includes the following:

Send out emails to college coaches

Based on the list that your travel coach or program director provided you as well as any colleges you are interested in, send out emails directly to the women's basketball coaching staff.  In this email I would recommend including:

Visit some college campuses

Whether you have schools reaching out or have not really started the recruiting process, it is always good to try and get on a couple college campuses during down time.  This can be done by scheduling it through the women's basketball coaching staff or the admissions office to schedule a campus tour. Getting on campus is very important and not something you should always wait until your Junior or Senior year of high school.  If you are in a position to visit campuses, try and get on 2-4 every year starting your Freshman year.  Visit campuses in state, out of state, city campuses, and rural campuses, to get a good perspective and start formulating a pro and con list and figure out what you like and what you do not like.  Bonus if you can work in your visit to do it and catch a basketball practice or game. 

GYBITG

GYBITG stands for Get Your Butt in the Gym! While the travel season offers exposure opportunities and opens up doors that could lead to playing collegiately and even partial or full scholarships, all of this is based on your skill set, work ethic, strength, conditioning, and body language.  The best players continue to work on their game, enhance strengths, improve weaknesses, and have a strong desire to continue to improve.  You are either getting better or being passed by because if you are not improving, your game is staying the same and those that are working are passing you by.  If you had a conversation with your travel coach or program director and watched copies of your games, you should have several things to work on when you go to the gym.  It is also good to reach out to your JV or Varsity coach and ask him to give you some insight as to what they think you should be working on as well.  Whether you work with a personal trainer or work out on your own, there is no replacing time in the gym.  Grab a basketball, get up shots, improve your strength and conditioning, and work on your handle. 

While the recruiting process goes differently for every individual, these are 6 tips that are good ideas to do during the time between the end of travel season and the start of high school season.  Continuing to work on your game is important, but rest and sleep are equally as important.  Make sure you take care of your body, burn out and over usage are real.  Find a balance of these things in the off season, while also dedicating some time to the recruiting process through campus visits and phone calls.  Following these 6 tips should put you a step ahead of the rest and help those individuals that strive to play collegiately.

Michael Wholey is the lead scout for Florida Prep Girls Hoop Florida and a former division one Assistant Coach at American University, University of Memphis, and Georgia Tech.  Wholey and the rest of the Prep Girls Hoop staff, seek to cover the entire state of player, keeping subscribers up to date with player evaluations, recruiting info, and statewide news.  Our audience often supplies us with some of our best information.  If you have any information on players, teams, or statewide news in the state of Florida, emailing Michael Wholey at WholeyPrepHoops@gmail.com or DM him through Twitter or Instagram @WholeyPrepHoops.