Why Did We Build This Educational System?

We didn’t set out to become experts at obtaining college athletic scholarships, but it became a necessity when our daughter decided she wanted to play basketball in college and we needed some help with her tuition expenses. Our daughter’s path was a different one.  She played soccer, track, cross country, and came late to basketball. She was a non-starter on her high school team and struggled to get support from her basketball coach. She sought help with other coaches at her school who guided her in her development as a basketball player, working on weaknesses, supporting what she did well, and tracking her improvement. With help from mentor coaches and hard work and diligence, she turned herself into a D-I recruit.

We had to get very smart very fast to help our daughter find a college athletic scholarship.

Why fast? She decided late in her senior year (try January) to play at the college level, to be a college athlete. The problem was that a while a lot of the schools to which she had already applied were D-I schools, her talent was assessed at the D-II/D-III level. Working with our daughter, we called coaches, networked, did research on the academics and athletics. Fortunately, Al, my husband, took copious notes and kept detailed statistics throughout our daughter’s high school years to help her improve. Because we had the statistical backup, we were able to demonstrate to the coaches our daughter’s improvement in her sport over her high school career and her strengths currently.

We also found out that even when coaches didn’t think she was a fit for their program, they always had a tip or two, a piece of advice which we followed. And, we found that effective coaches also saw themselves as mentors and teachers first, coaches second. They understood that this college athletic scholarship game was about getting a solid education and preparing for life. Most college athletes do not go on to play professional sports. Communicating with college coaches before, during and after this process was vital to finding the right fit for our daughter. Understanding the college athletic landscape – the good, the bad and the ugly—was important to determining which program would provide the short-term fun and long-term education that will carry you through the rest of your life.

It was a mad dash from January through April,

Our daughter ended up with two D-III academic scholarships at schools that were both strong academically and had strong track records in the NCAA tournaments and experienced stable coaching. While she had these two offers, she received an offer for a walk-on position with no promise of a scholarship from De Paul University that had just entered the Big East Conference. She took a different road than most, playing for De Paul University and, then, because of that experience, was able to gain a D-I athletic scholarship to the University of San Francisco for the remainder of her 2.5 years in college.

The path to a college athletic scholarship can take multiple directions

and may not be the most obvious or smoothest one. We took what we learned, though, and distilled it into Six Easy To Follow Steps. By easy, we don’t mean there’s no work. By easy, we mean that given some effort and follow through and student-athlete talent, a college athletic scholarship is a possibility.

As parents of a high school athlete, we saw too many students who doubted their talent, who were not the elite player or didn’t have their coaches support, just give up. We’ve met parents who were not “athletically inclined or informed” who have told us they wish they had known how to help their kids follow their dreams. We wrote our book, Keep Playing Athletics in 2008, and now the Get Athletic Scholarships Workbook to make sure that all those

Talented High School Athletes Who Want To Be Future College Athletes And
Obtain A College Education To Jump-Start Their Life…Can.

Pat Marino and Al Musante

Parents of Alexis Musante

Sadly, Alexis’ father and the co-author of Get Athletic Scholarships, Al Musante, passed away in July 2015. Al’s love for and knowledge of sports, in particular- the game of basketball, and his desire that any student-athlete, given the right tools and support, can succeed, lives on in our Six Step Game Plan. We know that he wanted student-athletes who wanted to play at the college level, to have that shot. His legacy is helping young athletes reach that dream and get a good education at the same time.