Review: Significant Recruiting: The Playbook for Prospective College Athletes by Matt Rogers

Review: Significant Recruiting: The Playbook for Prospective College Athletes by Matt Rogers

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I was in school, my access to sports was somewhat limited due to my disability. I was not allowed to participate in certain sports at all for safety reasons, although the physical education staff usually did what they could to include me in whatever I was able to be involved in. 

I have very little knowledge of sports in education, so going into Significant Recruiting by Matt Rogers was new territory for me. This book imparts a lot of important information to aid aspiring college athletes and their families in the process of getting recruited to play sports at the college level and I found myself learning quite a few things that surprised me. 

Before I go further into detail on anything, I want to start with some general thoughts on this book. Let’s get into it!

Thoughts 

I was surprised by some of the information given in this book. I didn’t fully expect the recruiting process to be as complex as it is. That said, the advice given in this playbook is written in such a way that it is easy to follow. I particularly enjoyed the anecdotes, because they enhanced the value of whatever was being discussed beautifully!

I also love how the information is organized. The advice is often broken up into sections with headings and even step-by-step lists when discussing more in-depth topics. This helps guide the reader through both why the information is being given and how to tackle a specific situation in a beneficial way. 

Overall, I think there are a lot of positive aspects to this playbook, but let’s go a bit more in-depth. Let’s look at the structure next!

Structure

Honestly, I love how this playbook is organized! The layout of each chapter is clear, and it is obvious when the book is transitioning to a new way to present information. I also love how each chapter has actual experiences of college coaches covered, so the reader gets a taste of their viewpoints as well. I think that could be incredibly useful for prospective college athletes. 

As I mentioned earlier, the headings also work to guide the reader through the playbook itself. While I didn’t immediately understand every title chosen, as I read on, a lot of them made more sense. That kind of experience lends to the structure of the book being more cohesive. This works heavily in its favor, as all the topics covered are part of a clear whole that is easy to understand. 

All in all, I think the structure works very well and helps the reader better understand the subject. 

Now that we’ve discussed the book’s structure, let’s move on to the writing. 

Writing 

I like how this book is written quite a bit. The writing has a motivational tone that makes it easy to get behind what is being discussed. It is clear and easy to understand, with the word choice helping to enhance whatever topic is being covered. I think one of the best examples of this is when the definition of the word “significant” is discussed and why it matters in the context of the playbook.

However, there is one issue I came across that I’d like to discuss. This book is meant to be read by both prospective college athletes and their families, with information provided for both. This is a great idea, but the book will occasionally transition from speaking to the students to the parents, and those transitions feel jarring. For the writing to flow more smoothly in these sections, I believe it could be beneficial to build up to that transition to address the parents. 

That said, I still think the writing works really well within the context of the book’s subject matter. The tone of the writing is both informative and motivational, providing readers with the necessary tools to move forward with what is presented regardless of whether they’re students or parents. 

With all that said, I think that covers everything. Let’s wrap this review up. 

Conclusion 

This was an interesting experience for me. While I am not the target audience for this, Matt Rogers organizes the information well and is clear in his message in a way that is easy to appreciate.

To me, this book brought together all these elements to enhance a fantastic message that I think is worth hearing for a high schooler looking to play a sport in college. For all those reasons, I will be giving this playbook five stars.