Quality beats quantity
- Advisories for athlete recruitment recommend prioritising content quality over quantity to avoid noisy feeds. - The guidance specifically urges clear, strategic posts for recruitment and community engagement. - Clinics aiming to attract athletes should focus on targeted, high-quality content that speaks to sport-specific needs (x.com).
Advice circulating in high school recruiting this spring is blunt: athletes do not need to post more, they need to post with more purpose. Colorado Preps has published a series of recruiting explainers since February 18, 2026, led by Jared Harding of Tewdilly, arguing that constant posting, daily highlights and “going viral” are not the standard coaches actually use. In Harding’s March 4 and April 23 pieces, the guidance is specific: practice clips can signal development, posts celebrating teammates can show leadership, and thank-you posts to coaches can show sportsmanship. The argument lands in a recruiting system where coaches already have other ways to judge talent. Colorado Preps says coaches use recruiting services, club coaches, camps and full-game film, so social media is often used to fill in the picture of the athlete as a teammate and person. That helps explain why the advice has shifted from volume to clarity. Harding wrote on March 18 that athletes should first decide what they want to be known for — work ethic, leadership, discipline or positivity — and then post material that reinforces that identity. The warning on the other side is about overload. In an April 23 post, Harding described a coach opening a phone to 47 unread direct messages and a pile of highlight links, then giving each one about eight seconds before moving on. National recruiting guidance lines up with that message. NCSA says social platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and X now play a large role in recruiting, but also warns that social media can “cost opportunities” and says coaches look beyond highlights to a recruit’s overall online behavior. The rules also shape what athletes see from coaches. NCAA Division III guidance says coaches may take “actions of approval” such as likes and shares at any time, while comments, tags and other public interactions are restricted before certain recruiting milestones; recruiting services describe the shorthand as “tap, don’t type.” For clinics, trainers and club programs trying to attract athletes, the same logic applies. Generic, high-volume posting adds to the noise; sport-specific clips, clear examples of development and community-focused posts are more likely to tell families and recruits what the program actually offers. The through line in the Colorado Preps series is simple: highlights still matter, but they are not enough on their own. The posts that last are the ones that make an athlete — or a program — easier to understand.
