Unlike fall, winter, spring, and summer, recruiting season never ends. For high school student-athletes around the country, the ultimate goal is to play their sport at the next level. There are a few essential rules in order to be identified as a potential recruit and keep it that way, no matter the sport.

You’re a student first and an athlete second.

Probably the most important aspects of recruiting are the athlete’s GPA and SAT/ACT score. It doesn’t matter if you’re a quarterback that throws for 4,000 yards, a higher jumper that can jump 6’5”, or a point guard that averages 40 points a game–if you don’t have a high enough GPA or test score, you’re ineligible.

Exposure is everything.

There’s a reason why colleges have camps and Hudl exists. Get out and go to two or three college camps that you are interested in during the summer in order to get in front of coaches and scouts. Satellite camps are ideal for families who want to get the most bang for their buck due to the fact that there are multiple college coaches from around the country at a single camp.

Highlight tapes and game film are essential. Take clips of your game film from the last season you played and arrange them in a way that shows what coaches want to see. This will vary from sport to sport, so talk to your coaches about what colleges want to see from you.

The intangibles are just as important as athletic ability.

Sure, the 4.60 forty times and the 100 mile per hour fastballs are great, but that’s not all that matters. Leadership, integrity, and hustle are all things that can’t be given a stat. Colleges want recruits that are leaders, that have high integrity and respect for their peers and their coaches. Coaches want recruits who have a high work ethic and are willing to come in every day to work.

As a recruit, your hustle and work ethic are not limited to games, meets, or matches. You have to hustle in the weight room, during practice, and in the classroom as well as during competition.

Be careful on social media.

There have been several cases in which coaches have gone on record saying that they wrote off a recruit just by looking at what they post on social media. If you are putting cuss words and inappropriate content all over Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram don’t expect to be getting any interest any time soon.

Manage the stress of recruiting.

Recruiting is stressful. Plain and simple.

There’s going to be a lot of different coaches and scouts that will be talking to you at the same time, whether in person or on social media. You’re going to get invited to Junior Days, visits, and camps. The big thing is to stay organized.

Make sure you respond to every text and direct message from a coach. Not responding to a coach gives the impression that you may not be interested. These guys are busy and they won’t spend much time trying to convince a recruit to attend a visit or a camp.

At the same time, don’t think that you have to attend every single camp or visit that you are invited to. Traveling around the region, or even the country, and paying for camps gets expensive quickly. As you go further and further into the recruiting process, narrow down the schools that you would like to attend and focus on those.