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How to Create an Athletic Resume for College Applications

This article explains the components of an athletic resume, which is required for the ODKF scholarship application.

February 12, 2022

The Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation (ODKF)scholarship application requires an athletic resume. An athletic resume shows the scholarship committee all of your athletic accomplishments in one place, and can be a great marketing tool in your college application process if you are looking to get recruited for college sports. The document can be composed in Word or Pages, or in a graphic editor like Canva.com. Try to format the entire resume to one page, or two pages max. Here are the components of an athletic resume:

Heading:  The heading of an athletic resume should be similar to a regular resume to include first and last name, mailing address, phone number, and email. If your athletic pursuits are featured heavily on a website or social media page, you may include that as well, but make sure social media accounts are clean and portray the ideal character traits of a student athlete (in other words, nothing scandalous, derogatory, or illegal).

Photos: For ODKF it is preferred that NO photos are included in the resume. In a resume to be used for scouting purposes, you might include a high-quality headshot or sports action shot.

Body: The main body of the resume should list your athletic endeavors either by school year or by sport. If you only have one main sport, then listing by year is probably the best bet. If you have multiple sports, then it is easier to read about each sport separately.Include team name and level, position played, titles such as Team Captain, andany records set. If your team made it to a playoff or attended a tournament besure to mark that as well. For individual sports like swimming, it can be worthwhile to list finish times for each individual competition entered. Highlight special awards and accomplishments by bolding them or listing at the end in a separate section.

References: ODKF does not require references within the resume, but if you are using the resume for scouting purposes, list coaches or other athletic officials with their phone numbers and emails, who can speak to your athletic skills. Be sure to get their permission first. You may also optionally cite any media you have been featured in.

Other stats: ODKF does not require biometrics but for scouting, you might choose to include height and weight, and other stats pertinent to your sport.

Other sports: For the ODKF scholarship,if you participate recreationally in any other sports, you can list them towards the end. The scholarship committee would love to know, for example, if you surf on weekends recreationally in addition to your competitive paddling pursuits, or if you teach swim classes for kids as a summer job. Any water safety training experience should be included as well.

Other sections for athletic scouting: ODKF collects additional information through other parts of the application, but if you may use this resume to market yourself to colleges, consider adding sections to include objective, academic profile, and community profile.

As with any resume, use spell check and get at least one other person to proofread your resume. Save your resume as a PDF and name it as follows: LASTNAME.FIRSTNAME YEAR Athletic Resume. Make sure to upload the PDF with the rest of your scholarship application documents.

 

Reading list for further info about the college sports recruitment process:

Score College Scholarships:the Student-Athlete's Playbook to Recruiting Success

Author:  Laura Dickinson

The Student Athlete's Guide to Getting Recruited: How to Win Scholarships, Attract Colleges and Excel as an Athlete

Author: Stewart Brown

The Athletic Scholarship Playbook: A Complete College Recruiting Roadmap for High School Athletes and Parents

Author: Jon Fugler

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