"I want to talk to you today about football recruiting videos (highlight videos). Coaches use football recruiting highlight videos as one of their main tools for recognizing players and evaluating them. There are some misconceptions about highlight videos - a lot of people think that you have to have fancy music or cool effects. Really, your highlight video should have - first of all - it should have all of your best plays in the beginning, because most coaches will only look at your highlight video for about 15 or 30 seconds and make a decision about you after that. It sounds unfair, but you want to make sure that you put your best plays in the beginning so that the coaches get to see what your potential is.

Also, one thing that helps is editing your videos. If you just have raw footage, a lot of times it's hard for coaches to follow you - they won't know where you are on a play. You want to make it as easy as possible for the coach to see you, recognize you, and notice your good plays. Therefore, editing is very helpful - just show them where you are before the play by freeze-framing for a second and highlighting where you are, and then letting the play run. A good football recruiting highlights videos can definitely help you get noticed by college coaches." -Joshua Rice (former football player for the University of Hawaii)

"Football's pretty big in the community where I grew up, and so I always focused on how to get recruited for college football. I didn't think that I would be able to play at a division I. I guess I always saw myself - because I saw my brothers playing at a smaller college - that I would also play at a smaller college. But, fortunately for me, the University of Hawaii and some other schools came around toward the end of my senior season.

School is definitely very important to focus on. If you don't have the academics, if you're not taking care of school right now (at the high-school level) - as much as any coach would want to recruit you, or bring you to their college, they won't be able to if you don't have the grades to be eligible. So that's always been a big priority of mine.

Something that my parents have always emphasized to me is 'School first'. Also continue to work on your skill - whatever sport it may be - as an athlete. You can be the greatest athlete in the world, but if you don't have the grades to get you into college then it's going to be an unfortunate circumstance. School is a very important part of how to get recruited for college football. Definitely take care of school as you continue to develop yourself in your sport." -Inoke Funaki (Quarterback for the University of Hawaii)

"Some advice that I would give to kids that want to get recruited for football coming out of high school going into college: I'd tell them to work hard and make sure your grades are up - that's the most important thing, and it's the first thing that colleges look at. Other than your athletic ability they're going to check up with your GPA, your grades, what's up with that. Going into your senior year of high school I'd focus on that a lot, especially if you want to get recruited for football.

And then, also, heading into your freshmen year of college - the important thing is to work hard. When I was in college, the two things that I would tell myself are:

1. 'Do you want to be a hero or a zero' - and that means: do you want to take the easy way or the hard way. The hard way is to be a hero, and the easy way is to be a zero - to be a nobody. And so I'd always tell myself to be a hero: do things that are out of the ordinary, do things that are extraordinary. Let's say the team starts working out at 7:00am, I'd get there at 6:00am and get an hour extra. Because I know that if I'm doing it you've got to believe that someone else out there is doing the same thing as me. So you can never work too hard.

2. My dad used to always tell me 'winning is everything because the losers go home and cry' and you know, that's the mentality I had throughout my entire athletic career. You've got to win, and in order to win you've got to have that state of mind that if you lose it's the end. Because winners go on to be bigger, better, more successful and get recruited for football, and losers - they go home." -Jayson Rego (Running back for the University of Hawaii)