For a high school student athlete resume that gets you drafted, focus on what coaches and recruiters look for: clarity, relevance, and results. Highlight your achievements with stats, positions, and awards. Also include your academic performance, leadership roles, and community service to show your character.
Be sure to build a resume that fits the sport and opportunity you want. Plus, create a cover letter that shows your personality and goals. Whether you are starting from scratch or using a template, show your growth, discipline, and commitment both in sports and in other areas.
This guide will show you:
- ↪ Five examples of high school student athlete resumes
- ↪ How to adjust your resume for the sport and scholarship you want
- ↪ How to make sure your resume works well with applicant tracking systems (ATS) and is ready for recruiters
Why this resume works
- No high school student athlete resume can seize the hearts of readers without charisma. Okay—Make sure that you choose a template and color scheme that is both eye-catching and vibrant. Give the Official template a shot to have just enough to keep any university talent scout engaged.
How to Write a High School Student Athlete Resume
Write a high school student athlete resume that shows your strengths in the right order and way. While coaches and admissions teams want stats, they’re also curious about who you are as a student, athlete, and leader. That’s why formatting and wording every piece of your content matter.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or refining your draft, a resume checker can ensure your copy meets both human and AI standards. And if you could use some inspiration to get started, explore these proven resume examples to see what works in real-world recruiting situations.
This section will show you how to:
- Write a clear career objective that quickly shows your strengths
- Share your achievements using important stats
- Highlight your academic performance to help you stand out
- Show a good balance between leadership roles and extracurriculars that build character
- Format your resume so it is easy to read and works with applicant tracking systems (ATS)
- Keep your resume to one page, using clear headers and bullet points for easy reading
Why is a high school student athlete resume important?
Your high school student athlete resume is above and beyond a mere list of accomplishments; it’s your talents’ marketing tool. Recruiters, school athletic coaches, and admissions boards will rely on it to decide if you have the athletic abilities, academic excellence, and character traits they’re looking for.
Therefore, use it to make a strong case for yourself, leading with your strengths, aligning your document with the program’s requirements, and effectively pitching your value over that of any other applicant.
How to format your resume for ATS and human recruiters
Your resume will be screened by ATS and reviewed by the recruitment team. What these two layers of scrutiny care for is a draft that is easy to scan, read, and quickly find the most crucial information.
Start by breaking down your sections into these key headings:
- Contact details
- Education
- Athletic experience/achievements
- Skills
- Projects
- Awards
The next step is to use the reverse chronological format, where your most recent and relevant achievements appear at the top. This is also the same case with your education: List your most recent education first.
Another crucial formatting component is using professional and ATS-friendly font types. Here you can choose options such as Calibri, Times New Roman, and Arial. Maintain consistent white spacing and margins throughout your document.
Most importantly, avoid complex designs and elements such as tables, graphics, and text boxes. The most important thing is to communicate your abilities as professionally and effectively as possible.
Finally, save and submit your resume in PDF or DOC format, as it preserves the original format and offers portability and flexibility across different devices.
How long should a high school student athlete resume be?
Your resume’s length should be one page. That’s sufficient space to showcase your unique abilities and convince recruiters that you’re the ideal candidate. You see, the recruiting team will review hundreds of applications. Keeping your piece concise by placing the most relevant information first ensures you utilize the short review window to its maximum potential.
Start with a career objective or summary
You probably don’t have many experiences and achievements to share in your resume. However, you still have to make a pitch that earns a spot in the athletic program of your dream. Start with a resume summary that gives an overview of why you deserve the position more than anyone else.
For a standout statement, include:
- Unique skills
- Athletic-relevant achievements
- Your goal
- Leadership (captaincy)
- Club membership
- Outstanding academic achievement
Example
Motivated high school midfielder with 2 years of club-level experience, a 3.9 GPA, and proven leadership as high school soccer captain. Seeking to bring tactical awareness and academic discipline to Belmont University’s D1 soccer program.
What skills should a high school student athlete have on a resume?
The first question you’re probably wondering is, where do you start when listing the top skills on your resume?
While you may have several transferable skills, you must choose the right skills for each opportunity you apply to. Review job descriptions and requirements to pick out specific abilities organizations are seeking.
For instance, if you’re applying to work at a gym, your sports nutrition or athletic training knowledge may help you stand out in the hiring process.
Here are some top high school student athlete resume skills.
9 top high school student athlete skills
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Leadership
- Time Management
- Microsoft Office
- Sports Nutrition
- Athletic Training
- Active Listening
- Multi-Tasking
How do you write a high school student athlete resume job description?
While you may not have tons of traditional work experiences yet to list in this section, you will have tons of athletic and educational experiences you can put here. The key is to format them in the right way.
Each example should have a number illustrating what you achieved. For instance, you could put GPA or placement in a competition.
Also, you don’t need tons of information about each example. One sentence about how you communicated effectively with teammates to reduce coverage mistakes can go a long way.
Here are a few samples:
- Scheduled 2 hours daily to study for classes around practice schedules to maintain a 3.7 GPA during the basketball season.
- Stayed an extra hour every day after practice working on completing contested catches to reduce dropped passes over the season by 40%.
- Created a data-based PowerPoint presentation for a history project about the development of the U.S. Constitution, receiving a 98% overall grade.
- Practiced appropriate nutritional and training plans to reduce 40-yard dash time by 18% during the offseason.
How to display your education to stand out
Even for an athlete, your education has a prominent place in your resume. Coaches and recruiters would like to know how you balance your field and academic performance. When you list it, include:
- Program’s title
- High school name
- Laction
- Start and end dates
- GPA and SAT scores if exceptional
- Relevant coursework
- Awards and recognitions
Example
High School Diploma
Lincoln High School
Jersey City, NJ
2022-2026
GPA: 4.1 (weighted), SAT: 1340
Coursework: AP Biology
Awards: Honor Roll, National Honor Society
How to tailor your high school student athlete resume for each opportunity
Schools, programs, divisions, coaches, and athletic talent scouts look for different strengths. For example:
D1 programs prefer:
- Speed
- Stats
- Competitive honors
Smaller academic-focused programs emphasize:
- GPA
- Leadership
- Multi-sport participation
Study the requirements of the program you’re targeting and tailor your resume to fit that profile as much as possible. However, don’t fake anything just to get in. When you describe yourself, steer clear of generic phrases such as “Talented athlete” and instead provide achievement-driven descriptions such as “Offensive midfielder with 87% pass completion and 92 scoring rates.”
Top 5 tips for your high school student athlete resume
- Optimize with action words
- As an athlete, you’re used to taking action to make big plays in significant moments of the game. You can make your examples of what you achieved in school and athletically sound more engaging with action words like “performed” and “collaborated.”
- Aim to fill up a complete page
- An optimal high school student athlete resume will be one full page of relevant information. If you’re having trouble finding additional details, try to apply educational achievements, non-traditional work like volunteering, or applicable hobbies & interests.
- Use an objective
- Student athletes without much work experience can benefit from an objective to provide additional relevant details. For instance, you could write about how you’re eager to apply your four years of collaborative experience on the soccer team to be an excellent team member at the workplace.
- Use numbers whenever possible
- As an athlete, you know the importance of optimizing numbers for top performance. Use metrics whenever possible, like grades or efficiency.
- Include a mix of hard and soft skills
- Most entry-level positions will find it acceptable to list some soft skills like communication when you’re a student athlete without much traditional work experience. However, you should still try to mix in some hard skills like Microsoft Office or athletic training plans that make your abilities stand out.
Key takeaways
- Clearly structure your resume
- Keep it short: one page
- Set tone with a resume summary
- Lead with stats and achievements
- Balance athletics and academic performance
- Tailor your resume to the program you’re targeting
High School Student Athlete Resume FAQs
When making a cover letter, aim to explain how you’ll use your top skills in the position and relate to the organization’s mission. For instance, you could say you’re eager to join the organization’s team-focused workforce to provide an excellent customer experience.
Reverse chronological formatting will work best. It lists your most recent experiences first, which will be your most relevant abilities in teamwork and leadership as you’ve grown as a student and athlete.
Each job you apply to will have unique requirements, so you should customize the skills you list for each one. For instance, a grocery store may need you to help with stocking, whereas a position as a lifeguard at a local pool will need help enforcing safety rules and regulations.
