CAPS
About CAPS

Why CAPS was developed.

The framework was developed after observing a consistent gap across international schools supporting students pursuing U.S. university sport pathways.

Many schools provide strong academic and sport development. Few have a documented internal process for managing the student-athlete recruitment pathway across staff transitions, graduating cohorts, and evolving NCAA requirements. The process typically depends on individual staff knowledge, external agents working outside school visibility, or families navigating it alone.

The result is predictable: capable students at strong schools missing opportunities — not because of their ability, but because the coordination process didn't exist.

Institutional Context

Students supported through CAPS-informed pathways have gone on to engage with programmes across a wide range of collegiate environments.

Ivy League institutions including Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, and Brown University.
NCAA Division I programmes including Stanford University, Duke University, University of Michigan, and Northwestern University.
Division II, Division III, NAIA, and scholarship placements across multiple regions and sport disciplines.

Presented as institutional context only. Individual outcomes depend on each student's circumstances. CAPS does not represent or place individual athletes.

How Success Is Defined

Success is measured at the institutional level — not through individual student-athlete pathways.

Staff at the school own and operate the recruitment process with confidence.
Student-athletes receive consistent, school-endorsed guidance regardless of which staff member they interact with.
The school is less dependent on individual staff networks or external agents for the consistency and quality of its student-athlete pathway guidance.
Coordination between counselling and sports staff is structured, role-defined, and documented.
The school has greater visibility over which students are pursuing U.S. pathways and at what stage.
Families have confidence in the school's guidance — and less reason to seek it elsewhere.
The process is sustainable: it continues through staff transitions without loss of institutional knowledge.
Background

CAPS was informed by firsthand experience within the Yale University athletics environment and the international student-athlete recruiting process, combined with subsequent work across independent and international school contexts in Australia, Southeast Asia, and North America.

That experience, including exposure to Yale's Tsai City innovation ecosystem, shaped the framework's design. CAPS has since been developed and refined through direct engagement with school leadership across multiple institutional contexts.

Guiding Principle

Schools should not have to rely on individual staff networks, external agents, or institutional memory to provide consistent guidance to student-athletes pursuing U.S. university opportunities.

A documented, school-owned process is both achievable and the right institutional standard. That is what CAPS is designed to make possible.

What CAPS Is Not

Important distinctions.

Not a recruiting agency. CAPS does not identify, contact, or negotiate with university coaches on a student's behalf.
Not a placement service. CAPS does not manage individual students through the recruiting process. The process is implemented and operated by school staff.
Not athlete representation. CAPS does not act on behalf of individual student-athletes in any capacity.
Not an ongoing external dependency. Once implemented, the school owns and operates the process without requiring continued CAPS involvement.

Outcomes referenced on this site reflect the work of students, families, and school staff — not direct placements made by CAPS. School partnerships are governed by a service agreement. Enquiries regarding institutional terms are handled directly at admin@capsglobal.org.