College coaches often have the ability to offer scholarships to prospective athletes and may be contacted either directly, or through your current coach, who would likely be more effective in garnering a college coach's interest in you. In either case, you will need to provide information regarding your performance stats and possibly video clips of games or competitions, in addition to your academic record. It is advisable not to contact coaches before your junior year of high school when seeking scholarships. For a list of universities and their athletic departments' contact information, go to the website, college-athletic-scholarships.com.
Schools that compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level are the most difficult universities from which to obtain an athletic scholarship; yet, many student athletes choose not to look beyond schools that compete at this level. According to the website, collegescholarships.org, students willing to compete at smaller colleges at presumably lower levels of competition (every year, small schools, such as North Carolina's Appalachian State defy the odds by knocking off a Division I team) will greatly improve their chances of being awarded athletic scholarships. Aside from NCAA Division I and II schools (Division III Schools only offer academic scholarships), student athletes should also seek scholarships through the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). You can browse specific scholarships by sport and state at the website, collegescholarships.org/athletic.
Regardless of the organization through which you intend to pursue an athletic scholarship--be it the NCAA, NAIA or the NJCAA--you will need to register with that organization and complete the steps required of a prospective student athlete. The first step in this process would be to review the organization's eligibility requirements and make sure that you match its criteria. These organizations will be able to provide you with guidelines for obtaining scholarships, as well as access to information regarding participating colleges.