As a recruit or family it can be difficult to feel like you
are making progress in recruiting when coaches send what feel like impersonal
emails. People are wise enough to know, generic letters and camp invites don’t
constitute serious recruiting interest. When trying to determine if a coach is
interested, it is easy to misconstrue a short email for a generic email and
think coaches are not interested. In the question below, a recruit nearly made
the mistake of giving up on schools that were showing strong interest because
she did not understand the coach’s emails.
I have contacted
multiple coaches and updating them on my progress. Three coaches have responded
multiple times. All going like this, “thanks for the email. See you on the
field. Keep the updates coming.”
Are they interested in
me or are these emails generic emails?
Every time I contact
one of these three coaches they end with giving me their cell # and other
various contact information. They also sometimes send emails “we would like to
personally invite you to our camp on date… So and so.”
What does this all
mean? Should I bother continue contacting these coaches as I feel I am going
nowhere in this process.
These are not generic coach responses.
Depending on the size of the program, a single coach could
be sharing correspondence like that described with 100 recruits. They simply
don’t have time to write lengthy emails to “show” how interested they are.
Coach’s emails fall into two categories, those with their cell phone/personal
contact info and those without contact information. These email responses
might be short, but when a coach includes their personal contact information
(cell phone number), they are showing genuine interest.
What does this mean for this recruit?
My guess is this recruit is wondering things like, “are they
going to offer me a scholarship” and “what else do I need to do to get more
interest.” It is easy to feel like things aren’t going anywhere when you have
exchanged multiple emails and the conversation doesn’t appear to be changing.
I would say this recruit is at the half-way point in the
recruiting process. This is where coaches have identified him as a potential
recruit (they feel he qualifies athletically and academically) and they are
moving forward with more in-depth evaluations. As a recruit you want to come
away from this period in the recruiting process knowing things like:
How many athletes is the program recruiting this year?
Do you like the way the program is run?
Do your expectations on playing time match what the coach is
thinking?
Do they plan on offering you a scholarship? If so, how much?
The recruit should take the opportunity to call each coach
and begin asking questions about their level of interest and where they see her
fitting in with their program. Additionally, she should strongly consider
attending these schools camps. Camps give coaches the type of detailed
evaluations they count on when making their final decisions between scholarship
and walk-on athletes.
The lessons for other recruits and families
This recruit mentioned a critical piece of information, “I
have contacted multiple coaches and updating them on my progress. Three coaches
have responded…” Notice that not every coach is responding to their emails. We
don’t know how many programs they have contacted in total, but you must
remember, the majority of coaches aren’t going to respond to your emails.
Don’t focus on who you are not hearing from and focus on those who are
responding.
Know what to expect and when. After you have gone
back-and-froth a few times with a coach, you might be thinking it’s “time to
start talking scholarship” and the coach is thinking “time for serious
evaluations.” One of the things you want to know with any program is, what’s
next. Try to get in the habit of asking a coach what is next in the process.
You might not get a response, but when you do, getting that insight into what
they are thinking can be invaluable for setting your expectations.
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