How To Get A College Coach To Open Your Email?
College coaches are incredibly busy people and receive dozens of emails from recruits every week. This means that, often, recruits do not receive responses from many of the coaches they email. I am sure that, as an athlete who is interested in playing their sport in college, or a family member of such an athlete, you are wondering what you can do to give yourself the best chance of receiving a response.
There are many factors that contribute to whether you receive a response. While it varies by program, coaches will typically only respond to your email if you include all the relevant info/documents that they are interested in. Beyond that, they will be more likely to respond if you clearly take the time to write out a personal email, and send it during a part of the year in which they are not overwhelmingly busy.
No matter how strong of an athlete you are, it can be hard to get into contact with college coaches. Do not take it personally if a large percentage of college coaches do not respond to the first email you send them. That being said, here are some tips to help you minimize the chances of that occurring.
How To Give Yourself The Best Chance Of Receiving A Response
There are certain things you can do to improve the chances of a coach opening, or even responding, to your email. Most of these center around being respectful and considerate of the coach’s time.
Make It As Easy As Possible For The Coach: If there was only one piece of advice for constructing the perfect introductory email, this would be it. Do your best to minimize the effort the coach has to put in to understand your email. This starts with a clear subject line that lets them know you are interested in their program. Beyond that, be sure to include a highlight/skills video, your high school transcript/GPA, and upcoming schedule.
Be Personal: There is nothing a college coach likes less than receiving a generic email that could have been sent to fifty different programs. They will appreciate it if you spent the time and effort to construct an individualized email. One way to show that you did this is by including a sentence or two about why you are interested in their specific program. Additionally, by ending your email with a question about their program, you can show them that you are interested in learning more.
Consider Who You Choose To Send The Email To: While you may be most interested in contacting the head coach, they may not be the best choice for an introductory email. Many programs have a recruiting coordinator. If you notice the schools you are interested in have this position, be sure to email them first. It is their job to organize the program’s recruiting, meaning they will be much more likely to respond to you.
Timing Matters: College coaches are generally pretty busy. However, just like with the majority of jobs, there are certain parts of the year where they are busier, and certain parts where they are less busy. By strategically sending your email during a “down” period, you give yourself a much better chance of the coach opening it. The largest down period is typically the off-season, but be careful not to email them within two or three weeks of their season starting - arguably the busiest time of the year for many coaches.
Do Not Put All Your Eggs In One Basket: The best way to increase the chances of a college coach opening your email is simply to contact a lot of college coaches. If you only email one or two college coaches, there is a chance neither will reply. Emailing 15, or even 30 coaches will give you a much better chance of receiving a response.
While these may seem like small, or even insignificant, points, they play an important role in determining whether a coach opens your email. By following these tips, and generally being respectful and courteous, you will give yourself the best chance of getting into contact with college coaches.
Creating The Most Appealing Highlight/Skills Video
A strong highlight or skills video can be the deciding factor that convinces a college coach to respond to your introductory email. It will help give them an idea of who you are as a player, allowing them to easily decide if they have any interest in reaching out to you.
The Difference Between A Highlight Video And A Skills Video: While both of these videos are important, they are not the same. A highlight video is a collection of film from competitive games. It includes real-time footage, and is meant to highlight both your individual skill and how you fit into a team. A skills video, on the other hand, is a collection of individual skills filmed separate from games - highlighting your individual talent.
What To Include: Make sure your highlight video focuses on the athletic content. It is not necessary to spend a lot of time creating smooth transitions between clips, or to include music in the background. Coaches are much more interested in seeing your skills as an athlete, not as a filmmaker. As a general rule, try to find clips that are 5-10 seconds long. In total, the highlight video should be between 3 and 5 minutes long.
Make Yourself Stand Out: At the beginning of the highlight video, include a slide with your name, position, graduating year, and other basic info. Additionally, before each clip begins, place a circle around yourself. This will make it much easier for coaches to digest the play and evaluate you.
Leveraging your support network is essential when creating a highlight video. You will need your family or friends to record your games. Try and get as many games as you can recorded! The more games you film, the more footage you have to pull from.
Tips For Communicating With College Coaches
A large part of the recruiting process centers around recruits getting to know various coaches, and vice-versa. Because coaches only have a small amount of time to get to know you, they often use in-person and electronic interactions to evaluate whether you would be a good fit with their program’s culture – making it important that you always put your best foot forward when talking to college coaches.
Be Present: College coaches are recruiting you primarily as an athlete. However, they also care about who you are as a person. They are much more likely to be interested in a recruit who answers their questions in a dynamic, engaging way than one who appears bored or provides one-word answers. One important thing to remember is to not let your parents speak for you. The majority of the conversation should be between you and the coach.
Always Come Prepared: Coaches are typically very passionate about their programs. While they understand you are not an expert, they expect you to have done research on their program before any in-person communication with them. Make sure you are able to answer questions about your interest in their program. Additionally, come with a list of questions so that you can learn more.
Communicating with college coaches can be stressful. Do your best to relax and think of meetings with college coaches as conversations, not interviews. At the end of the day, the coach just wants to get to know you better.
Things To Keep In Mind
Think About Your Email Address: Make sure your email address is appropriate. Most prospects find it easier to create a second email just for recruiting purposes. Be sure to include your full name in the address.
Vary Your Highlights: Try your best to include a variety of highlights. For example, if you are a soccer player, don’t include exclusively clips of your shooting. Rather, include clips of you dribbling, defending, passing, and shooting.
Be Persistent: Coaches are busy, meaning emails often simply get lost in their crowded inboxes. Because of this, they will not be annoyed if you send a second, or even third email to them. Be sure to space your emails out, and include all the relevant information in each one.