Is It OK To Text A College Coach?
If you have begun texting or receiving texts from a college coach, that is a good sign you are making significant progress in the recruiting process.
It is completely OK to text a college coach. Be sure, however, that texting a coach is the appropriate form of contact. By the time you begin texting a coach, you should generally have had prior contact via both email and phone calls. More than likely a coach will reach out and text you first, but if you have made consistent communication with him or her for a while, feel free to reach out and send the first text message.
Below is some additional information regarding what time it’s appropriate to begin texting a college coach, what should be included in your texts to a college coach, as well as what you should avoid doing when texting a college coach.
When Should I Text A College Coach
Texting a coach is a great step in the recruiting process. Be sure to feel the situation out, and gauge a coach’s interest before sending an initial text message.
Communicate Elsewhere First: Before you text a college coach, you should definitely already have had a substantial amount of communication with them over other outlets such as both email and phone call. While there isn’t a specific recommended date to begin this type of contact, just monitor the situation. If you are getting emails and phone calls quite frequently, then you can assume that the coach has a rather high level of interest, and that it may be OK to begin texting him or her.
Time Of Contact: It is an NCAA regulation that college coaches may not initiate contact with prospective student athletes until after either June 15th of their sophomore year or September 1st of their junior year, depending on the sport. Even though coaches cannot reach out to you, you are permitted to seek electronic contact with coaches prior to that regulated date.
Be cognizant of when you’re sending a text to a college coach, and make sure that the coach has a somewhat significant level of interest in you as a recruit.
What To Send In A Text
Sending a text to a college coach should be done in the same fashion as other forms of communication - professionally. While it is OK to be a bit less formal, make sure your communication is both respectful and professional.
Talk About Yourself: While it’s not common that you want to bombard someone with information about yourself, this is the time to do it. If you have reached this stage in the recruitment process of communicating with a coach, they are more than likely trying to learn as much about you as possible and develop a more personal relationship. Be sure to send them updates on any new test scores, sports statistics, or awards you think they should know about.
Discuss Their Program: While this is a time to make a good impression, texting a coach also serves as an additional outlet to learn more about a school and discuss with a coach his vision for the program. When texting a coach, you may want to discuss a recent game that the team won, or how you may be looking forward to seeing them play their next game. Talking about the team will display to the coach that you are very interested in his or her program and learning more about it.
Follow The Conversation: One common thing prospective student athletes mention about electronic communication with college coaches is that sometimes, the discussion may be completely irrelevant to you or the recruiting process as a whole. Don’t be surprised by this! Texting prospective student athletes is a great way for coaches to get to know you better. Not all of the conversation you all have will necessarily directly pertain to recruitment.
When texting a coach, you shouldn’t have a concrete outline of what you are going to say. Be yourself, but be professional. Coaches want to see a personal side of you that they don’t get to see by looking at your highlight film or test scores.
What Not To Do When Texting A College Coach
Included below are a few things you should avoid doing when texting a college coach. It is important to be professional and respectful, so avoid the problems listed below.
Don’t Send Texts At Odd Hours: When texting a college coach, this is a very important thing to remember. You wouldn’t text your boss at 2 A.M. on a Tuesday, would you? Probably not, which is why you also shouldn’t do that to a coach recruiting you. It’s important to be respectful of their time, and to text them only during the day. You should only text a college coach between the window 9 A.M.-7 P.M., and be cognizant of their time zone as it may differ from yours.
Don’t Have An Excess Of Grammatical Errors: As mentioned earlier, texting back and forth with a coach is a professional matter, and any form of electronic communication is important. Having an excess of spelling and grammatical errors is not a great way to make a positive impression on a coach, so it’s important to cut down on as many of those as possible. Misspelling a few words isn’t the end of the world, but if it’s done consistently, it may lead a coach to thinking that you don’t take him or his program all that seriously. Think about it, if you had two similarly skilled athletes, and only one scholarship, a coach may be inclined to go with the player who appears to care more, and the way you text may be a small differentiator in their decision making process..
Treat Them As A Coach, Not A Friend: When texting your friends, you may use a plentiful amount of emojis and spell the word you as “u.” When texting a coach eliminate all of those things. Your texts should be written with the utmost level of respect and be intended to leave a great impression.
Don’t Send Too Many Texts: When contacting a coach, the conversation shouldn’t be entirely dominated by you. There should be consistent communication back and forth between both coach and prospective student athlete. If a coach has stopped responding to your texts or hasn’t answered a few consecutively, he or she may have lost interest. Be sure to gauge the situation and understand whether or not it’s appropriate to send any more text messages. Additionally, even if you have been consistently communicating with a coach, don’t send too many texts consecutively. Try to cap yourself by sending only a maximum of two texts in a row and keep them concise and to the point.
As mentioned throughout this article, any communication with a coach should be treated similarly to an interview. Any forms of communication with a coach presents you with another opportunity to market yourself to a coach and make a lasting impression.
Things To Keep In Mind
Be Professional: This holds very true, especially when texting with a coach electronically. In general, texts are thought of as a much more casual communication platform than a phone call or email. While this holds true, coaches will also use this form of communication to evaluate more so what type of person you really are. Make sure to text professionally as well as respond with respect, as if you are texting a coach you are certainly looking to make a good impression.
Be Informative And Concise: Coaches talk to numerous recruits most every day, so their time is extremely valuable. When sending texts make sure they have a clear purpose and will serve you beneficially. Make sure to mention any new news that you may have such as test scores that you have received, awards, statistics, or updates to your recruiting profile. While it’s important to be informative and concise, also remember that coaches may not always be seeking concrete information. A coach may simply start a conversation over a recent sporting event such as a championship game or the Super Bowl. If this is the case, you don’t necessarily need to be short and concise. Do your best to read the situation.
Be Yourself: The entirety of the recruiting process from a coach’s perspective revolves around building relationships. Other than actually taking an unofficial or official visit to the school and meeting the coach in person, texting is probably the most personal communication that you will have with a coach. Being professional doesn’t mean there is a need to eliminate your personality from the conversations you have. Find a balance between professionalism and who you are as coaches want to know as much about you as possible.