What To Say When Texting A College Coach?
At this point in the recruiting process, you are definitely on a coach’s radar. If you have moved past simply receiving emails and are now texting with a college coach, you are obviously on a coach’s radar. You are now developing a personal relationship with a coach. This being said, make sure you stay on your A-game to potentially be extended a scholarship offer.
When texting a college coach, include something about the collegiate team to show your interest in their program, as well as a personal anecdote about your recent athletic or academic experiences to show you are progressing as a recruit. Remember the entire recruiting process is evaluative. To make the best impression positible, be courteous and professional in your texts.
Below are some of the NCAA’s rules about coach and student-athlete digital communication, what to include in a text to a college coach, and what to do before you actually send a text.
What To Include In A Text To A Coach
Texting a coach is one of the most personal forms of communication you may have. When texting, be sure to show your character and who you really are.
Show You’ve Done Your Research: One thing all coaches like to see is that you have done your research or are keeping up with their team. This could be anything from mentioning your excitement for an upcoming game, congratulating the coach and team on a recent win, or mentioning an award a coach or athlete just recently received. While these statements may not seem like they carry much weight, showing that you have kept up with, and are interested in a coach’s program will only benefit you.
Tell Them About Yourself: Ultimately a coach wants to hear about you. Be sure to give them some insight on how practices, lifts, etc. are going. In essence, give some sort of personal anecdote that allows a coach to feel more of a connection to you and what you have been working on. Texting a coach is all about building a personal relationship with him/her, so be sure to inform them a bit about what’s going on.
Be Courteous And Professional: When texting a coach it’s important to remember that you are still trying to make the best impression possible. Your texts should be clear and concise, as well as courteous. Make sure you read back over your texts before sending them.
Keep Your Messages Positive And Informational: One of the most important things you can do is be positive. This is a personality trait a lot of coaches desire from student-athletes, so try to exemplify within your communications. Alongside this, your messages should also be informational. Maybe mention your most recent SAT or ACT score, if you are having a lot of success in your classes, or if you won MVP of the tournament you just competed in.
Texting a coach is an outlet to show your personality and differentiate yourself from other prospective recruits. It’s important to be professional but also express yourself and show a coach who you really are.
Before You Text A Coach…
Before you text a coach, you should be sure to proofread your text and make sure you are saying exactly what you meant.
Grammatical Or Spelling Errors: If you are getting texts from a college coach, you are obviously pretty far into the recruiting process. Texts are a bit more casual than emails. This being said, don’t get lazy when communicating with coaches. Just because you are sending a text instead of emails doesn’t mean you should be too casual or unprofessional. Make sure to look back over your texts before sending them and check for any grammatical or spelling errors.
Be Thoughtful With Your Words: When communicating with a coach over text, remember to be thoughtful with every word that you say. While it may seem obvious to many, you may get too comfortable with a coach and say something profane or vulgar. Remember, coaches are not your best friends. Don’t say anything that you wouldn’t say to your parents or to a coach.
Don’t Over Do It: If you have sent a few texts to a coach without any response, you may want to wait a bit before sending that next one. Obviously, coaches are extremely busy and may not be able to get back to you all that promptly, but if you have sent a couple in a row with no response, it may be a sign a coach has lost interest. Use your intuition and determine if a coach has lost interest in you or may just be a little busy.
Be Cognizant Of The Time: As a rule of thumb, no matter what time a coach texts you at, you shouldn’t text from around 12AM to 6AM.
Make sure that whenever you are sending a text to a coach, you proofread it as well as thoughtfully compose it. The entirety of the recruiting process you are under evaluation, so make yourself as appealing a recruit as possible.
NCAA Rules Of Communication
Included below are some of the NCAA rules on communicating with college coaches electronically. Make sure that you aren’t putting a coach in a tough position and reaching out in a period where coaches may not be able to communicate.
Recent Changes: Recently there has been sweeping changes across the NCAA which have changed some of the rules for electronic communication. Up until April of 2016, there was still an excess of regulation by the NCAA on electronic communication. When April 2016 came around, the NCAA deregulated digital/electronic communication for the sports that still lied under the ban. This included swimming, diving, cross country, football, and track and field. Ultimately upon removing this ban, the recruiting process was made a lot more accessible for many, as coaches could now send unlimited text messages to prospective athletes. There is however a flipside to this. Yes, coaches may be more accessible, but for student-athletes, another means of evaluation has been added to the recruitment process. Even when texting, it’s important to be very professional with coaches and treat every interaction like you would a job interview.
When Can Coaches Text: While texting has become much more common between athletes and coaches, there are still very specific start dates that a coach must wait until to text a prospective student-athlete. This being said, before September 1 of an athlete’s junior year, a coach is not allowed to initiate contact with recruits through this communication outlet. After this date, student-athletes are allowed to reach out to coaches whenever they would like.
Other Regulations: You may be asking yourself, wait, if coaches can’t send anything until September 1 of my junior year, what is all the recruiting information I have been receiving in the mail? Consistent with almost all sports, athletes are allowed to receive ‘non-recruiting’ material at any time within the recruiting process. This would include things such as recruiting questionnaires, information about camps or camp brochures, NCAA educational materials, and institutional publications. Coaches send these materials to generate some initial interest among prospective student-athletes before they are officially allowed to communicate with them. These materials are to market his or her school and encourage you to have at least a baseline interest in their school or university once September 1 comes around.
The NCAA’s rules should not be taken lightly. If you don’t closely follow these NCAA rules and regulations as well as many others, a recruiting infraction could make your recruiting process more difficult than it has to be.
Things To Keep In Mind
A Prospective Coach Isn’t Your Best Friend: This applies to all forms of communication with a coach. It’s more than okay to establish a close, personal relationship with a coach, but at the same time make sure you are aware of your surroundings. Ultimately, every form of communication with a coach is similar to a job interview. You are being evaluated based on your every movement; how you carry yourself, the way in which you speak, etc. Be sure to speak like you would when trying to get a job, not how you would to your friends.
Show Your Personality: There is a lot more to the recruiting process than just your sports statistics. At every school, there is a large pool of individuals who have the athletic talent to play there. Where you will differentiate yourself is in your personality. As mentioned above, be sure to keep it professional, but show who you are! Crack a joke here and there and just be yourself.
Proofread Your Texts: Texting is a form of communication that makes it very easy to forget who you are talking to. It’s a lot more casual and efficient, but make sure when texting coaches you don’t treat it that way. Carefully craft every message so that it is professional, courteous, and shows how great of an interest you have in playing for that athletic program.