Crafting Your Story for College Coaches

A major aspect of college recruiting has to do with your interactions and conversations with coaches. While college coaches are selling you on their programs and schools, you are also selling yourself to the coaches. Coaches take the time to craft their story in order to give recruits the most clear and vivid picture of what can be expected if you attend their school. On the flip side, I have often seen recruits unprepared to even talk about themselves and how their experiences have shaped them to this point. Crafting your own story is critical to help you stand out over other potential recruits and make the difference when a coach is choosing who to offer a spot to or not. 

In order to craft an effective story, focus on these three areas and you will help give coaches a clear picture of who you are and how your experiences have shaped your life.

Athletics

When talking about your athletics experience you should concentrate less on general numbers and statistics (these can be relayed through an email) and more on what playing your sport has meant to you. Talk about how you became involved in the sport, why you first fell in love with it and why you want to continue to pursue playing it in college. Mention your development and growth over the years and what impact coaches have had on you. Give key insights into your goals for the rest of your time in high school and what goals you might have if you attended their school. If you play a team sport what has your experience been with your teammates/coaches and what have you learned over the years. Speak about what leadership opportunities have you taken and how that has impacted the members on your team. If you are part of an individual sport and have not played on a team then you can speak about the interactions you have had with others in your training and competition. Even if you have played in a team atmosphere in a different sport for a period of your life, talk about that. Coaches love athletes that have had many experiences with other sports as well. 

Academics

Your academic experience will give key insights into not only what you may be interested in studying but also what part academics has played in your life. Once again, just giving general statistics of GPA and test scores is something that can be done in an email so your focus should be on the experience of academics. If you know, or have a general idea, of what you want to study, talk about that but be sure to think through why you are interested in that field. Coaches will be asking you that question! If you are unsure what you want to study then you should be thinking about the classes that you have taken and what you have enjoyed as well as why you have enjoyed them. This could be the subject material, the teacher or the projects you had to complete. If you are involved in clubs or organizations in the school this is a great time to give a coach insight into those experiences. 

Family

Your upbringing has the biggest impact on who you are to this day. The way you think as well as the core values you believe in are shaped throughout your early years. This is a chance to let a coach know more about you as a person and give them better insight into how you will fit with their values. Talk about any parents, siblings, and relatives and how they have impacted who you are today. This can expand as well to coaches, teachers, mentors. Giving a coach an idea of your upbringing and life experiences will for sure help you stick out to a coach in the recruiting process and better your chances of being further pursued.

As I have mentioned in previous posts though, your story should be saved for when you have phone calls and face to face interactions with coaches. Putting it in an email will be too much for a coach to read and can get you overlooked in the recruiting process. 

Start writing down your thoughts on these three areas today and begin to form your story. Practice speaking out loud about your story so it becomes more and more routine for you. The more you tell your story the better you will get at speaking about it. Coaches love seeing recruits have a strong foundation and sense of identity as it will help give a coach a clearer picture of where you fit into their vision for the team. 

Put the work in today in order to stand out among other recruits and put yourself in the best position to be offered a spot by a coach.