How The Gettysburg Address Can Help Your Introduction Email To Coaches
When writing your introduction email to coaches please understand the following. If the Gettysburg Address (one of the most recognized speeches in history) can be written in 272 words, your introductory recruiting email better be shorter.
The fact is that most coaches are getting many recruiting emails a day from student-athletes expressing interest in their program. They do not have a lot of time to read a long email about you and your entire academic, athletic, and extracurricular history. This does not mean that coaches do not care about all of those things, they most certainly do, but there is a time and place to have that conversation.
When it comes to being able to have your introductory email looked at and taken seriously by a coach it needs to only have three key factors
Be quick and to the point
Include only the basic information needed for a coach to initially see if you could be a fit for their program and the university
Have a personalized touch so that the coach knows you are interested in their school and not just sending this email out to 50 coaches.
Be quick to the point
Your introductory email should not be very long. When coaches open an email and see a novel written they will likely be running for the hills. There are a few things that might happen when a coach sees a lengthy email. They will leave it marked as unread and eventually it will fall out of their sight in the inbox, they will just move it to a folder specifically marked for recruits and one day down the road get to it, or they will quickly skim through looking only for the most essential things they need to assess. Make your life and coaches lives easier, keep the email short and simple.
Include you basic information
Your introductory email should have the basic information a coach needs to make an initial assessment if you may be a fit for their athletics program and their college. And yes, they will likely be making a snap judgment based on this information.
This information should include your name, year of graduation, high school, GPA, test scores (if you have them), intended major (if known), position you play in your sport, height/weight (if important for your sport), club team you play for (if applicable), ranking/rating (if applicable), and any statistics you feel a coach would need to know.
You can also add a sentence about yourself and with a goal you may have for yourself both academically and athletically. But there is no need to elaborate on every aspect of your life. This should be saved for your initial phone call when you have a coach’s full attention.
Personalize your email
A surefire way to have your email overlooked by a coach is to make it seem like it was blasted out to lots of coaches. The way to avoid this is to personalize the end of the email. Write a sentence why you are interested in their school (be sure to include the school's name). Comment on something that recently happened in their team’s season, perhaps a recent victory. If a team is in season it can be as simple as looking at their upcoming opponent and wishing them luck in their upcoming match against their opponent.
The key here is to have the coach feel like it was written specifically for them. Adding a personal touch specific to each school will make the coach more likely to reply back to you.
When you are drafting your first email to a coach keep the Gettysburg Address in mind. You do not need to use a lot of words in order to make a positive impression on a coach. Keeping it short and sweet will give you the best chance to have your email read and begin the first steps of contact with a coach.