The Top Answer To 1 Question I Asked 20 College Coaches This Week
This past week I had phone conversations with 20 college head coaches where I asked them what is the first thing they look for when a high school student-athlete reaches out to them.
The overwhelming answer to that question…
Personalization!
When you are reaching out to coaches, especially for the first time, you should be giving them important details about yourself such as your academic and athletic achievements. While coaches will obviously look at those important details to see if you might be a fit, what they are really looking for is that there is something in the email that shows them you did some research on their school.
Why are they looking for this?
To ensure that you have some real interest in their program. Coaches get many emails daily from recruits that have similar grades and athletic statistics. Those are all good and great, but a coach is going to be more inclined to respond if you include something personal about their school or program in the email.
Some coaches told me it can be as simple as the school has the major you are interested in and that is why you initially became interested in learning more.
Others like when it’s a bit more specific such as stating you are interested in the school because you see they are the 15th ranked engineering program in the nation and that your intended major is engineering.
Nonetheless, if they see you have done even a little research, it’s going to go a long way to them responding to you.
Too many recruits send out emails that just state basic information, which make coaches think it was mass emailed out to several coaches. Even if you did do some research, not adding a sentence or two that makes the coach feel that you are truly interested can hurt you.
While it may take a little more time to craft emails to each school that have a personal touch, it goes a long way with coaches.
So the next time you are reaching out to a coach to introduce yourself, be sure to not only do a little research on the school, but include one personalized reason on why you are interested in that school or athletics program.