Welcome back to the recruiting dad! My inbox has been absolutely swamped with emails lately! And no, I’m not complaining but let's take a deep dive into emails. Both how to write an email and some common mistakes.
Generally speaking there are 3 types of emails I get.
1. Student athletes who email consistently over time and show genuine interest in our school.
2. One and done’s - Athletes who are getting ready to play in a tournament or showcase, see our school’s name on the list and most likely are sending emails out to all those schools.
3. Follow ups!
All three of these are great. Nothing wrong with the one and done. If you took the time to find my email address and send me an email with your resume and game schedule, most coaches will do their best to get out and see you play.
Should you expect a reply? A few things go into whether or not you will get a reply in my opinion. First, if you email around the time of a big showcase or tournament our inboxes are getting inundated with emails. There is no way we can get back to anyone, so don’t expect an email. If you are an underclassmen and NCAA rules prohibit coaches (NCAA/NAIA/JuCo rules are all different) from replying you probably won’t get a reply. Note: Coaches can send underclassmen (Class of 2025 and below at the time of this writing) questionnaires and camp invitations. If you get more than that from a coach, well, they committed an NCAA violation. I can promise you my kid won’t play for a coach who has no respect for the rules.
Lastly, if you email us during the season (and you should) understand we are busy coaching our teams and winning games, we may not have time to reply to the random player who emailed us. Sometimes it's just dumb luck and timing if you get a reply or not!
When you follow up should you expect a reply. Look, I totally respect the follow up email. Here’s what you need to know. We take notes on players we may have interest in. We absolutely cannot take notes on every kid. Most likely you are not getting a reply to your follow up unless 1) we liked what we saw from you and 2) NCAA rules allow us to do it. Other than that, we saw your email, we know you are interested but understand you are probably not on our radar. Harsh truth, but it is something you need to know!
Do’s and don’ts of your emails!
DO NOT send an email that has a bunch of coaches on it! Send coaches individualized emails. Include the schools name, coaches names. Make it personal. Make sure you get in and change the names of the schools and coaches. If you email the coaches at University X you DO NOT want to have the coaches names from University Y on there cause you forgot to change it!
I recommend sending your email to all the coaches on each staff. Send to Head Coach CC: Assistant Coaches. Cause you know what happens, the head coach just forwards it on to the Assistant who is the recruiting coordinator. If all the names are on the original email, then your name just came across all of the coaching staff members desks and the Head Coach doesn’t have to take the time to forward it on. It’s a win win. Details matter.
Speaking of details. In my opinion there are four things that should be in every email.
Your name
Your graduation year
The team you play on
Your uniform number
I heard a coach encourage players to create a signature line for your emails. I like that idea. Write your email, tell us what we need to know, your game schedule is always amazing. Club or high school coaches' information is always super helpful as well and makes it easy to forward that email on to them and tell them how much we loved seeing you play after an event! Finally end it with something like this:
Thank you,
Sally Sue
Class of 2026
RecruitingDad FC
I hope that helps! Now get out there and email some coaches. That is, PLAYERS email some coaches, not you Parents. Don’t do it parents. The kid needs to do it themselves. We know when it's you and we don’t like it!
Thanks for reading!
The Recruiting Dad
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