7 Reasons College Coaches Are Not Recruiting You
As a former D1 coach I learned that there was a lot more to evaluating a player outside of just their skill. Over the years it became clear that there were a lot of talented players making some common mistakes that were hurting their recruiting.
Not to say those players didn’t still receive opportunities, but I can confidently say they could have had more.
My goal is to give you some insight from the perspective of a college coach to help you avoid making the same mistakes, here are seven..
1. Your Work Ethic
College coaches want to coach their teams and focus on game planning and player development but when they have to coach you to play hard, it takes away from the potential growth of the team. This reduces your value quickly.
Tanya Warren, Head Women’s Basketball Coach at the University of Northern Iowa speaks on this here:
2. Your Coachability
When players are not coachable it’s a HUGE red flag. Even if you are the best player, it’s extremely unattractive to coaches. There may be a few schools willing to look beyond it but the majority of the time, you will not be recruited at the level you could if you displayed leadership by being able to handle criticism respectfully.
3. Your Body Language
When you are being recruited, coaches are watching your every move. Once they see that you can play at their level, coaches begin to evaluate other areas of you as a player. So each interaction they observe has the potential of helping or hurting your recruiting.
Here are some examples:
With your coach
Poor eye contact
Eye rolls
Disengaged when subbed out
With your teammates
Lack excitement when they make a good play
Showing frustration when they make mistakes
Clear frustration after wins because YOU didn’t play well
With the refs
Complain about every call you disagree with
4. Your Social Media
Posting, retweeting, liking content that uses profanity, drugs, alcohol, nudity or cyberbullying of any kind. Those are just a few things that I witnessed first hand from recruits that we had interest in. These actions unfortunately lead to us removing them from our lists.
5. Your Relationships
How do you treat your mom, your dad, your sisters, brothers, friends, coaches and teammates? College coaches pay attention to all of that.
Carrie Moore, the Recruiting Coordinator for North Carolina WBB says it best here:
6. Your Effort
Coaches appreciate when you put a little effort into the recruiting process. Take some time and do a little research on the programs that you know you will be engaging in conversation with. I’m not saying being fun/engaging on the phone call will get you offers but it definitely helps.
In the beginning stages of recruiting, college coaches call and do their best to introduce you to them and the university they’re representing. The least you can do is do a little research to help the conversation go more smoothly.
Coaches are on the phone with a lot of kids everyday and this is a simple way to separate yourself. In other words, don’t be a dud 😴
If you’re nervous or just not the most interesting person, prepare some educated questions to ask, coaches will appreciate it! So hop on Google and learn some things about your potential future school.
7. Your parents
Coaches LOVE enthusiastic parents but there’s a difference..
Tough but true, parents have the potential to negatively impact their athlete’s recruitment. As mentioned above, once it’s clear a recruit can play at that college’s level they will begin to evaluate other things, including the behaviors of parents.
Here are some examples..
Excessive yelling at refs, coaches and players
Criticizing your athlete’s AAU/HS coaches both to college coaches and on social media
Unrealistic expectations of your athlete’s recruiting process
Final Thoughts
College coaches have a responsibility to the players and families that are currently in their program, so it’s important for them to do their homework on you.
As a recruit and parent, you don’t want any of these easy to change mistakes to detract from your opportunity to play at the next level. So if you are doing any of the above mentioned things, it could be playing a role in your lack of recruiting.
Luckily, there’s still time to make some changes 😊
Happy Recruiting!