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.
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!
3 Steps To Help You Get Recruited During COVID-19
The Spring evaluation period has already been cancelled due to Covid-19 and it’s unclear how this pandemic will affect the rest of the summer.As the July recruiting period hangs in the balance, there are many athletes unhappy with their current offers.
Here are 3 steps that you can take to be proactive during this time:
The Spring evaluation period has already been cancelled due to Covid-19 and it’s unclear how this pandemic will affect the rest of the summer.
As the July recruiting period hangs in the balance, there are many athletes unhappy with their current offers.
Here are 3 steps that you can take to be proactive during this time:
1. Research/Know your fit and make a list
When looking at schools that you want to attend, create a list of things that you want out of your college experience. Do your homework and make sure that the academics and athletic program aligns with your wants.
There likely won’t be a perfect match but if you come up with your non-negotiables (ex: Engineering program, uptempo playing style, within 5 hours from home) you will be able to come up with 8-10 schools that you could envision yourself playing for, maybe more.
Once you’ve made this list, organize the schools starting with your top choices.
Quick tip: Make sure your list is realistic. If you are being recruited mostly at the D2 level, then creating a list full of D1 programs isn’t the best way to spend your time.
Unless you’re planning on going pro, don’t get too hung up on level. Go where you’re wanted, where you can have an impact and great experience on the court, campus and classroom.
2. Gather and Send
Now that you have your list, you need to get all of the contact information of the coaching staff, you can usually find all of this on the athletics website. It’s best to send your email to all staff, giving it a higher chance to be opened.
You will also want to gather recent full game film, a highlight video if you have one, your stats, any awards you received and your GPA. Once you have all of these, it’s time to draft your email.
Keeping the email to 5 to 6 sentences is ideal. Do your best to leave out your life story (save that for the recruiting calls). You want to make the email easy to read and to the point. Throw in a quick compliment of the program, why you’re interested and let them know you’re excited to speak with them.
Quick tip: If you’re being recruited by anyone that they compete with, let them know. It helps to quickly give coaches perspective on what level you are and may intrigue them more.
Once you’ve drafted your email, make sure to include the game film(s), your contact information (include social media ex. Twitter handle), your coach’s contact information and links to any articles that feature you.
Try to personalize these emails as much as possible. Triple check to make sure that when you’ve created your template, you’re not putting in the wrong school name or coach’s name in the message :)
Finally, the subject line. This is very important. It will be the first thing they see so make sure to include your full name, year and position.
3. Don’t be shy - Follow up!
You want to stand out from the competition? Get on the phone. We all know how many kids are awkward and don’t enjoy being on the phone but one way to separate yourself is to actually reach out to the coach and introduce yourself.
Nervous? Here’s a little script to give you some guidance:
Hey Coach ______, this is Mya Hooper. I’m a 2021 and I’m very interested in your program. I sent you and the coaching staff an email last week with some game film that I would love to get your feedback on.
Here are some potential scenarios:
They haven’t watched: Let them know you’ll send another email with it attached when you get off the phone.
They watched and are interested: See if it’s possible to set up a virtual tour with your family. FaceTime is your best friend during these unique times!
They watched and it’s not a good fit: Cool, use it as an opportunity to get some free advice to get better!
They don’t answer: Leave a voicemail or shoot them a quick text once you’re off the phone.
Your goal with this phone call is to see if they are recruiting your position in your class. Some schools would be a great fit but they just don’t have a need for your position.
If that’s the case, great, move on, there’s plenty more out there. It’s better to find that out now so that you can put more time into pursuing other opportunities.
No response to your email and no phone number to call?
No problem, keep emailing! You have to understand that coaches are receiving close to one hundred emails a week from athletes interested in their program so it’s likely they just missed yours.
Give it a few days to a week between and keep reaching out until you get a response. Persistence is key!
--- Happy recruiting!