How To Communicate With College Coaches: FREE Email Template Included

August 24, 2018

Learn the best ways to communicate with college coaches, as stated in interviews with current coaches. Included is a FREE email template to use when emailing a coach.

Communicating with a college coach is intimidating. "How? What do I say? Do they prefer phone calls or Emails? What are the rules?" Hopefully, this will be able to calm your fears a little bit and help you go in with confidence when communicating with one or multiple collegiate soccer coaches.

First, it helps to know the rules.

The NCAA doesn't show leniency for ignorance of their rules, and their rules change constantly. This post is updated as of August of 2018.

Coaches are not allowed to respond to or contact players until September 1st of their junior year of high school. This does NOT mean players should wait to contact coaches until then, this simply means players will not see the results of their hard work until September 1st of their junior year. Players should start contacting coaches as a freshman or sophomore to come watch them play and communicate to coaches their interest. For a list of things Freshman and Sophomores should be doing prior to this date CLICK HERE.

On this date, September 1st of the junior year, Division One, and Division Two college coaches are allowed to send written recruiting information.

Coaches can talk to club or high school coaches about players before junior year. These coaches should be acting as an advocate. For a timeline of communication rules (i.e. when coaches can respond) CLICK HERE.

As of February of this year, there are some new rules from the NCAA.

1. During ID Camps, coaches can no longer have recruiting conversations before September 1 of the player's junior year of high school.

2. Unofficial visits are now just simple visits to campus to learn about the school from a student perspective. These visits are paid for by the student-athlete (or parent). Players are not allowed to meet with the coaches until September 1st of their junior year of high school, which would then be considered an "official visit", and this would be paid for by the school.

The 4 C's to Communication:

According to Patty Costlow, Recruiting Coordinator, there are 4 C's to communication that can help guide the process of communicating with coaches.

1. CLEAR: Be easy to understand.

2. CONSISTENT: Keep in touch.

According to Coach Schellas Hyndman of FC Dallas in an article by US Youth Soccer, it is best to contact a coach via Email no more than once per week. One email per week is being consistent, but not overbearing. The NCAA actually has a rule that coaches can only contact players once per week, so it is best to follow that rule with contacting coaches as well.

3. CANDID: Be blunt. It is much easier and saves time. Coaches are so busy, they need every second of their day.

4. CONSTRUCTIVE: Be useful. Tell them the honest information they need to hear. What position you play, your strengths, why you fit their academic and athletic program, etc.

HELPFUL TIPS: Coaches dig deep. They look at social media, they pay attention to see if players can communicate well on the phone (when the time comes). Becoming a college athlete means becoming a better person in general. Use these communication keys in all aspects of life.

E-mails Should Include:

1. Personalize each email – If you don’t take the time to personalize the email to the coach, they won’t take the time to respond.

2. Contact information for your coaches – When emailing a college coach before they are allowed to respond, they need the contact information for high school or club coaches so they can let them know they are interested.

3. Basic athletic and academic information – Position, grades, maybe some stats.

4. When and where you are competing – This could be a high school team schedule, a tournament schedule, etc. When players are going to compete emails should be sent out.

5. Parents CC'd on emails – The coaches are recruiting players, not parents. The players are the ones who should be sending out emails, creating relationships, and doing the work. Emails should come from the player's email accounts with the parents CC'd on them.

FREE Email Template

Dear [Coach’s Name],

My name is [Your Name], I am part of the class of [Your Graduating Class] at [Your High School] in [Your Hometown and State]. I am interested in [The Name of The University] and learning more about your program.

[Include information here about the research you did into their program, and why you are a good fit for the school academically and athletically]

[List your GPA and test scores here if you have taken them].

I play [List your position here and the name of your team]. Some of my best accomplishments to date are [list your top two or three best stats, awards]. You can view my complete online profile here [Link to your online profile if you have one, which you should, or just attach a resume]. Here is a link to my highlight tape [link to your online highlight tape,]. Please feel free to contact my coach(es) [List the email and phone number for your high school and/or club team coach]. Here is my upcoming schedule:

Date Location Name of Event My Team Name

3/15/2018 SLC, UT Tournament Best Team

[ If you are past September 1st of your junior year ask a question about the school AND the soccer program here giving them more of a reason to respond].

I look forward to hearing back from you and learning more about your program.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Email]

[Phone]