I’m a high school senior and I’ve been accepted into one of my dream schools. I’m interested in playing basketball in college and I’m not sure how I should go about contacting coaches. The school I’ve been accepted to (where I’d really like to play) is an NAIA school. I’m graduating from a tiny private high school where I don’t have any contact with recruiters or college coaches. I filled out a perespective athlete form on the school’s athletic website and submitted it. However, I could not attach a highlight video because again, my tiny school does not record my games and I haven’t been able to get any footage.
Should I follow up my form with an email or call to the coach to introduce myself? I’m planning on visiting the campus soon so should I try and arrange to meet with the coach? My team’s regular season is almost over, with only 2 games remaining but then we move on to a tournament out of state. Should I invite a coach to our remaining games?
You should follow up and tell the coach when you’ll be on campus. Send your schedule of play. Some tournaments are filmed and coaches can get access to all games.
Video the balance of your games. Send the coach a link to the videos on You Tube (or where ever). From my POV, most basketball players are recruited because the coach saw them at an AAU tournament, through film or at a recruit camp. Because HS basketball and college ball seasons overlap most college coaches recruit from what they see in AAU. You are definitely late to the game, but the coach may still have slots to fill. It is unlikely the coach can come see you play unless you live local to the coach, they are in the middle of a season too. I find it unlikely they will show interest without film. Most coaches asked my daughter for both a highlight and full game film. No reason you cannot have this done your self. We filmed most high school and AAU games and also paid to have big tournaments filmed and sent the best stuff to the coaches. Let the coach know your schedule and send them your stats, and tell that you have already been accepted, but I would not expect them to be able to come to a game at this point.
Thanks guys. I definitely realize I’m late to the game. That is my fault. Our tournament games will be filmed so I can get those, I just didn’t want to wait until the season was over to get the film to the coach
Hi @felix32 ! Congrats on being excepted in your dream school! Here’s what I’d do:
Send the coach an email. Make sure it's personalized. I say this because coaches get lots of email from recruiting agencies and they are all the same, so they don't stand out in the inbox. Also, make sure you have a very catchy subject line because a coach is more likely to open it.
When you send your email use a service like GetNotify or Yesware to monitor whether or not a coach opens your email. I have GetNotify (it's free) and receive an email whenever someone reads my email.
When you see your email has been opened and the coach hasn't responded within 1 week, follow up with a phone call. Also, it's ok if you want to call the coach as your first step as well.
Please note that it’s basketball season now, so coaches will be super busy. Most basketball coaches recruit in the offseason, during AAU tournaments and such. Most times there is an assistant coach who does most of the recruiting. 99% of coaches want to see you play LIVE in person because anyone can look good on video, so they have to rearrange their schedules during the season to see you play. We are almost to the end of basketball season so it might be too late for them to see you.
Also, when you send your email make sure to include a highlight reel and one half of your best game. Good Luck!
Yes, yes and yes. Borrow or rent a video camera with a tripod and have a friend or relative tape the last few games. It certainly will be worth the try.
You don’t need Martin Scorsese behind the camera, just some video. Phones, ipads or old digital cameras can be fine as long as you keep it steady, keep the traffic in front of the picture to a minimum, and get it online where it can be seen. We used a digilal camera on a knee for sparsely attended tournament games. One more point: in the name of all that’s good and holy pay attention to what’s on the audio. Put the video up with the sound on if it’s just ambient noise with a few parent comments. But if you’re near someone yelling at the ref, or it gets really loud, or people are swearing or not paying attention to the game then mute it or crank the volume down to almost nothing. You would not believe what comes up on those videos sometimes. Yikes.
So I formed a personalized email and sent it to the coach Monday morning. I used getnotify and so far it still hasn’t been opened. I felt like I personalized it enough and included the necessary info. I told him I would follow up with footage of future games and gave him my game schedule as we have a game 30 minutes from the college.
How long should I wait before sending an email or calling him? I’m planning on visiting the campus February 8. I told him in the email that I was going to be coming for a visit within a couple of weeks but I didn’t know the exact date. Should I wait and send an email with game footage and my visit date?
forward the original email to the assistant(s) – preliminary recruiting correspondence is often handled by the assistants. Always copy assistants on emails to head coach.
Try a different way - twitter, text saying ‘I sent you an email’.
If the sport is in season, the coach may not be in the office to go through thousands of emails. D’s sport had their big convention two weekend ago so all coaches were out of town for at least 5 days even though the season has not started. Keep at it.
As you can tell, there is no one single correct way to get from point A to point B – you simply need to get to point B. Use all means of communication to reach out to the coach, and don’t be afraid to reach out more than once. If you were a coach, who would you want on the team: 1) a kid who used his or her head to figure out how to track the coach down and didn’t give up when the coach didn’t get back right away; or 2) a kid who gave up after one try.
I wouldn’t read anything into the coach having received but not opened the email yet. As noted, the coach is probably very busy with the team, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he isn’t interested.
In the meanwhile, get your video situation straightened out so you have the tapes that you have offered.
@twoinanddone would sending a text be too unprofessional? I don’t want to be too annoying but then again, I’d rather show the coach that I’m really interested in his school and program and am willing to pursue my dream.
If It were me, after sending emails to assistants, I would give them 4 or 5 days and then call them. Leave a message if you get VM. And as everyone has said, you need video… It does not have to be professional, but the sooner you can get them something the sooner they can figure out if you are what they need.
Thanks @mamom I have a game Sunday and a game Tuesday so I’m going to get footage of those and send that film along with an update on what date I’ll be coming for a campus visit.
My daughter did texts and snapchat. Coaches contacted her that way too.
We got our video from another player on our team. The guy was of course filming his daughter, but he gave us the video and daughter picked out the one that was her best game. She also did a few showcase tournaments and those are filmed and put online for any coach to watch. D would send an email to the coaches to direct them to which games she was in, and how to pick her out of the herd (“I wear #25, I have a long black braid, and my stick is wrapped in yellow and red tape”) and even the time on the tape where she did something fabulous ("@ the 5:20 minute mark I score on the left side") Coaches aren’t going to watch 3 hours of tape so direct them to your highlights.