Emailing Coaches

Prep School Admissions
1

I’m going to be visiting some schools, and I was wondering if I should email the coaches beforehand. I’m not too good at the sports I play, but I’m still thinking that I should reach out and see if it would be possible to meet, right?

2

You should reach out but don’t make them think that you are a huge star unless you really are. Be real with them about your skill in your sports and how you would improve at their school.

3

I don’t know what I thought, but emailing coaches never crossed my mind! Ugh, it is too late now.

4

@ilovechoateeeee It’s really not. AO’s haven’t even started reviewing app’s yet (maybe some have, but most students haven’t even finished their apps yet). Shoot the coaches an email, and include video if you have.

5

@ThomasBr Well, I’m not that good at the sport and I don’t have a video. Should I still email?

6

Depends on how “not good” you are. Do you play any sports well enough to make a varsity team freshman year? If yes, definitely email coaches. Have you been on any teams that won anything with a contribution from you? Definitely email coaches. Is there a sport you absolutely love regardless of your talent, email the coaches.

7

If none of those resonate with you I’d say it probably cannot hurt to email coaches as long as you are absolutely planning to play that sport at BS.

8

@dogsmama1997 Thanks! I will definitely email them

9

If you aren’t great I think (and this is 100% my uneducated opinion) a great email would be something like this:

Hi Coach …
I am interested in playing x sport for x school next year. I’m wondering what skills you consider vital for a freshman hoping to make the varsity team. I am planning to work hard on my game over the summer.

There is a school near us that has coaches requirements on the website. You have to be able to do 1,2,3 for me to consider you for varsity.

10

Here is my input, again, and it worked for kiddo…The coaches had no idea and possibly no interest in kiddo because kiddo was not a blip on the radar screen up in NE. Coaches in certain sports may have their homing devices set to certain channels, meaning certain schools and certain clubs/travel teams. So advice to students: If you are coming from far away or a different country, you may have to let yourself be know to those BS coaches. MaxPreps and Huddle were not enough. We did do-it-yourself highlight videos that were less than a minute, had good recommendations, good stats, and packaged the MaxPrep results. We contacted coaches who were all (except for one school) very willing to meet with kiddo during the school visit/interview/tour. Even if you are good, don’t expect them to find you on their own. If you are genuinely interested in that school, contact the coaches. Please be respectful of their time.

  • On another note: We did find that one “lockjaw” school’s coaches for certain sports were acatually part-time and non-faculty. This was actually a blessing in disguise. They were harder to contact and did not return our emails. Kiddo beat them soundly this year in one of the sports. Looking forward to golf season. Their loss in every way =;
11

I think it is good to contact coaches in general for sports you are interested in playing, primarily to get a sense for the personality of the coach and nature of how the team operates. That is good insight for applicants in assessing what the team/coach might be like to play for. But in terms of the interaction helping your odds for getting accepted, it will only be if the coach assesses that you will be an impact player for the team. The whole process varies from school to school, but at least for some sports the coach will go to admissions with a list of players that he/she wants to support as candidates. And generally that list will be ranked. And probably the impact/influence of coaches of different sports with admissions will vary across schools.