What does this mean?

<p>I got this e-mail from <a href="mailto:hoopitup@caltech.edu">hoopitup@caltech.edu</a></p>

<p>Dear packer22,</p>

<p>You have come to my attention as someone who may be a great fit as a student-athlete at Caltech, and I would love to speak with you about the academic and basketball opportunities here in Pasadena, CA.</p>

<p>Caltech is at the top of the world when it comes to math, science, and engineering. The Institute boasts more than 30 Nobel Prize winners and leads all national universities in average starting salary upon graduation. In addition, more undergrads go on to earn PhDs than any other university in the country.</p>

<p>I have only been here since September 2008, but we are already on our way to building a competitive NCAA basketball program. With a solid group of returners and a great incoming recruiting class, we are very excited about the future.</p>

<p>Please fill out our online recruiting form so I can learn more about you as a student and an athlete:</p>

<p>Caltech</a> Athletics : Men's Basketball Prospective Athletes</p>

<p>In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions.</p>

<p>Thank you very much.</p>

<p>Sincerely,</p>

<p>Coach Eslinger</p>

<p>I haven't played basketball since 9th grade, so how did he hear about me?
Maybe they are scraping the bottom of the barrel of 6'3" guys with 800s on their Math SAT? Bizzare? am I really being recruited?</p>

<p>It means they are historically the worst program in the NCAA and are probably exahusting every possible resource in bringing in a player of some respectability. That said, if they are recruiting you don’t count on much; part of their history of losing comes from their lack of any sort of clout with admissions.</p>

<p>I’m more confused how they got my name and email address, I very much doubt anyone in any sort of recruiting circles has heard of me. Moreover, I’m not active in math and science competitions and I don’t even live on the west coast!</p>

<p>It was just totally out of the blue and bizzare. I know they suck as a team, but it might be fun to play college basketball?</p>

<p>Maybe this would be a fun time to mention the truly odd and uncomfortable things that happen during recruiting…Like a coach, thinking she was sending an email message to her assistant, “have you heard of this girl or seen her play?” – and instead sending it to the email address of the high school athlete. (Awkward!)</p>

<p>My daughter also received similar email. She has not played basketball since 8th grade, but
She is a recruited athlete for other sport.<br>
Like You said, this is really weird.</p>

<p>Mom, gosh, that’s terrible! I hope that was all it said and nothing bad!! Like that school principal who meant to complain about a parent to her staff but sent it to the parent instead! Email can be a dangerous thing!!</p>

<p>My kid works in a college coach’s office. They send thousands of emails and snailmails to high school students all over the country. Where do they get the names? In some sports it’s internet databases like athletic.net, dyestat, state championship results, and so on. Mistakes are made. The coach is assuming you will ignore the email if it doesn’t apply to you. Do you have a relatively common name? That could be part of it! If this makes you want to go work on your free throw, great!</p>