Sending emails/letters to college coaches

The only think that email does is make me think I might have a paying camper.
Your email has to have impact and that seems very typical.

Like I said, it's a short version. But the intent is "I'm ready to be seen. This is where I can be seen." It seems silly to me for a high school freshman or JV player to send emails to colleges. He's not ready to be seen. There are some very unique situation of a high school JV player sitting behind three 90+ starters in a program that recruits. But I believe the intent of the question is clear.

I prefer
Dear Coach Martin.
I have been following your BB program for the last 10 minutes and I am very interested in attending XYZ College.
I am a 6'3" JR, varsity LHP and have been on the deans list for 2 years. I have a DVD that shows game footage available to send to you if you are interested. Please get back to me.

Best regards
Randy Johnston

Always insert a photo showing who you are and mechanics etc.

That's my point ..... ready to be seen, not hoping to develop and play there in the future.

I though your point was about emails being common place and not getting noticed.

I think either one is fine. They both say about the same things. All I have to add is that at a camp my son recently attended one college coach stated that they do like to get emails. They want to know who wants to attend their school. If they read or see something that peaks their interest they will do some investigating about the player and initiate some preliminary contact.

quote:

Originally posted by BobbleheadDoll:
I though your point was about emails being common place and not getting noticed.

My point is I believe there are kids sending out emails before they are ready to be seen and it's a waste of time. If a lot of kids are sending them out before they're ready, it becomes so common place I'd think there's a point where coaches tune it out and it loses it's effectiveness. Imagine how many emails the top programs get from dreamers.

I think, if the player is initiating the contact, that the e-mail should specifically ask for feedback on how best to pursue further contact with the school. Ask about visits, whether official or un-. Ask about the prospect of being included in a junior day. Tell them you plan on coming to campus to see some games, and you would like to know if any particular game would be better than another in terms of combining it with a chance to meet the coaches before or after, and/or to tour the campus from a pure student perspective.

But also remember that a lot of times, the initial e-mail comes from a coach on the staff. So the reply will need to address the specific inquiries. None of these e-mails should be ignored. And you don't want to be evasive. You do need to be careful as to what you say and how you say it, however. Which was my point made in the other thread.

P.S.

Usually it is one assistant's job to handle all these communications. You may not get a reply right away, but I've never known an e-mail to go completely without response, or only an autoresponse without a later specific follow-up. That doesn't guarantee interest, of course, but no one wants to find out later they overlooked a stud, so they tend to sift through everyone to see who's who, and initial contacts are generally not ignored.

Some coaches read every email or watch every CD sent, others either file under G or ask someone else to respond.

Just as the coach has to sort through all the emails the player has to sort through all of his stuff too and should be realistic.

You might send a email and most likely in return get an camp brochure, you might attend one camp and get no attention, you might attend another and they are going to watch you. The same goes for any tournament or showcase you attend. I suppose these days, the object is to throw enough you know what into the fan and some of it will stick. Too much competition these days.

If someone wants to send out emails, who is to say he should or should not? If you don't get a response you learn from it, ok, I'll try again next year. I think that it is good practice to begin early, especially when a young player takes on the task himself.

Midlodad made a good suggestion in the other thread, but a coach told me once that he usually can spot an email or letter sent by parents as opposed to those sent by a player. He's usually very interested in the latter, shows lots of moxie and desire others don't have.

Just make sure that you use spellcheck.

MidloDad had some great advice in the other thread in which you speak.

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4686003481/m/8381066213

My #1 tip (learned from this website) would be to include a youtube video or website link. All the coach has to do is click a button and they can instantly connect with a player. For hitters, I would show batting practice video from multiple angles (side/front) and perhaps some fielding video. For pitchers, I think it would be helpful if someone mentioned the velocity in the video although it would not be a deal killer. CPLZ's video of his son pitching was very impressive. List vitals like ht, wt, 60 time, velocity, grades. Find a personal reason why you would want to attend that school. Do not send e-mails that look like mass-mailings!!!!

It appears by a majority of the responses most people have misunderstood what I'm asking. I am NOT asking what should be in the letter.

I AM asking if people feel a lot of dreamers flooding colleges coach's email boxes with letters when they have nothing to sell will diminish the value of sending emails because it could cause coaches to stop reading them.

SECOND, What is the value of emailing a coach when you haven't accomplished anything worth selling? I have to figure coaches get thousands of these.

I think you are right RJM. The more unnecessary emails that coaches the harder it will be for someone who is "selling" something to be able to make a real contact.

To really get an idea of what's going on I guess we would need to know on average how many emails a coach gets in a day, week or month to get a good idea. But let's be honest an email isn't really going to get you very far.

Let's say a kid plays for a great HS team and / or a great travel team but doesn't play a lot. He sends an email to a coach and the coach sees he is in two good programs does that mean he works this kid into his plans or does he still want to see this kid in some capacity? My money is on he wants to see them before anything really happens. That is where it gets to WHAT you put into the email.

Here is in my opinion what you need to put in

Background Info - name, address, phone (just in case), email, HS, Travel team

HS / Travel Team Coaches info

Academic background

YouTube link (or something similar) no longer than 3 minutes

Ask about their camps

Ask about what other events they will be at you can be seen - I don't think you can just rely on their camps because they are going to be busy making money. Find a place where they are only observing and if you stood out at the camp they will be watching you.

Basically this first email needs to be the player asking the coach what needs to be done to be seen. I wouldn't even send a schedule at this point - save this for later when there is an actual dialogue.

Also, take the time to find out who the recruiting coach is and send this to them and not the head coach. If you can't find the recruiting coach then call the athletic department and ask who you need to send the email to.

I wish this stuff was around back in the day when I was actually halfway decent at baseball.

Let's remember that as a freshman or sophmore the coach can only send a questionaire and/or camp brochure.

The player has to determine what he will do with that questionaire and camp brochure. Is he ready to be seen by the coach in his sophmore year? I see nothing wrong with a young player introducing himself to a coach by way of letter or email.

I agree with sending info to the letter to the recruting coaches attention.

You are right; the coaches of top programs get inundated with mail and emails. What is important for a prospect is to understand what your capabilities are athletically and scholastically. It is their job to field the inquires and sort through them, no matter how much. If they are a big program that gets a lot of prospects, they will have an infrastructure to handle them. If they are not a top program, the recruiting cycle of players is a little later and not as great due to players looking for higher visibility programs. If they miss a high prospect, it is their problem, but you will be surprised how aware of the prospects they are.

If you have the skills and the grades, the coach will keep you in the pipeline. If you don't have the grades, it will disqualify you quickly.

Top programs will be looking a few years out for players, meaning being freshman or sophomore prospects and get commitments early their junior year. If you play in a high school program with top prospects you may not play varsity until your junior year due to who is ahead of you even if you are somewhat talented, but if you play on a grade specific travel program, you can differentiate yourself on the field that the coaches can project you out a few years.

quote:

My money is on he wants to see them before anything really happens. That is where it gets to WHAT you put into the email.

This is why I mentioned when someone HAS something to sell, include the high school and travel schedule in the contact letter.

I agree that kids and parent shoud be realistic, but from what I am seeing that is a problem in this recruiting process. Alot of parents and kids shoot higher than what is realistic. Suprise!! It has probably has been this way for ever and most likely won't change any time soon.

The other thing is who determines if you have something to sell or not. If a kid is playing varsity in his sophomore year for a small HS program does he have more to sell than a kid who is playing JV for a large program. The JV kid might be better. Their are different levels of travel ball also.

I think sending a video of a players strong skill is a good idea. That way a college coach can make his own determination of the kids talent. If he likes what he sees, one phone call to a trusted contact in the area can let the coach know if the kid and the college fit.

RJM,

1. I suspect that e-mails have already peaked for college programs, and so the schools are already geared up to handle the floods that they regularly get. So no, I don't think it stops being valuable. It might be a case of panning for gold from the coaches' perspective, but it's part of the recruiting element of their jobs.

I suspect they prefer e-mail to other forms of correspondence because it's faster, cheaper, and allows for ease of copying in form responses when you're trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.

2. There probably isn't much value to e-mailing if you have nothing to sell. Lots of those e-mailing never get anywhere. But on the other hand, the fact that you never made all district doesn't necessarily mean you can't play. Lots of us know kids frozen out of such honors by politics, or kids who had a strong season but who have glaring weaknesses that would make them poor candidates for D-1 college ball. E.g., the HR hitter who is too heavy and immobile to play at a higher level. So, the mere absence, or presence, of certain resume credits is not dispositive. The coaches have to decide who looks like someone to follow and who doesn't. Trying to get kids to come to camps helps them not only to make some money (in all honesty) but also to get a real look at kids in person, hundreds at a time. So don't be surprised if you get that form response! But then, maybe you DO need to go to the camp, if you really want to get noticed.

I do not think you should wait until you earn some sort of resume credits to send notes, for a host of reasons. First, you may not have gotten certain honors just because you're still an underclassman, and yet, colleges are filling their recruiting needs earlier and earlier. Wait too long and you might miss out. Second, the plaudits may never come, so why wait? Just because you get screwed over in high school doesn't mean someone else can't appreciate your talents. In the final analysis, the college coaches are going to rely more on their own assessments of your current, and projected future capabilities, than anything you or anyone else could tell them. From a player's perspective, you should not eliminate yourself from consideration. Plenty of schools will eliminate you as it is without you ruling out places that might have come through, had you given them the chance.

TPM,

3. I agree that parents should not write their kids' e-mails. There's a difference between reviewing and suggesting changes, on the one hand, and taking over/writing a note and claiming it came from your son, on the other. I agree that coaches can smell those a mile away and it makes a bad impression as to the kid's maturity/ability to handle his own dealings.

BTW, most college recruiters develop networks of local contacts whose judgment they trust, usually certain high school coaches. Make one phone call and run a list of names and get feedback; continue on by asking if there are any others you should look at.

So go ahead and e-mail, and at least get them asking the questions about you, and give yourself a chance.

They also have scouts that do a lot of legwork for them to check out anyone they are interested in.

Yup, but that is a later step. First they have to decide whom they're going to go see, because they can't get to all of them. Not even at a PG event, though those surely help!

quote:

Originally posted by RJM:


Is there a point where emailing coaches becomes so common place it becomes meaningless? If it gets an auto-reply has it already become meaningless?


Anything less seems meaningless to me.

I spoke with a HC from a D1 program this morning. He welcomes ALL inquiries, no matter the year, age, JV, Varsity whatever. His philosophy, you never discourage anyone, and never assume that coaches throw away anything.

BTW, strongly suggests sending letters for freshman and sophmores. In return you will get what is ALLOWED by NCAA rules. Never take it as non interest.