Emailing a College Coach
What to include in every email to a college coach
General Information: Full name, Graduation Year, High School Name, Club and Club Team Name/Year
Academic Information: Most Up To-Date GPA (be accurate), Test Scores
Soccer Specific Information: Position and position stats like goals, assists, saves, etc. Also include team achievements and relevant team stats, athletic stats, or relevant physical attributes like height or speed. Include your next tournament and upcoming schedule if you have it. Include a highlight video or if you are making one, say you will send it to them soon.
Contact Information: Your best phone number and email, as well as the contact information for the coaches you want them to contact.
What college coaches want to see:
Less is more when it comes to detailed information. College coaches can receive 100’s of emails per day and don’t have time to read through every detail of your life. Skip the “I started playing at 5 years old” and provide high level relevant stats for them. This is where you need to start putting yourself in a college coach’s shoes. Ask yourself what they want to see and start selling yourself. Pro Tip: Keep it simple!
Subject lines should showcase your best Highlights!
Include: Graduation year, position, major academic statistics (if relevant), team, and possibly your upcoming schedule if attached or new video if relevant. Show #’s and statistics.
Exclude: Exclude long words and unnecessary information. Abbreviate when you can. Stop at a maximum of 50 characters.
Examples:
2023 CDM, Placer United Black, 4.2GPA, 29 ACT
2022 GK 6’2’’, De Anza ECNL, 1300 SAT, NEW VIDEO
2022 FWD, San Juan 04’s, Surf Tournament Schedule
2021 CM, MVLA Blue, *Updated 4.23 GPA, 33 ACT
Intro sentence should highlight WHY you are interested in the college and the soccer program. Soccer is a great place to start and then get into how the school fits your athletic AND academic desires. Pro Tip: Use soccer first and academics second. Remember college soccer coaches are looking to build a good soccer team first.
Examples:
I’ve been following the success of your program over the past year and wanted to reach out with interest in joining your program.
I’d like to express interest in attending your school after speaking with my good friend Jane Doe about her experience with the program.
I see you are graduating two goalkeepers in the next two years and wanted to extend my interest in your program.
Example email
Subject Line: 2022 Center Forward, Top Scorer, De Anza Force 04 Elite, 1340 SAT
Dear Coach Johnson,
I have been following your team for the past year and was impressed by your 10-4-4 record in 2019. After watching a few games online I was even more impressed with your style of play. I wanted to reach out to show my interest because it seems like your program has the exact academic and soccer profile I am interested in.
My name is John Doe and I am a 5’8” forward on De Anza Force 04’s Elite. I have been playing with the De Anza Force Soccer Club for 4 years and recently was awarded the top scorer of our team and second in our NPL league. I think my work ethic and desire to constantly improve and challenge myself would make me a great fit for your program.
Academically, I have a 4.0 GPA and take numerous AP and honors classes at Madeup High School in Madeup, CA. After studying during the early part of my season I took the SAT and scored a 1340 and am interested in studying biology at your university. I hear X University has a great reputation for its sciences.
I recently created a highlight video from our previous NPL season and I hope you view it here: Youtube or Vimeo Link
I hope to get back out on the field soon and will send you my schedule as soon as we get an updated version. If you are interested in seeing full game video from last season please let me know as I have a few good games against some of the best teams in the league available.
Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon!
John Doe
Class of 2022
Junior | Center Forward | 5’8’’
Online Profile: Link
Highlight Video: Link
Cell Phone: 444-444-4444
Coach’s Name: Robert Lewandowski
Coach’s Cell: 555-555-5555
MOST IMPORTANT THING: This comes from your email. You, as the prospective student-athlete, did the writing of this email. And you CC’d all the coaches on staff or directed this email to all 2-4 of them by taking the time to look up the staff. This takes time but shows genuine interest. Remember you are starting a process of getting to know and building a relationship with a college program and staff. You want to start it out on the right foot. An automated recruiting service that blasts 100 programs is not as genuine and often gets read and quickly deleted or blasted back with camp advertisement. Personalized emails get read and prioritized.
Pro Tip #1: Turn on read receipts on your email to see who viewed it. Read how here
Pro Tip #2: All colleges have an athletic staff directory so you can find almost everyone’s email or office number with a little research. Here is UPenn’s.
Pro Tip #3: Edit and review your email. Try not to leave too many grammatical errors in the email. But if you do have one it is okay. It shows this is not automated and you as a human are writing it and are showing real interest.
Pro Tip #4: Never email a schedule the night before a showcase/tournament. Always provide coaches at least a few days to get a schedule of games to watch together. If you email the night before your email should only be to update times or field changes otherwise you won’t be on the schedule if you send it too late.
Pro Tip #5: Coaches usually work in the office, on the field, and out recruiting (or now at home). Don’t worry if you don’t get an email back right away. It can take some time for coaches to filter emails and a coach will likely get to your email sooner or later when he or she is processing new emails from recruits.
Follow up emails
So now it has been a few days and you either have or haven’t heard from the colleges you reached out to. It is okay if they all don’t reach out immediately.
If a school DID reach out then you can start a process of communicating with them by sending them an update at least once a month. It doesn’t necessarily matter what you are updating them on, but you should send an email that reinforces your interest. Provide any relevant updates to your grades, test scores, plans to test, tournament schedule, updated video/highlight video, etc.
Additionally you may want to ask some questions. Adequate ways to check-in with coaches include: asking for feedback on the recruiting class or asking about the plan for that program returning to play, train, or even have student-athlete’s on campus. All you need is a good question to keep the conversation going.
Here is an example of a good follow up email after a coach responds to you:
Subject Line: 2022 Center Forward, Top Scorer, De Anza Force, *UPDATED 4.1 GPA
Dear Coach Johnson,
Thank you for your response. I wanted to update you on my most recent GPA which is 3.90 unweighted and 4.11 weighted. I’m working hard both on the field and in the classroom in order to find a great soccer program and university like yours.
As a reminder I was the top scorer on my De Anza Force team this past season and have just found out we will be attending the XYZ Showcase in Las Vegas and the ABC Tournament in Phoenix in the coming months. I will get you those schedules as soon as we get them and hope to either see you there or will send video links to the games or highlights from my play at each event.
I would be very much interested in coming to visit campus and want to know if it might be possible to set up a time to meet with you on campus in the coming months.
In case you haven’t seen my highlight video from the 2019 NPL season, here is the link: Youtube or Vimeo Link
I am looking forward to getting back on the field soon in Las Vegas and Phoenix. On top of training with our team I have been doing small group training, individual trainings and strength work to try to continue to push my game and athleticism to the next level even during this stoppage here in California due to COVID-19.
Again, thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon!
John Doe
Class of 2022
Junior | Center Forward | 5’8’’
Online Profile: Link
Highlight Video: Link
Cell Phone: 444-444-4444
Coach’s Name: Robert Lewandowski
Coach’s Cell: 555-555-5555
Coach’s Email: rlow@gmail.com
If a school DID NOT reach out and respond to your initial email you want to send them a follow up email a few weeks later. Usually 2-3 weeks later is a good amount of time to allow someone to filter an inbox and respond to your email.
If the program did not respond then make sure you have all the correct emails and names and resend your initial email with an added line that you reached out a few weeks prior and are very interested in learning more about that program and would like to provide an updated schedule or highlight video or GPA. Most programs will respond with either camp information or a generic “please fill out our questionnaire online” which enters you into the recruiting software and will at least get things started.
Again, if a program isn’t reaching out keep trying and eventually you will likely get someone to start a process with you. It’s either that or eliminate that program from your list and add another and keep going. You never know what is going on with coaching staffs and programs. They can be in flux and the timing might not be good for them. If you really like a school and they don’t respond to an initial email, don’t get discouraged!
Tips for younger PSAs:
Freshman and sophomores in high school, these tips are for you!
As you know, programs cannot respond directly to you so you will receive a generic response with camp info and probably a link to fill out a questionnaire. Just because you are a freshman or sophomore does not mean YOU cannot email and update coaches. And in fact, the better you are at this the more likely you are to get on a program’s radar and recruiting lists.
Pro Tip #1: Be consistent with athletic and academic updates! New test scores, GPA, highlight videos, or tournament/showcase schedules are great follow up emails to provide to coaches. I would be emailing your list of 20-30 programs with a monthly update from the moment you make a list in that freshman or sophomore year until June 15th after your sophomore year, when programs can finally respond without restriction. And don’t worry if they don’t reach out or you keep getting a generic email back. Lots of programs are playing catch up right now due to the pandemic and the early communication only gives you a leg up on others.
Pro Tip #2: Always add your club/high school/academy coach’s name and contact information! Remember this is the only way college coaches can get in touch with you or find out about you.
Pro Tip #3: Turn on email read receipts so you can see who viewed your email. Learn how here
How often should I email?
No matter what grade you are in, the very minimum you should be reaching out is once a month to your list of schools. You can email more often if you have updates like new test scores, highlights, schedules, GPA or any other relevant information they might want to know.
Final Pro Tips:
Use a separate email address for your recruiting. Keep your high school and social accounts separate, as it will help you track your contacts and keep you more organized. Your new email address should be your name and grad year. Example: peter.lowry2023@gmail.com
Never email a schedule to a showcase/tournament the night before the event. Coaches make their schedules the day before the event or even earlier so make sure you give them time to add you and your team to their schedule by emailing well in advance. Coaches go watch players who email them beforehand and teams that are successful but they don’t watch players who email last minute.
After you’ve participated in a tournament, reach out and ask if they were able to see you play. Ask for feedback from them on things to work on and then work on them!
Pair up tournaments and showcase locations with college visits if possible.
It is never a bad idea to ask college coaches if you can access game film or highlights of their team. The same goes for asking for information on that particular university or the academic curriculum.