Top Mistakes Made When Communicating With College Coaches

[heybuckethead]

Wondering what some of the old pros and new stars think are the top mistakes made by players/parents/coaches when communicating with college coaches in the recruiting process? I love to see the emails addressed to Coach X from College X but the body of the email refers to Coach Y from College Y.

[Sam]

Wondering what some of the old pros and new stars think are the top mistakes made by players/parents/coaches when communicating with college coaches in the recruiting process? I love to see the emails addressed to Coach X from College X but the body of the email refers to Coach Y from College Y.

Spamming 100 college coaches and having 12 of them show up at one game to see you because of the passion in your email regarding playing for them and how you love their school.

[Demonboy]

Parents doing the contacting instead of the player.

[CheckWriter]

[quote]Parents doing the contacting/quote]

Especially during times when the college coaches know the kids are in school ... there is a date & time stamp on every email.

Parents calling the coaches at all (unless they are asked about nuts and bolts of travel arrangements, etc).

[Canocorn]

Parents/Coaches over estimating little Suzies abilities. Always love hearing about how their pitcher is being recruited by Arizona. And they say it with a straight face.

[Blind Squirrel]

Parents doing the contacting/quote]

Especially during times when the college coaches know the kids are in school ... there is a date & time stamp on every email.

Parents calling the coaches at all (unless they are asked about nuts and bolts of travel arrangements, etc).

My wife sent emails and signed my kids name. Don't know if the coaches knew. My wife also had numerous email exchanges and phone calls with different college coaches. Not one coach backed off. But, if I'm a coach, I am infinitely less interested in the source of the contact than I am in whether a kid might have the ability to help my team. The only time the parent's involvement seemed to be of any concern was when coaches watched the way the kid treated their parents. As one coach said, I'm not going to be coaching the parents, I may be coaching the kid. I heard directly from a PAC10 coach that a particular recruit's parents was a complete A-Hole. The kid got the offer and accepted. How many top travel coaches have players with parents that are known pains-in-the-Ass?


John

[Tucson]

And don't mention that you plan on moving, with your DD, where ever she might land a scholarship.

[ECSB]

Ok- everyone says that parents should not contact the coach - but what do you do with a 15 year old that is super shy? I am also writing letters and emails for the kid - I have her send them from her email account and ask her to review them before I send them and she does make changes to letters and emails. I told her to let me know if she gets a reply, but she shouldn't hear anything but "we can't contact you" for another 6 months to a year. The kid is great at one word answers and has to be pushed to talk. We know she's gotta do it, but any advice. She would prefer to talk with her bat, not her mouth, but that is not always possible.

[sftball1]

My daughter was the same way. Once she gets to know you, can't get her to shut up, but hates to talk on the phone and is shy around adults.

The first few times she called, she actually wrote out the script on paper of what she wanted to say and answers to questions we thought they might ask. We even practiced before she called the coach. After we forced her to do it a few times, now she's a lot more comfortable doing it. (And I literally mean forced, picked up the phone, called the number and handed the phone to her). She even mentioned the other day that she hasn't had to use a script the last few times she's called a coach and acknowledged that it's definitely a good skill to have.

I think this is an important skill to learn now because it will definitely make it easier when they're looking for jobs later on and just makes them appear more mature.

[Demonboy]

Ok- everyone says that parents should not contact the coach - but what do you do with a 15 year old that is super shy? I am also writing letters and emails for the kid - I have her send them from her email account and ask her to review them before I send them and she does make changes to letters and emails. I told her to let me know if she gets a reply, but she shouldn't hear anything but "we can't contact you" for another 6 months to a year. The kid is great at one word answers and has to be pushed to talk. We know she's gotta do it, but any advice. She would prefer to talk with her bat, not her mouth, but that is not always possible.

Not what I said (or meant to say). I said the parents should not contact the coach INSTEAD of the player. It's better if the player is also involved in the process. While it may not be a deal breaker, it DOES make a difference to many coaches.