A: It’s important to follow-up with schools after sending your highlights. To be honest, coaches don’t always have a ton of time to watch film from unsolicited (not requested) recruits and they may get hundreds of emails, calls and packages each month from players they know nothing about. This is why it’s important to follow-up after you send your film!
It’s also critical that you are sending your videos to the correct person and sending it to their real e-mail, or calling their direct office number. (Click HERE to find out how to get this information.)
Keep your emails/voicemails short and simple:
Coach,
This is [NAME], I’m a [FR/SO/JR/SR] from [HIGH SCHOOL] in [CITY, ST]. I sent you my highlights last week and wanted to follow up to see if you were able to evaluate them. I’m very interested in your program.
Here is a link to my highlights: [YouTube/HUDL link]
I’ve also included a copy of my Student-Athlete Resume (Attach a Word document or cut and paste below).
Thank you for your time!
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR PHONE NUMBER]
You may have a lot of unreturned emails and voicemails during this process, but don’t let that stop you. Don’t make excuses. Don’t tell your life story and why all of your personal problems have held you back. Keep it short and sweet. Remember—you just need that one coaching staff to believe in you, not 50 scholarship offers.
If you aren’t a senior and aren’t hearing much back, wait until the season is over or try again during a different time of year. Depending on the sport and time of year, coaches may not have much time to watch unsolicited players as they might during the “offseason” months.
Don’t limit yourself to sending film to a handful of schools. If you are a junior or older with no interest, you need to be sending it to all schools within a 200-500 (or larger) mile radius from where you live.
Keep it short and to the point, coaches (or someone on their staff) are scanning for the key details—grad year, school, stats, physical stats!
