The players who get the MOST attention from college coaches are NOT the most talented players.

The players who get the most attention are those who COMMUNICATE the best with college coaches.

Most high school players communicate poorly with college coaches. Their responses are vague and open-ended, leading to more confusion than clarity.

My most important job is coaching the players I work with to respond skillfully.

If you want me to coach YOU, reply to this email or send me a text at 319-883-0242.

Effective responses start with knowing the communication cycle, which I wrote about previously.

The cycle has four steps:

1. INTRODUCE yourself to college coaches

2. Determine which coaches have INTEREST

3. Receive an OFFER

4. Make a DECISION

The most difficult part is moving from INTRODUCING yourself to determining INTEREST.

You need to know how to respond to common messages from college coaches.

Here are some key tips:

• Be NSO, or “Next-Step Obsessed.” Your communication needs to move the cycle forward.

• ALWAYS ask a question to put the ball back in the coach’s court to respond back to you.

Here are some tips for responding to common messages from college coaches:

5 Common Replies from College Coaches and How to Respond

No Response

The most frequent response from college coaches is no response at all.

College coaches are inundated with emails every day. Even at a small college, I received 20+ recruiting emails daily.

Even coaches with good email response systems in place don’t have time to sift through them all.

There are several possible reasons coaches don’t respond:

• They don’t have a system in place for processing emails, so yours gets buried and eventually deleted.

• The email went to their spam/junk folder (which they didn’t check), so they never saw it.

• They delegated the email to an assistant that doesn’t have a good system for processing emails.

• They read your email, but they aren’t interested (at least yet).

Notice only the final reason is a lack of interest. If you don’t get a response to your introductory email right away, don’t give up. Do this instead:

1) Wait a week to give the coach plenty of time to respond.

2) If you don’t get a response after a week, send the email again with the following message added:

Coaches,

My name is John Smith. I’m a 2025 1B from XYZ High School in Iowa.

I sent an email last week to introduce myself and didn’t hear back. No worries! I know you’re busy.

In case you didn’t receive the email, I’ve copied it below.

Will you please check out my online profile and videos and let me know if you have interest?

Thank you!

PASTE PREVIOUS EMAIL HERE

IMPORTANT: Send this email to ALL the coaches on staff (head coach AND assistant coaches).

3) Wait another week to give the coaches plenty of time to respond.

4) In the meantime, follow the coaches on Twitter and send them a DM if they follow you back (click here for more information about how to use Twitter for your recruiting process).

4) If you still don’t hear back, send one final message:

Coaches,

My name is John Smith. I’m a 2025 1B from XYZ High School in Iowa.

I sent a couple emails previously and didn’t hear back.

Am I safe to assume you aren’t interested in me as a prospect for your program?

Thank you!

John Smith
123-456-7890

5) If you still don’t hear back, either cross the school off your list or wait 3-6 months and start the email process again.

Camp Invitation

The popularity of prospect camps on college campuses has skyrocketed in recent years, and for good reason.

Inviting prospects to campus is much easier than going to see prospects off campus.

I DO think college camps have value, but I DON’T recommend attending camps blindly (at least for exposure purposes).

I wrote about how to handle camp invitations extensively in this article.

Here’s a decision tree from the article:

Questionnaire Request

College coaches often reply to introductory messages by asking prospects to complete the online questionnaire linked to the program’s website.

If you receive this reply, I recommend completing the questionnaire and then responding as follows:

Coach,

Thank you for getting back to me.

I completed the questionnaire as requested.

Now that you have my information, can we schedule a phone call so I can talk to you in person and learn more about your program?

Thank you.

John Smith

Here’s why this response is so good:

• It tells the coach you are interested enough in his program to take the time to complete the questionnaire.

• It put the ball back in the coach’s court to respond back to you.

• It requests movement to the next step in the recruiting process (email → phone).

If the coach doesn’t reply, follow steps 2-5 in the “No Response” section above.

Positive Feedback

Getting positive feedback is the best reply to an introductory email you can hope for. This reply will include one or more of the following:

• “I watched your videos and liked what I saw.”

• “I’d like to set up a phone call.”

• “We are interested in recruiting you.”

• Etc.

Even when you get positive feedback, however, the coach won’t always suggest a next step. You may need to respond and ask to move onto the next step (usually setting up a phone call).

Not Interested

Occasionally coaches will reply and tell you directly that they aren’t interested. They may say:

• “I watched your videos and we’ve decided we’re not interested.”

• “We aren’t recruiting your position for your recruiting class.”

• “We’ve already filled your position for your recruiting class.”

• Etc.

This reply will sting at first, but this is a GOOD response! You should respond by thanking the coach for his honesty.

By being up front, the coach is saving you time and effort. Now you can cross the program off your list and focus your efforts elsewhere.

I hope this helps!

Feel free to reply/comment with any questions and/or insights.

All the best!

- Matt

P.S. If you'd like to schedule a free consultation with me to discuss your specific recruiting process, reply to this email or sent me a text at 319-883-0242.