The goal of this segment is simply to educate you and your family on the most common forms of communication between college coach and student. It’s important to understand that all of these types of contacts are in fact forms of recruiting. However, prospects need to realize that each type of contact has a purpose, and each type usually carries with it a specific implication. In other words, some forms of contact are more sincere signs of interest than other types. Below, we’ll start with the least significant form of recruiting contact, and graduate to stronger signs of interest.

COLLEGE PACKETS & PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

If a college coach sends you a packet with no letter, then it’s pretty safe to determine that you’re on a mailing list, nothing more. However, if the packet of information comes with a signed letter by the coach, that’s a good sign that stronger interest may follow.

Either way, prepare to receive lots of mail from coaches who are anxious to bombard you with information about their school. It’s part of the process, so get used to it. Some of the information might include a college prospectus, admissions application, course schedule, activities calendar, registration materials, financial aid packets, and so on.

It’s usually a good idea to start a filing system and alphabetize these packets according to school name. You may end up throwing away 90%, but chances are your final 8-10 schools will come from within this mountain of college materials, so it’s wise to review the information carefully and hang on to it.

When reviewing this information, there are couple key things you do want to obtain. Information regarding various college majors offered, student life, and the surrounding rural/city environment will all be important to you when you begin narrowing your college choices, so take time to find out about each school and what they have to offer.

Another extremely important piece of information is the school’s APPLICATION DEADLINE. Find out if the school has an early acceptance procedure, or period, as well. Many of our top academic schools these days have earlier than normal application deadlines, like November 30. You will want to know specifics regarding the admissions processes of schools showing the most athletic interest in you, so if you even suspect that a school might be in the running for your Top 10, find the application deadline and write it down in your College Contact Management Chart (more on this sheet later).

ATHLETE QUESTIONNAIRES

By now you’ve most likely heard SAS refer to the “recruiting funnel,” which more or less attempts to explain through an easy-to-follow diagram the process college coaches undergo to recruit prospective student-athletes. Once a college coach is introduced to you, preliminarily assesses your ability, and determines if there is a need at your position, receiving a questionnaire is likely the next natural step if you’re among his list of recruits.

On one hand, college questionnaires are often mistaken for serious interest. These are not scholarship offers! As a matter of fact, many steps still lie ahead before an offer is ever made. However, do not make the mistake of downplaying the college questionnaire either. Every recruiting process begins with an initial contact, a way for coaches to determine whether or not you, the athlete, are truly interested in his program. It’s far better to receive questionnaires than to be left out of the mix entirely. Basically, if you’re not on anyone’s list, you won’t be contacted! It’s that simple.

The message here is to take questionnaires for what they are: opportunities for a college coach to introduce himself, to make his initial “pitch,” and to find out more about you. They’re not offers, nor are they guarantees that that the school will continue to actively recruit you. But respond to each as if they are the most significant signs of interest, and complete and return each questionnaire in a timely manner. Supplementing the questionnaire with a short personal letter is never a bad idea.

“BLANKET” LETTERS (FORM LETTERS)

A football coach from a Big 12 school once told me that their staff mails form letters to approximately 15,000 prospective juniors and calls approximately 200 of them each May, when the NCAA permits initial phone contact. To put it into perspective, Division I-A football programs are only allowed to scholarship a maximum of 25 incoming players per year.

So how do coaches start with a number like 15,000, call 200 “final candidates,” and end up signing just 25? It’s impossible to speak accurately on behalf of every college coach in America, but we can speculate.

The SAS recruiting funnel demonstrates the importance and order that phone calls occur during the recruiting process. The process starts with an introduction, an evaluation of the prospect is made, position needs are determined, and a letter/questionnaire is mailed. If the questionnaire is returned, the next natural step would be to call the prospect.

Now, even if all 15,000 prospects returned their questionnaires, we can safely assume that coaches aren’t going to call all 15,000 athletes. For argument’s sake, let’s assume that 25% of the players who received letters from a school actually responded by completing and returning their questionnaires. If this is true, and we can confidently assume that coaches aren’t going to waste their time on prospects that don’t appear to be interested in their program, then the sample of 15,000 shrinks to 3,750 players almost immediately.

From 3,750, which is a much more manageable number than 15,000, the staff distributes the list to each coach specializing in a certain area (i.e. linebackers, backs/receivers, offensive linemen, etc.), and begins eliminating those prospects that don’t fit their program’s criteria. Somewhere in this process, over 3,500 kids are removed from consideration, and a “Final 200 List” is established. From there, phone calls are made, game video & highlight films are carefully evaluated, transcripts are reviewed, more calls are made in September, official visits are offered in the Fall, verbal commitments are made shortly thereafter, and National Letters of Intent are awarded to the final 25 athletes in February of their senior year.

So what does this have to do with form letters? Well, the process starts in many cases with a general form letter, often attached to a questionnaire. Correspondences sent to thousands of prospects by one school are often referred to as “blanket” letters. While it’s easy to downplay the significance of these letters, you can see from the example above that they are a key part of a school’s overall recruiting efforts, especially for college coaches who use them to “weed out” players showing little or no interest in them.

CAMP INVITATIONS

Receiving a personal invitation from a college coach to attend their program’s summer/winter camp is another common communication tool used to court student-athletes. Like form letters and questionnaires, camp invitations are not guarantees that an offer will be made, but they’re still an opportunity for you to build relationships with college coaches.

There is a good chance you’ll receive several camp invitations from various college coaches. College camps are not to be confused with official visits though. While the NCAA allows athletes to take up to five (5) official visits (expenses paid by the college), you can attend as many camps as you’d like. The challenge is they can be quite expensive. Most camps will provide room and board if you make the trip, while others just provide daily camp instruction. If you consider the costs for airfare and camp dues alone, it’s likely that each camp could run somewhere between $500 (if you have to travel by plane) and $1000. So choosing the right camps to attend is important.

It’s also important to understand that expecting to receive national exposure by attending camps all over the country is a huge misconception. College camps are great for measuring your talents against other athletes and receiving college-level instruction that will help you develop your skills. Occasionally, a college coach’s interest in you will increase because of your attendance at his camp, but you shouldn’t expect coaches from other universities to be there in attendance. It simply doesn’t happen very often. NOTE: a recent NCAA rule change prohibits college football coaches from attending camps, combines, and/or showcase events not hosted by their own universities.

Therefore, if you decide to camp somewhere, be sure you understand the role of the college camp as it pertains to your own recruitment. Camps are huge revenue sources for college programs. They generate thousands of dollars each and every year. If you have the means, try to attend 2-3 camps during the summers prior to your junior and senior years of high school. But do yourself a favor… don’t only attend the big-time Division I camps to pad your resume. Choose a few camps at schools that are actually recruiting you! Chances are you’ll have an opportunity to see the campus, meet the coaching staff and develop strong opinions about the prospects of attending such a school.

EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE

Coaches are using e-mail for recruiting purposes more and more each year. It’s cost effective, user-friendly and extremely convenient, especially during heavy recruiting periods. In fact, Student-Athlete Showcase utilizes e-mail for approximately 90% of its communications with coaches, including introducing and promoting athletes directly to coaches. To date, SAS maintains a database of over 27,000 email addresses of head coaches and recruiting coordinators at Division I, II, III and NAIA schools. Since most coaches are well adept to communicating via email, several continue to contact SAS electronically to request more information and video on specific prospects, and/or to tell us what their particular recruiting needs are that year.

So, needless to say, you can undoubtedly expect a large percentage of your college correspondence to be email-based. If you’re not used to checking your email account daily, I highly recommend you begin doing so. That’s one of the beauties of email; coaches can contact you at all hours of the day, any day of the week, as often as they want to! (NOTE: the NCAA considers email written correspondence, not a phone call. Instant messaging, however, is considered a phone contact, and coaches are bound by certain phone restrictions.)

PERSONAL HAND-WRITTEN LETTERS

Letters that are hand-written by a coach are very strong signs of sincere interest. These more personal forms of communication usually follow a series of form letters, questionnaires, and camp invitations, and often precede and follow phone calls to the prospect as well. If you receive a hand-written letter (or even a typed letter that seems very personal and warm), you should treat it seriously and immediately follow up with the coach via email or phone.

PHONE CALLS

The most significant and sincere form of interest (other than the National Letter of Intent) is the phone call. In short, prospects that receive phone calls are considered legitimate scholarship candidates. Does it mean that you’re guaranteed a scholarship offer soon after receiving a call from a coach? No, there are never any guarantees.

However, coaches are permitted only 1 call per week per prospect, and only at certain times of the year during your senior year can they call. So if you are getting regular weekly calls from college coaches, you are definitely on their ‘radar screen’ and are seriously being considered an official visit or scholarship candidate.
For most sports, college coaches can make their first weekly calls to you beginning July 1 after your junior year (football is one call in May of your junior year, then weekly calls begin in September of your senior year). Men’s basketball and women’s basketball recently implemented new rules, whereby college coaches can call you once per month beginning June 15 of your junior year, and once per month beginning in April of your junior year, respectively. You, on the other hand, can pick up the phone and call coaches as often as you want.