IDENTIFYING SCHOOLS TO FOLLOW UP WITH

You have sent out the initial round of letters.  Your initial letters are to schools that your player has interest in.  What you need to do now is find the schools that have interest in her.  This is going to be gauged, at least at this point, by responses to the initial letter that you get.  If you have chosen to use www.collegiatestars.com then you can check on how often the letter and profile have been opened.  Use this as a book for the schools that you will target for follow up communications. 

You may also get return emails and/or letters.There are strict NCAA rules which specify the amount, timing, type and content of communications from coaches to prospective players.   With that in mind, the responses your communications may get will depend in large part on when you send the initial letters and when the responses are made.  If they are before September 1st of the player’s junior year in high school, the coach cannot communicate or initiate contact with the player at all, except to tell her about the NCAA restrictions on communications, give her a brochure about the school and send a questionnaire to be completed and returned by the player.  These questionnaires should be completed and returned as quickly as possible.  These questionnaires can also be found on many of the college websites.  If you find on line questionnaires at the website, complete them.  I have heard of instances where a player was contacted within 30 minutes of filling out the on line questionnaire. The complete recruiting schedule can be found on the handouts page of this website, under NCAA documents.

You will find differences in nature, tone and content of the communications that you receive from schools.  You will try to read between lines and see if the letters are saying anything more than they actually do.  The truth is that some do and some don’t, but that ANY and ALL communications from colleges should be considered positive unless and until you are told that the school is not interested in your player.  THEREFORE, IT MY SUGGESTION IS THAT YOUR PLAYER SHOULD FOLLOW UP WITH ANY SCHOOL THAT RESPONDS OR SHOWS INTEREST, ALONG WITH ANY OTHER SCHOOLS THAT YOUR PLAYER FEELS STRONGLY ABOUT. 

What you are doing is going through a process of elimination to narrow your search to be efficient in your efforts.  At some point through this process your search will expand again before it narrows even further.  Eventually, as will be discussed below, your player will be contacted by coaches with whom she had not yet communicated.  When this happens go back and do your research on these schools, based on the criteria discussed above and decide if your player may now be interested in any of those schools.  If there is, then these new schools should now be on your list of schools to follow up with. 

Do not make the mistake of presuming that your initial search was exhaustive.  Don’t forget that there are a number of schools that you did not consider initially, plus it is possible that several months may have passed since you have made your initial determinations.  It may be a good idea to go back and see if your player still has the same preferences and desires.  In fact, I would suggest that you review that every few months to see if your search is still current or if it is now obsolete. 

IF A SCHOOL DOES NOT RESPOND, ESPECIALLY AFTER NUMEROUS ATTEMPTED CONTACTS, MOVE ON.  THE COACH PROBABLY HAS NO INTEREST IN YOUR PLAYER.  IF YOUR PLAYER IS DIRECTING MOST OF HER COMMUNICATIONS TO DIVISION I SCHOOLS, AND IS NOT GETTING A DECENT AMOUNT OF ATTENTION IT MAY BE TIME TO RE-EVALUATE THE SCHOOLS THAT ARE BEING TARGETED.  AN HONEST EVALUATION OF THE YOUR PLAYER'S SKILL LEVEL IS A CRITICAL TO SUCCESSFUL RECRUITING.