Mission Impossible: Pinning Down a College Coach

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At Some Point, It’s Better to Know Than Not Know

Unless you are at the top of a college coach’s recruiting list, pinning one down about a scholarship offer is, well, nearly impossible.  Coaches are elusive that way for a simple reason, they have to be.   

Coaches are constantly on the prowl for the recruits to upgrade their programs.  To survive in college athletics, it’s a method they must adopt.  The status quo is unacceptable, that is unless they are not expected to win games and championships, but that’s rare.  College presidents and athletic directors generally believe that a losing program, as well as a winning one, is a direct reflection on the school as a whole.  Win and the lights shine a little brighter.  Lose, and the school suffers from lack of luster.  It’s all about perception.      

Moreover, coaches are in sports because they are competitive individuals.  They love to win and hate to lose.  It’s part of their make-up.  So, coaches are constantly striving to sign better and better athletes and people each year.  They want wins, titles, trophies and championships.  Their pride is at stake, their reputations are on the line, and it all starts with the quality of the prospects they recruit.  A solid freshman recruiting class can sustain a program for three to four years, if not longer.  A poor one can drag a team’s progress to a screeching halt in one short season.  Even miscalculating on one recruit’s character can derail a program.  That is why so much careful consideration goes into making offers to prospects.  And, that is why coaches often will wait so long to let second tier prospects know where they stand.  Coaches’ livelihoods depend on making the right decisions, so they have to be hard to pin down for as long as possible.       

Coaches start the recruiting process with a broad brush approach.  The more prospects they can identify early on in a particular high school graduating class, the better chance they have of eventually signing more athletes which fit their specific roster needs.  To do this, they spread their net as far as possible with recruiting letters.  These letters fly out of coaches’ offices to any and all possible recruits.  Tens, if not hundreds or even thousands, of letters are delivered to wanting prep prospects.  It’s the first true stage of the recruiting process – recognition.   

In turn, some prospects will respond and stay on the coaches’ recruiting lists.  Others fall by the wayside for a variety of reasons – they may not be tall enough, big enough, fast enough, strong enough, have the grades necessary to be admitted to the school, or they simply cannot get video to the coach for evaluation.  It’s essentially a weeding-out process which can occur from either end, the coach’s or the prospect’s.  Truth told, dropping a prospect near the beginning is less bothersome than if it comes in the latter stages because the coach really has very little invested in the early casualties.   

As the junior year of a recruiting class draws near, coaches start digging deeper.  At tournaments coaches carefully watch how prospects interact and communicate with coaches, officials, teammates and parents.  They observe how potential recruits handle failure or bad calls.  On phone calls and in emails, coaches start to unpeel the onion, so to speak.  With only a few chances to get a grip on these kids, a coach will do just about anything to capture insight into the their inner workings. 

Convincing a prospect to attend an on-campus, summer sports camp is a favorite ploy.  When a prospect attends camp, relationships are molded, or not.  Coaches and prospects work together and the coaches get to see them mingle with current scholarship players, examine their work ethic and personalities, and determine if they are a good fit for the program.  It’s a great opportunity for prospects, too.  They get to see the unvarnished side of a coach, players and campus.     

Other relationship-building alternatives are available to coaches, too.  For instance, there is no limit to the number of phone calls a coach is allowed to make to a prospect’s coach, but unlike a few years ago, it is the club coach, not the high school coach, who is the focal point.  College coaches seldom contact high school coaches any longer and unless they know the club or travel coach, some college coaches prefer to eliminate as many intermediaries as possible.  However, if a college coach has a long standing and positive relationship with a travel or club coach, communicating with them can expedite getting to and influencing a highly desired prospect. 

As the senior year arrives, coaches initiate the process of eliminating those prospects which definitely do not fit their needs.  Their methods, though, can be confusing and unsettling to the discarded prospects.  In short, many coaches simply stop communicating with unwanted kids.  No more letters.  No more phone calls.  This leaves the prospects in limbo, particularly if the school happened to be very high on a prospect’s list.  Why?  Coaches reason that they simply do not have time to send every kid they’ve reached out to a rejection letter. 

That’s why second-tier prospects are constantly hearing these statements from coaches:

• “We haven’t made our decision yet on who we want to make offers to, but you are still on our list.”
• “We’re in the process right now of finalizing our list.  We’ll let you know something soon.”
• “We’re keeping up with your progress and want to hear how you’re senior year is progressing.”

These statements are delay tactics.  In short, they mean that the coaches have made offers to other kids and if they accept, it’s over for you.  In any case, coaches have to keep all their options open.  They can’t openly reject everyone they don’t extend and offer to.  They may eventually need to go back to those prospects and put together offers or some sort of packages, even make “preferred walk-on” offers.  Until their class is filled with the very best recruits available to them, coaches simply cannot, and will not in most instances, commit to kids down their recruiting list. 

Of course, this is not fair to the prospects who have taken a simple letter as meaning that the coach is recruiting them.  But, it’s naive to think that an introductory letter and a questionnaire are tantamount to a scholarship offer.  Yet, many parents and prospects make this leap and assumption. 

If you want to know where you honestly stand with a coach, pick up the telephone and ask.  The NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA allow prospects to call coaches anytime.  Only calls initiated by NCAA coaches are restricted.  Brazen? Certainly, but knowing is better than not knowing.  Is there a chance that you could ruin your chances with that coach?  Perhaps.  But, again, knowing is better than not knowing.  Which kinds of questions should you ask?  Here are some suggestions:

• “Coach, I received and returned a questionnaire from you and I’ve sent you occasional updates.  Could you tell me honestly where you see me on your recruiting list?”
• “Coach, I’m entering my senior year of high school and haven’t heard anything from you since I received a letter last spring.  Could you tell me if you anticipate recruiting me this fall for your team?”
• “Coach, I appreciate the letters you’ve sent me.  But, as I make plans to take unofficial visits this year, I wanted to check with you to see if it is realistic for me to think that I have a chance at being recruited by you?” 

The point?  What do you have to lose?  If you discover that you are not on the coach’s list, then you can move on to other opportunities.  If you are on their list, excellent.  Either way, you know.

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