What college coaches look for in an introductory email (Recruiting)

THE COLLEGE GOLF RECRUITMENT PLAYBOOK: INSIGHTS FROM OVER 50 COACHES

THE COLLEGE GOLF RECRUITMENT PLAYBOOK: INSIGHTS FROM OVER 50 COACHES

CHAPTER 1 | The Introductory Email

As a former college coach, I naturally receive quite a few recruiting questions. In order to provide better advice to future collegiate golfers about the recruiting process, I reached out to many of my former colleagues—college coaches—with a series of questions. I created a survey and sent it to my friends in the profession. An impressive 52 coaches responded, offering a wealth of invaluable advice in their detailed answers. I am incredibly grateful to all the coaches who participated in the survey!

To inform you, I’ve used the anonymous data and comments from all of my colleagues. I have also added my own insight and tried to boil the sentiments down to actionable advice for recruits.

WHO ARE THE SURVEY RESPONDERS?

73% of respondents are Men’s coaches, 15% Women’s coaches, and 12% coach both programs.

92% of the respondents are in NCAA Division I.

65% are Head Coaches or Directors of Golf, while 35% are Assistant or Associate Head Coaches.

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Here are the upcoming chapters. My intention is to compile them all into an eBook. All of these posts will be available in full to paid subscribers.

1. → The introductory email ←

2. How to get a coach’s attention

3. Which schools to email

4. Social media

5. Coaches evaluations and perception of skills

6. Parents’ involvement / help with recruiting

7. What is the number one red flag in a recruit?

8. What is the number one mistake recruits make when choosing a school?

9. Open-ended recruiting advice from coaches

10. Timing

11. Summary

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QUESTION 1:
HOW MANY RECRUITING EMAILS WOULD YOU ESTIMATE THAT YOU RECEIVE ON A WEEKLY BASIS?

Average answer: 42.6.

College coaches receive a lot of recruiting emails. Imagine going through 42 recruiting emails every week. What does it take for the coach to notice precisely your email? The competition amongst recruits and the sheer volume of recruits fighting for coaches’ attention makes it hard for recruits to stand out. On the upper-end, we can see quite a few responses over 100 a week. I imagine these are from Head Coaches at large schools.

Further, I asked:

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THESE DO YOU REPLY TO? (ONLY THE PERMISSIBLE ONES)

I received all sorts of answers to this question. Everything from 1% to 100%. However, it seems like most coaches either reply to almost every permissible email they get, or very few. For example, I played for and worked with Coach McGraw, who is notorious for replying to every recruit. On the other end though, it looks like many coaches don’t prioritize responding to everybody.

We know that coaches receive tons of recruiting emails, and response-rates vary greatly. So, in order to stand out in your emailing - let’s look at what coaches replied to:

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN AN INTRODUCTORY EMAIL?