A Parent's Guide to Interacting with College Coaches (2024)

FAQs

Are parents allowed to talk to college coaches? ›

Yes, parents should absolutely talk to college coaches. The real question is, when is an appropriate time for you to introduce yourself? After competitions or during unofficial and official visits are great opportunities for parents to speak with coaches.

It's perfectly fine for parents to help you work through questions and answers for a conversation with a coach. If they want to be more involved, your parents can also check over your emails and suggest things to talk about. If they have specific questions of their own, make sure you're the one that asks them.

Most coaches will make a few minutes to meet with concerned parents, but these meetings should only be requested after parents have done their own observing of the situation to see if there are obvious reasons why their child is not playing much.

If you're receiving text messages from college coaches, it probably means you are on well-established on their recruiting list! Texting college coaches is more casual than talking on the phone or sending an email. But believe it or not, texting etiquette is a thing.

One of the most common questions families ask is when college coaches can start contacting their athletes. For most sports, coaches can begin reaching out to athletes starting June 15 after sophom*ore year or September 1 of their junior year of high school.

While college coaches can't contact recruits until June 15 after their sophom*ore year, student-athletes can initiate contact with coaches at any time.

Always, always, always email a coach and their staff first before another form of communication. DON'T text a college coach, if you have been emailing back and forth and you are moving through the recruiting process, BUT you have never been given permission or asked if you can text them.

Parents often play a significant role during the decision process once student-athletes receive a scholarship offer. Attending an unofficial visit with your student-athlete allows you to see the campus and get a feel for the culture yourself.

What is coaching abuse? ›

Usually, this involves a coach telling an athlete or making him or her feel that he or she is worthless, despised, inadequate, or valued only as a result of his or her athletic performance.

Confidently discussing your positive academic habits is another way to impress college coaches with your work ethic capabilities. Securing written letters of recommendation from your high school coaches, club coaches, teachers and notable community leaders will also impress college coaches.

Once you hit your junior year, it's important to start emailing and calling more often—about once a month. As a senior, you should be in communication with coaches every two or three weeks.

Generally, it's a good idea to reach out to a college coach by email first and express interest in their team. This email is a great way to break the ice and let a coach know you'll be following up with a phone call. For some student-athletes, it might be too early to call college coaches.

For most Division I and Division II sports, coaches can start proactively reaching out to recruits June 15 after sophom*ore year or September 1 of junior year. However, many coaches—think: Division I and some top-tier DII schools—will make scholarship offers to athletes as young as 7th and 8th grade.

The answer is no, it is not too late to get recruited senior year. It may seem that all players get recruited before their last year of high school, but this is not the case and there is certainly opportunity for you to still be recruited as an upperclassmen.

During a dead period, all in-person contact between college coaches and recruits is strictly prohibited, meaning coaches are not able to talk to recruits on-campus, at their high school, at sports camps or even when running into them while out.

A dead period is a period of time in which a college or university coach may not, at any time, have any in-person contact (on or off campus) with you or your parents. The coach may, however, write or telephone you or your parents during this time.

“When can you commit?” While getting invited on an official visit doesn't necessarily mean you'll get an offer, it certainly does happen. If this is your number one school and you have a good feeling about it, this might be the right time to lock down a commitment.

How do you introduce yourself to a college coach? ›

Your salutation should be to the specific coach by name (Dear Coach Smith). Introduce yourself as a potential candidate for his or her program. Provide academic information: ACT or SAT score, GPA, class rank, honors, etc. Provide athletic information: position, height, weight, honors, and relevant statistics.

One of the best ways to get noticed by college coaches is to reach out to them. Send an email introducing yourself and asking about the recruitment process. Your overall goal is to show how much of a quality athlete you are and what you can bring to a team.

Email has become the most popular and preferred way for student-athletes to introduce themselves to coaches. So naturally, coaches get hundreds of emails a week, and most of them go unanswered. If they do reply, it's completely normal for it to take one—even two weeks—to hear back.

For parents, you are not required to dress professionally – meaning you are not obligated to wear a suit and tie or a business suit or business dress. You do not want to stand out in the middle of the crowd and have all the attention around you.

Any "official" visit runs through Admissions. They will help cover some travel costs for accepted students visiting from out of state. other than that circ*mstance - we do not use "official" visits and do not cover any costs through athletics.

If you are ready to make a verbal commit right away, thank the coach for their offer and let them know you are excited to commit to the school. If you need some time to think about it, thank them for their offer and make sure you get back to them by an agreed upon deadline.

Getting invited on an official visit indicates very strong interest from a college coach. Coaches don't dole out official visit invitations to just anyone — they have a limited number to offer and the program foots the bill for your visit.

Invite the College Coach to Come See You in Action

So, give a strong call to action. Let the coach know your upcoming game schedule and where they can watch you play first-hand. This could be at one of your games and/or an ID camp. You may also include a link to a video of yourself in action during a game.

What are the five rules of coaching? ›

Inappropriate situations for coaching might include:  Coach or staff member is unwell or affected by personal problems  Coaching day/time is poorly chosen (may clash with peak service time)  Coaching location isn''t suitable/available  Unexpected increase in customer activity  Not enough staff to cover workload ...

State your concerns, listen and keep an open mind. State your concern in a straightforward and nonjudgmental manner, sticking to the facts. For example, blurting out, "Jasmine doesn't have much playing time, and she thinks you don't like her," will only put the coach on the defensive.

The three keys to any coaching conversation are to approach it from a place of positivity, collaboration and support. This means entering into a conversation with a judgment-free mindset and learning to keep your focus on the big picture impact rather than individual reactions within the conversation.

Listen and keep calm

When a difficult parent starts yelling at you or trying to confront you in the middle of a game or even at practice, remain calm. It's easy to start defending yourself, but remember that you are here for the athletes. Try not to have these conversations in front of others.

Gaslighting is defined as another person's attempt to make you question yourself, the validity of your experiences and even your own sanity. It involves manipulation, which aims to make you question the validity of your thoughts, beliefs and memories and your overall perception of reality.

Repetitive verbal abuse, exploitation, name-calling, physical bullying, and other mean behaviors that repeatedly demean players are not only discourteous and wrong but also will eventually take a heavy toll on them. Many kids quit playing the sport they once loved simply because the coach was a jerk or a bully.

Similarly, Gearity and Murray (2011) identified four themes of negative coaching behaviors: having poor teaching skills, showing uncaring behavior, being unfair, and inhibiting mental skills (team cohesion, self-doubt, distraction, and demotivation).

Yes, parents should absolutely talk to college coaches. The real question is, when is an appropriate time for you to introduce yourself? After competitions or during unofficial and official visits are great opportunities for parents to speak with coaches.

There has been a lot of ambiguity around texting college coaches in recruiting, with many athletes asking: Can college coaches text recruits? The answer: Yes, they can!

What to say to a college coach if you are not interested? ›

I am honored that you think I could compete for your team. I have completed the difficult task of narrowing down my list of schools. Because I have such great respect for you and your program, I feel I must inform you now that I am looking elsewhere to go to school and compete. Thanks for your sincere interest.

Coaches aren't allowed to respond yet

You're sending perfectly worded emails to coaches, but you still aren't hearing back. Why? It might just be too early for the coach to contact you. Per NCAA rules, most D1 and D2 coaches aren't allowed to directly communicate with recruits until September 1 of their junior year.

While college coaches can't contact recruits until June 15 after their sophom*ore year, student-athletes can initiate contact with coaches at any time.

Long story short, there are strong relationships among coaches, and they will speak with each other about anything from the weather to a potential recruit that may be a great fit at a different school.

In college, it becomes the student's right to decide who sees their educational records. And parents are generally discouraged from communicating with professors on behalf of their children, outside of a few special circ*mstances.

As the parent of a high school athlete being recruited, you are probably wondering if you can go on an official visit with your child. Parents are absolutely allowed to accompany a high school athlete on an official visit. An official visit is defined by the NCAA as a visit sponsored by the college or university.

You must have a permission–to–contact letter in order for you or your son to contact other coach or member of another college's athletic staff.

Telling your professor that you are taking their class because you heard it was easy or because it's required is the same as saying to them that you don't care about their course and don't plan on putting in any effort. It's inconsiderate, and your comment could come back to bite you.

Colleges do not keep parents informed of their child's academic progress due to the fact this would be a violation of the privacy act. As a parent, you can have your child sign permission to allow you to have contact with financial aid, the bursars office etc.

Federal law (FERPA) generally prohibits a school's disclosure of grades without the student's consent. However, schools may, but are not required to, disclose academic information to the parents of students who can be claimed as dependents under federal tax laws.

How do I know if I am being recruited? ›

To set up your visit, call the coach and let them know you're interested in seeing the campus. Ask them what dates they would be available to meet you and your family. Some recruits lean heavily on their high school or club coach to help them set up unofficial visits with college coaches.

Coaches cannot fully prevent athletes like Lunt from transferring to any university they want. But if a coach does not grant an athlete a release, the player must forfeit any scholarship opportunity, pay his own way to the new university and sit out the next season.