Control What You Can - Tips for Moving Forward During COVID
Written by: beNOTICED and Geoff Raives, CFF Director of Partnerships
As we all navigate these uncertain times, we want to do our part in ensuring your recruiting journey stays on course.
In times like this, when you are unable to connect with coaches on the field, it's important that you are still pressing forward with recruiting and connecting with coaches off the field. Remember, things are uncertain for college coaches too, and there could be huge opportunities if you are doing the right things to help yourself stand out.
We're finishing up with our 4-part series with tips to help prospective student-athletes create a college recruiting plan to follow. We will look in to the following:
Tips for Building Your Top College List
What You Need to Know before Contacting College Coaches
Pointers for Creating a Highlight Video
Develop a Follow-Up Strategy with College Coaches
Part 3 Refresher HERE
Part 4: Develop a Follow-Up Strategy with College Coaches If you haven't realized by now, recruiting isn't a one-and-done process. Now is your chance to circle back to your Top College List (and others...cast a wide net)! So, what are some other reasons to reach out yet again to coaches? There's hundreds! It all depends on you.
Highlight Video - Your highlight video may now be complete, which is a perfect reason to follow up. And if it's not quite done yet, even send a quick teaser.
Team Won - A tournament showcase, made it to the semi-finals, etc. (Of course... once we're all back on the fields).
New Personal Best - Two-mile time? Number of goals/assists in one game or showcase? Reached a goal with your strength and conditioning?
Academics - Remember, coaches aren't just recruiting Athletes, but STUDENT-Athletes. Did you make the Honor Roll? Got your SAT/ACT test scores back? Student of the Month? Dean's List?
Turn the Table - Congratulate THEM. Did they just win a game against their rival? Team make it to the Championships? Updates to Athletic facilities just finished? Find something about them that's just as noteworthy as your updates.
Anything else? To summarize, any positive changes whether academic or athletic are worth mentioning to keep conversations going (or to prep conversations yet to come).
Whatever your reason, it's important to use this time to get on their radar, and the perfect way to do so is through consistent communication. Meet with your Club Coach/Director. Club coaches are an extremely important resource, yet are under-utilized in this process. Rely on them for guidance in this process; they know you well as a player and a person. Just don't rely on them to do this all FOR you. Consider sitting down to discuss these two main items:
Review Your Top College List: Yes, again. This list is likely to change over time. Does your list still realistically match your athletic and academic abilities? Do you have reach schools and safe schools on your list? (If not, make sure to add some and strike up conversations there as well). Make any adjustments needed.
Review Your Highlight Clips/Video: does your video/clips represent you well as a player? Are you using the right footage to showcase your best moments? Take their advice and make any necessary changes. (Easy to do with your College Fit Finder video editing tool!)
When reaching out again, if you used your personal email, reply directly to previous emails sent or received so you both can reference previous email conversations. A great practice is to use the same email chain, so the coaches can see the previous info you sent. As always, make sure to include your Player Profile in your follow up! (If you use the CFF messaging system, this is already done for you!)
Comments