how to email a college football coach
TRANSCRIPT
How To Email a College Football Coach
Goal: College Athlete
www.goalcollegeathlete.com
When trying to get a college football coaches attention via email the key is being
personal & relevant. Make the email unique for that particular coach. Too many
athletes make the email all about themselves, their stats and do not focus on
what the coach may need or want in a studentathlete. Also, mass emailing
coaches is just spam and will rarely get looked at or responded to. Most
importantly, almost all the college coaches I have asked want the potential recruit
(you) to be more personal and show them why you are interested in THEIR school
and program specifically.
How do you make it more personal? Do Some Research Online
For example, say I wanted to email the Head Football Coach at the University of
Delaware, Dave Brock. You can find out a lot about the coach by doing a quick
Google Search:
Take a few minutes to read up on the coach. Also, click on “News” and “Videos”
located underneath the Search box. “News” will provide more recent articles
where Coach Brock was quoted and “Videos” will show press conferences and
interviews.
(Related Post: How To Use Twitter to Write Coaches Better Emails)
As I read through some articles I came across this quote from NFLer, Jordy
Nelson, who played for Coach Brock at Kansas State:
Jordy Nelson, current NFL Green Bay Packers wide receiver and former
AllAmerican player at Kansas State: “In the time that I worked with Dave Brock, I
learned a lot off and on the field. He’s a family man and a coach who truly cares
about his players. Making sure that his players are ready for life after football by
getting their degree and becoming men of integrity is a high priority to Coach
Brock. Creating schemes and utilizing his players’ talents is a strength of his. He
is a great offensive mind and played a key role in my development in becoming
an NFL prospect. It was a pleasure to play for Coach Brock and I wish him much
success as the head coach at the University of Delaware.”
(Article from:
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2013/jan/newfootballcoach011813.html)
This quote gives you some insight about Coach Brock both as a coach and as a
person that you can use in your emails.
You are probably asking yourself: How would I use this in my emails?
Below, I will write an example email on how you can utilize this information to be
more personal and relevant and, most importantly, give you a better chance of
getting a coaches attention:
Example Email:
Hi Coach Brock,
I came across an article when you were named Head Coach of the University of
Delaware Football Team. In the article Jordy Nelson describes how you truly care
about your players and play a key role in their development. He also says you
have a great offensive mind.
My name is Steve O’Brien and I am very interested in being a part of your
program at Delaware. I am a junior running back for Braintree High School in
Braintree, MA. I want to play for an offensive minded coach who utilizes his
players talents and cares about them as athletes and students. I describe myself
as having a strong work ethic and being a teamfirst type of player.
What would you recommend as a first step in engaging with your coaching staff
and learning more about the school and program?
Regards,
Steve
Steve O’Brien ’16
Junior | Running Back | Braintree High School
GPA: 3.2 | SAT: 1510 | ACT: 22
(Link to Football Profile)
(Link to Highlight Video)
Phone: 888.555.1212
We are missing one important piece: the Subject Line.
The Subject Line is very important. It must need to be attractive or catchy enough
for the coach to click through to the email (especially when Coaches probably
check email more on their mobile phones than they do on their computers). If
they don’t click through and ignore the email, they may never come back to
it…..that is just how email is these days.
For this example I would type this in the Subject Line: Jordy Nelson’s Positive
Comments About You as a Coach
I think that would be a pretty powerful subject line that would get Coach Brock to
click thru to an email.
(Related Post: How to Find College Coaches Email Addresses)
Now that we have the written example I want to quickly breakdown parts of the
email to explain why I it will be more personal to the coach and have a better
chance of getting a response.
1st Part:
I came across an article when you were named Head Coach of the University of
Delaware Football Team. In the article Jordy Nelson describes how you truly care
about your players and play a key role in their development. He also says you
have a great offensive mind.
This part shows the coach both the reason for your email and also that you are
doing your homework to learn more about him as a coach. You are also paying
him a compliment which can’t hurt. Most of all, you are talking about him, not
yourself, which will stand out from every other email he is getting from potential
recruits.
2nd Part:
My name is Steve O’Brien and I am very interested in being a part of your
program at Delaware. I am a junior running back for Braintree High School in
Braintree, MA. I want to play for an offensive minded coach who utilizes his
players talents and cares about them as athletes and students. I describe myself
as having a strong work ethic and being a teamfirst type of player.
In this paragraph you are introducing yourself but also describing how his
qualities as a coach match with your qualities as a studentathlete. You are
showing him that there is a potential “fit” between you and the program which
may spur him to want to learn more about you (i.e. respond to your email
positively).
3rd Part:
What would you recommend as a first step in engaging with your coaching staff
and learning more about the school and program?
In this part you want to make a request and you want to make it an openended
question (Not a Yes or No question). In the example, I ask how I can engage with
Coach Brock’s staff and learn more. Within your emails, the request could be
something else. Maybe you are visiting campus or attending a camp the coach is
at and you want to see if they have time to meet with you. This gives the coach a
reason to respond back to your email.
This is just an example of how to try and engage with a College Football Coach
via email. By no means is it the ONLY way but I think it gives you a good model
when writing your emails. It makes the email more personal and relevant to the
Coach which may hit a “nerve” and get them to respond back.
See below more example emails you can utilize when emailing College Coaches:
Example Email: Referencing a Quote From a Coach
Example Email: Referencing the Program’s Upcoming Losses to Graduation
Example Email: You Have Played With a Current Member of the Team
Example Email: The Team Just Won a Game/Event
Example Email: Contacting Assistant Coaches
Questions? Don’t be afraid to shoot me an email: [email protected]
All the best, Steve & Julia O’Brien
Goal: College Athlete