Every Week
If you're a junior or about to be a junior, you're now at the point where coaches can text, call and email you. Coaches should be in contact with you right now. If that's not the case for you right now, there might be a variety of reasons as to "why" that is the case and I will save that for another blog. But you should be talking to college coaches right now if you're actually in the recruiting process.
With summer camps and high school/college seasons starting here soon, recruiting can kind of be crazy. It can also be really great. College coaches are really engaged through camps and summer, especially after Nationals is over. But when the Fall season hits for both parties, things tend to change. College coaches can easily get caught up in daily practices and travel that "recruiting" falls by the wayside a little bit. One week turns into two weeks and before you know it the preseason has gone by and you haven't talked with more than 2 or 3 athletes over the phone. This is always a challenge for college coaches.
It's why I have been saying for several years now, that it's realistically on the athlete to keep those lines of communication open as much as possible. Sure, there is a responsibility on the coach also, we can't deny that. Being aggressive, however, is one way that you can stand out from the other 5-6 athletes they are recruiting in your position.
With all of that, you need to be touching base with the schools you are currently being recruited by or communicating with every week. That's right. Once a week. This can look a little different for everyone. Maybe you have a night where you're not busy and you can shoot a few quick, "Hi Coach...this is what's going on" texts to coaches. Or maybe you only have to do that to 2 or 3 each week because the other schools you're talking to are good about responding quickly and those conversations seem to be rather fluid.
Remember that you're competing against 4-5 other athletes potentially and you want to stand out. Sending a text to a coach in the fall that says, "Congrats on the win tonight!" can go a REALLY long way with them.
Realistically, my text feed only has 9 slots for messages. That's not even enough for an entire college team. College coaches are regularly to their own team, ADs, SIDs, parents and recruits. Timing plays a role as well. If they are at practice or a meeting. By the time they see the message they might have 10-15 other things that they need to deal with. Don't get frustrated if a school doesn't email or text you back right away. Stay aggressive and stand out.
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