Please Address College Coaches By Name

*Originally Posted December 8th, 2023

I'm not great at remembering peoples names. Athletes I can almost always remember. Several times I would be texting my assistant during a visit, asking her the names of the parents that were on the visit with the athlete. Conversations really help. Interactions really help. Connecting the parents to the athlete always helped me: Jim and Pam = Suzie

I could work backwards sometimes. Regardless, it was something I really had to focus on, especially if it was the first time I had interacted with a parent during that particular recruiting process.

I remember a youth pastor I had when I was in junior high. When I moved up to high school, he didn't remember my name. It was a joke that the high school director would always call me "Buddy" in the office, because that was how the junior high pastor always addressed me... "Hey Buddy!". It's a funny story; "had to be there" sort of thing I guess.

When it comes to recruiting, I regularly see athletes NOT addressing the coach by name in their emails. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest mistakes athletes make in their process. By not addressing the coach by name in the email you're communicating that 1) you don't know the coaches name and so you probably haven't looked at the schools website and are not really that interested. 2) You're communicating a low level of investment into the process. How invested are you to playing in college? Is this something you really want to do?

College volleyball is hard! It's hard to get there and it's hard ONCE you get there. The time and energy you put into this process DOES get back to the college coaches that are recruiting you and it makes a difference.

It's the same way you as an athlete usually don't like it when you get an email that says "Hey!" or "recruit" at the top. You want coaches to know who you are and remember your name right? They want the same things.

Take the extra 10 seconds. Add their name to the email. Little things make a BIG difference. Be willing to do some of the little things because they will pay off for you in the long run.

For a little more info on this topic, listen to my 5MR podcast episode on this topic.

"Jason, what's the best place to get contact info for college coaches?"

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