Where Did All the College Coaches Go?

What happens when the best player on your team makes a verbal commitment? Well, the mass amount of college coaches that were there, simply stop showing up. It turns out that all of those college coaches that were coming to your court were really only watching 1 athlete.

This was an observation made by one of my athletes. After their first match at Nationals in Chicago, she quickly noticed that something had changed in the spectators around her court. College coaches. They had all but disappeared. The 6 or so that still came around were there still observing the uncommitted athletes on the team they were interested in. The difference between 30+ at every match and 6 to open up Nationals is a big contrast.

Here are some of my thoughts on this.

College coaches are looking for extremely specific things.

When a coach is out recruiting, they are looking for very specific things. Size, skill-set, maybe a specific position or personality. Trust me, they will go look. But they don't always see what they are looking for and don't always spend the time they need on a court to really evaluate ALL of the athletes. They aren't trying to evaluate ALL the athletes. If coaches are wondering around it is because they are looking for something to stand out to them. It doesn't always happen. If they stop at a court, it is most likely because something peaks their interest. The smallest things can turn a coach away. Passing glances aren't always enough, but sometimes they are. If what I need isn't in front of me, then I need to go somewhere else.

You have to put yourself in front of the college coaches.

You should realistically assume that a college coach isn't watching you. Sometimes they come and do an evaluation on your entire team, but most likely that isn't what's happening. They are either evaluating the athletes that have emailed them or the athletes that stand out in one way or another. You want them to evaluate you. That's the goal. But if you aren't emailing college coaches directly to bring them to your court, then you are just hoping that you match up perfectly to what they are looking for and do awesome things while they happen to be on your court. That is a lot of variables you don't have control over. If you were banking on a teammate brining college coaches to your court, squash that mindset. Do the work yourself. I see college coaches UA accounts all the time. Out of an entire team with D1 scholarships, one coach might only have 2-3 athletes marked or evaluated in UA.

They will go find what they want or need.

Well, if they don't get that ONE athlete on this team then they will be happy or "trickle down" to other athletes on that team that is playing Open, right? Wrong. If that court/team doesn't have what they are looking for they will go elsewhere. There are dominos in recruiting for sure. But you aren't always one of those dominos. Someone commented to me in Chicago that they never saw the Nebraska HC out recruiting. This was the first tournament where they had seen him. Well, the reason for that is Nebraska is watching maybe 5 athletes total in every class. He doesn't need to wonder around courts, he is just there at the 4 or 5 courts he needs to be at when he needs to be there. College coaches have big lists, yes, but once we filter out some of those top athletes, then their lists get really small really quick. Especially between phone calls after June 15th and then camp. Not going to camps can really hurt you. Chances are, someone as good as you is going to that camp. Coaches are "stuck" looking at one or two courts with "top teams". They are going and looking for exactly what they want and need.

My last thought. I walked up to a court just as the match was finishing to say HI to a couple of college coaches I hadn't seen that weekend yet (I believe this was at Lonestar). Team A had just beat Team B. One of the coaches turned to me and said, "You know it's funny. I'm looking at a couple athletes on Team B. They just lost to that team (Team A). Team A doesn't have a single athlete on the roster that I would probably recruit."

Coaches want what they want.

Need help getting in front of college coaches? Reach out to me and lets talk about how I can get you going in the right direction!