May College Recruiting Newsletter 2024

Welcome to the Kings Hammer May College Recruiting Newsletter! The club is excited to work with you to accomplish all of your player’s goals for this upcoming soccer year, on and off of the soccer field. Each month, we will be providing this resource to help you navigate the craziness that is the college recruiting process. We hope you find value in this newsletter and we are excited to assist in this exciting process for your family!

This month’s College Recruiting Newsletter will explore ways you can begin reaching out and building your relationship with college coaches!

Contacting College Coaches

Prior issues of this newsletter have had a common theme: proactivity. The potential student athletes that are proactive in their search, in their identification of programs of interest, as well as their selection of ID camps are more likely to find the right fit for them. Another way you can be proactive right now is by contacting college coaches at programs that you are interested in attending. Below you will find 3 things you can do right now to get in touch with college coaches, and stay on their recruiting radar in the future.

Send an introductory email- This is a great way to get your foot in the door with a program you are interested in and allow the coaching staff an opportunity to get their first look at you. When sending this email, be sure to include the entire coaching staff, as this will increase the likelihood that someone on staff sees it (coaches are flooded with these emails each day). This initial email should not include an overwhelming amount of information, instead include key points that are not limited to but could include:
- Name, graduation year, high school and club
- GPA, test scores, academic information
- Position(s) that you play, highlight video
- Your contact information, as well as your coaches contact information
- The last section of this email should include how you plan to move the relationship forward. Will you follow up with another email in the coming weeks? Do you have any questions for the coach? Be sure to give them something to respond to in this initial touchpoint.
Follow-up phone call- After you have sent an introductory email, a great step to take in contacting college coaches would be to attempt to get on the phone with someone on the coaching staff. Depending on recruiting rules, any incoming junior is eligible to speak on the phone with college coaches after June 15. Prior to this phone call occurring, consider the below subjects as potential talking points:
- Research on the program and why it interests you
- Style of play of the program and why you are a good fit
- Questions regarding recruits for your class/what the coaching staff is looking for
- Culture of the program/core values and how they may or may not be a good fit for your personal core values
- This phone call is a great opportunity to personalize the relationship between you and a coaching staff. Once again, be sure to discuss next steps and how you can maintain an open dialogue moving forward.
Update coaches with new events and new highlights- Building the relationship with coaches is important, but keeping them engaged and interested is just as if not more important! As mentioned, coaches are flooded with communication and emails from recruits, so keeping you at the forefront of their mind and excitement is a vital part of landing a spot at your dream school. As you get new highlights, send them their way! Additionally, sending coaches clips of your play and asking for constructive feedback can also be a great way to start to build a coach/player relationship, while giving you an inside look at what each coach prioritizes and how they view the game. Continuing to update coaches with how you are doing, upcoming games and events, as well as keeping up to date with what their program is up to can be an organic way to keep conversations flowing.

These are just a few ways to develop a rapport with college coaches on your identified list of schools of interest! By maintaining a proactive, positive mindset you will be on your way to building relationships with each program, and getting one step closer to your goal of playing college soccer.

Personal Development – Developing Communication Skills

Contacting and building relationships with college coaches is a vital part of the recruiting process, but doing so in an effective or ineffective manner can make or break your opportunity to play at a given school. Impressions over the phone and in initial visits can go a long way in determining whether or not you will have a future at a given program, so being aware of how to be professional and an effective communicator is a crucial part of your personal development not only in your college search, but all other aspects of your life as well. Below are a few things to consider, as well as articles to read/dive in to the details a bit more.

Eye contact- in today’s day and age with technology, it is becoming less and less common to engage in important conversation face-to-face. When doing so, make sure you are comfortable giving direct eye contact to the person you are speaking to. Here’s why: https://brandastic.com/blog/why-eye-contact-is-important/
Active listening- you may come into specific conversations with an agenda, or things you want to make sure are discussed. This is completely fine, and shows that you are genuinely interested in making sure the conversations flows in a positive manner. While this is great, make sure you are actively listening to what the other person has to say and are able to adjust and navigate the conversation properly. https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/coaching-others-use-active-listening-skills/
Be yourself! Most importantly, don’t try to be someone you are not. By relaxing and being yourself, you will be able to have a natural, genuine conversation you are talking to. It is important to maintain a balance of professionalism, while being true to who you are.

Finally, one last article to help: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/communication-skills

Additional Resources from Sports Recruits

Articles

Sports Recruits Webinars

Messaging College Coaches: What your Need to Know: Available on demand. Great follow-up to this month’s topic

Kings Hammer College Commitments

Congratulations to the most recent Kings Hammer soccer players to make college commitment decisions! Remember to post your commitment to your Sports Recruits account, send a commitment photo to info@kingshammer.com, and include @kingshammer or tag Kings Hammer on any social media posts so that you can be recognized for your achievements!