RecruitPKB: How do I Contact the Coaches?

Last week I explained why I use the “contact 75+ schools” in all of my tips and checklists. I hope you had a chance to read that because that gets misunderstood quite often based on the situation.

So this week I just wanted to provide a little insight into how you can go about contacting those coaches. Keep in mind, this is for initial communication and getting your name out there. It takes organizing your list into the programs you really want to focus on and then doing your best to build a relationship with those coaches. That takes quite a bit of time and effort so you can’t expect to do that for all of the schools you may initially contact.

Make sure you have a good resume that has all of the necessary information, along with a swing video. (Junior Golf Scoreboard has a great template for using their an online resume service.) If you are not a junior yet then be sure you include your swing or high school coach’s contact info because that is the way a college coach can reach you prior to starting your junior year.

Draft a well-written intro email (written by the player). Be sure to make it specific and personal, do the research! This is the first time you are connecting to the college coach so take the opportunity to make it a good one! You can find the coach’s email on the staff directory of the school’s athletic page or by using the PING College Guide (I highly recommend this search engine for your research purposes).

Send out the intro emails in batches so that you can allow enough time to make some follow up phone calls. It’s rare that you can cold call a coach and catch them but leave a voicemail. This is a great way to make two connections in hopes the coach looks at your resume. If it’s before your junior year the coach is not allowed to reply or call you back. If you are realistic in the programs you contact then hopefully the coach will reach out to your swing or high school coach. If not, don’t give up, but consider if you are being realistic or not. Keep the coach posted on your tourney results and keep up with what the team is doing as well. Create some communication in hopes you are on their radar or that you will be soon.

Just keep in mind, it’s ok to have some dream schools, especially if it’s early in the process. But as you get closer to the process amping up you need to focus most of your time and energy on contacting schools that are realistic to your golf resume and your academics. If not, you may find that you miss out on some great opportunities because you dismissed some schools too early into the process.