How to Know if a Coach is Interested in You

The recruiting process is tough. It’s difficult to know if a college coach is interested in you or not

You may get personal letters from a college coach inviting you to a camp, combine, or just telling you they have received your videos. But that doesn’t show whether or not a college coach is interested in you. What a lot of athletes don’t realize is most email contact is generic.

Meaning that the contact you’re getting is because of your interest in a program.  In most situations, the contact isn’t because the college coach has an interest in you.

Most of the time the response you’re getting is an automatic circuit of emails.

How to know if a College Coach is Interested?

There is only one way to know if a college coach has an interest in you and that is if they are communicating with you either by telephone or direct email. There are multiple ways for college coaches to contact an athlete by phone. Since the NCAA has restrictions on college coaches communicating with athletes, coaches have to be creative so they can talk to you without breaking the rules.

The first initial contact coaches make with you is usually through your high school or travel ball coaches. If a coach is showing interest in you, more than likely he or she has contacted someone about you.

Due to NCAA rules, college coaches have restrictions on when they can start contacting athletes. D-I coaches are not able to communicate with athletes until their junior year. However, D-II and D-III coaches can contact athletes at different times during their sophomore year of high school. So college coaches have to reach out to other people to start the process first.

From there, a college coach will pass his or her information on to your high school, travel ball coach, or scout so you can call them, which the NCAA permits.

How Can NSR Help You?

In today’s recruiting game athletes have to call coaches first. To make this easier for you, college coaches will set up times for you to call or text them so they can communicate with you about their program. But you have to contact them first to do this.

In addition to a college coach communicating with you, coaches will frequently keep up with you at tournaments, practices or games. If they aren’t able to attend, they will somehow communicate with you and ask you to keep them updated with how you performed.

However, the NCAA has restrictions on communication with prospective athletes at practices or games as well. The NCAA rule regarding contact at games or practices doesn’t allow coaches to talk with prospective student-athletes until their coach releases them. And that can’t happen until the practice or game is over. In addition to that rule, college coaches can’t call or use electronic forms of communication (i.e. texting, email, Facebook Messenger, etc.) while they at your game or practice.

College coaches communicate with lots of prospective athletes, and it can be hard to know what’s everything means. Scouts at NSR help prospects communicate with coaches and guide them on what to say throughout the recruiting process.

Sometimes a high school or travel ball coach is too busy to help athletes communicate with college coaches. That’s where our scouts come in. Our scouts are always talking with college coaches. College coaches will reach out to NSR scouts when they want to communicate with a prospect. So they can start the initial contact and set up a time for an athlete to call them.

Recruiting is a long journey. Make sure you are doing everything right, so you don’t miss out on an opportunity.