The Coronavirus pandemic has been a headache for basically everyone. Parents are raising concerns regarding the progress and future of their children and rightly so. Therefore, informing the parents of athletes with the appropriate answers is important. This article covers some of the most common college sports recruiting questions during Covid-19.
How are College Coaches Recruiting during Covid-19?
Since the NCAA banned all in-campus recruiting because of the pandemic, college coaches are resorting to other methods of recruitment. These methods include online solutions to the recruitment process.
The digitalization of interactions provides coaches an easy and effective method of recruiting. Therefore, coaches resort to online means of communication in order to respond and meet with students. Some recruit directly through email, while others use social media or college sports recruiting platforms like www.CaptainU.com.
The recruitment process largely involves communicating with recruits. However, in order to get the coaches to respond, you need to impress them with your credentials and skills. There’s no easier way to do so than creating a free recruiting profile, like at CaptainU, where you can message thousands of college coaches directly to get on their recruiting radars.
How will Students Display Their Skills and Credentials?
A student-athlete needs to build up their online profiles in order to display their talent to the coaches. Creating an online recruiting profile that coaches can easily search and assess has now become critical for the recruitment process. For this, the students need to get more active on social media and online platforms. They need to update their online profiles with essential information.
Updates like highlights and training videos are a great way to impress coaches. Apart from that, information that legitimizes your credibility like GPA scores and high school transcript is also pivotal. Additional information that the coaches might consider is player performance stats, previous team accomplishments, trophies, or medals.
What Is a Dead Period?
The NCAA does not allow any on-campus or off-campus recruiting during the dead period. The division 1 committee recently extended the dead period until January 1st. Until then, the coaches can continue the recruiting process via email, phone, texts, social media, and other online platforms.
What is The Quiet Period?
The NCAA division-2 committee is observing a quiet period that allows coaches and recruits to conduct on-campus meetings only on the coach’s campus. Other than that, the coaches can communicate through text, emails, or social media. However, the coaches cannot conduct recruiting off-campus during this period.
How to Contact College Coaches?
Contacting college coaches during the Coronavirus pandemic includes the help of digital technology like emails, DM’s, or video calls. However, the competition is tough, and there are a lot of student-athletes that are flooding the coach’s inbox. Contacting college coaches the right way will increase your chances of recruitment. Here are a few steps that you should take into consideration when communicating with a coach.
#1: Send an Introductory Email
An introductory email is vital when it comes to initiating a conversation with a coach. Write an introductory email that coaches are most likely to respond to. The tip for a good introductory email lies in the subject line. The coaches, when scrolling through countless emails have their eyes on the subject line first.
Therefore, it is crucial that you add the most essential information in the subject line. This information can be something the coach is looking for. On the other hand, it can be the best aspect of you that the college teams can use. CLICK HERE for additional tips on best methods to contact coaches through email.
#2: Always Follow-Up
Once you start communicating, it is important that you follow up on that email with a call. Setting up a time for a follow-up call is a great idea, as you will be able to answer the questions a coach usually puts forward. A call with a recruit in comparison to emails will give you better clarity of the situation. For help with the right questions to ask during calls with coaches, check out this helpful article.
#3: Be Thankful and Polite
Whether you are replying to personal emails with the coach, or mass emails from the school, you should be thankful and polite. Responding to emails or letters needs to have an aspect of generousness. Letting the school know that you are thankful for the opportunity will likely increase your odds. Therefore, always start your letters or emails by thanking the specific school or coach.
#4: Keep the Coaches Updated
Always keep an active conversation with the coach if you wish to expand your options. College recruits will tend to move on to other recruits if the conversation is scarce. Let them know about recent updates like your competitions, tournaments, and if you are planning to visit their schools.
Does the In-Person Ban on Recruiting Restrict the Coaches to Attend Tournaments?
The division 1 coaches cannot attend any tournaments or competitions until the dead period ends. This means that there will be no division-1 college recruits in any on-campus or off-campus tournaments. As for division 2, the conditions are the same until January 1st. The NCAA will assess the situation after January 1st and make announcements according to the situation.
How Can I Create A Highlight Video?
Creating a highlight video can be quite difficult. In order to do so, you should research upcoming competitions and tournaments and try to take part in them. This will give you a great chance to record in-game footage.
If you don’t have in-game footage, simple footage of skills could be enough for some coaches to determine your talent and skill level. Get someone to film you doing essential drills that highlight your skills. Furthermore, you can use this footage to send out to coaches. You can also hire a company to help you create a professional highlight real for fairly cheap these days. They will highlight you so you stand out among the other players and also include additional features to increase professionalism. CaptainU offers professional highlight video creation for only $99.
Why You Should Be Reaching Out To Coaches?
Covid-19 stands as a serious hurdle between students and coaches. However, advancements in communicative technologies provide us with alternative methods to the traditional recruitment process.
It is important for you to take advantage of these methods and pro-actively approach the coaches through various online mediums. Having a proactive online presence is effective, as most coaches will not reach out to you unless you approach them first. There’s no easier way of being proactive than creating a free recruiting profile.
In addition to the most common college sports recruiting questions during Covid-19, check out https://stacksports.captainu.com/captainu-covid-19-support-hub/.
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