Email to Prospective D1/D2 College Coaches

why don't you wait until your xc season is over

My coach suggested that I start contacting colleges, and everything I've read says to start doing it now because coaches will get very busy with xc, and indoor/outdoor around the corner.

You should definitely start contacting them early but look around the team site first because some schools have kind of ready made recruit forms to fill out your PRs and stuff like that. If they don't have that I think the email would be fine.

We don't want to hear from you before junior year starts. We're recruiting seniors right now.

Fill out an online questionnaire and follow up with an email (again, not right now, it will get lost in the shuffle).

Alternately, put together a running resumé that has all the same info a qestionnaire asks for. Attach it to an email.

Always email or cc the assistant coach. Lots of them end up handling recruit binders anyway.

Have your 11th grade transcripts, tests scores and 12th grade schedule ready when coaches ask for them.

Register with the NCAA Eligibility Center.

Get good grades and run fast jr year cross and track times.

DI wrote:

We don't want to hear from you before junior year starts. We're recruiting seniors right now.

Fill out an online questionnaire and follow up with an email (again, not right now, it will get lost in the shuffle).

Alternately, put together a running resumé that has all the same info a qestionnaire asks for. Attach it to an email.

Always email or cc the assistant coach. Lots of them end up handling recruit binders anyway.

Have your 11th grade transcripts, tests scores and 12th grade schedule ready when coaches ask for them.

Register with the NCAA Eligibility Center.

Get good grades and run fast jr year cross and track times.

Exactly. I'd send one out in feb-march (when coaches are about done with this year's class) and then again after track season.

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm assuming that you're a coach, what do you consider fast 5k times, mile/two mile times something that would catch your attention?

My son just finished doing all this - he is now starting his senior year. He pretty much did what the D1 coach suggested - he started filling out some of the online recruiting forms that are on a lot of the websites, and also replying to some that arrived at the school in the mail. He had a very successful xc season, so after the season was over (late Dec, January) he then followed up the forms with emails to programs he was really interested in, with a short update of his new xc pr's, titles he'd won, post season national level meets he'd run in, etc. That seemed to work, because most, not all, replied to him with interest.

Also, take the SAT and/or ACT your junior year; SAT is offered in January. This is really important if you want to apply to an academically strong school like Stanford or an Ivy or something along those lines. They'll want to know by next summer whether you even qualify school wise for their programs. And, register with the NCAA eligibility center.

If your coach is willing, have him or her make you a good web page on Mile Split with you race results, pr's, etc. You can then reference that in your emails.

I think emailing right now is way too early - my son is involved right now in arranging recruiting visits as a senior and the coaches seem pretty busy with that and also with getting ready for their own teams to arrive this fall.

You should be able to figure out what fast times are on your own. Just look at the rosters of some of the college teams and they will often list high school pr's, etc. Or go to Mile Split and look up the profiles of some of this years best runners.

hs xc dad - thanks for the feedback. I think I'll start filling out the recruiting forms, and wait on the emails.

As far as times are concerned, I was just interested in hearing it from the horses mouth, I have a pretty good idea though.

Your feedback is much appreciated.

h.s. junior wrote:

hs xc dad - thanks for the feedback. I think I'll start filling out the recruiting forms, and wait on the emails.

As far as times are concerned, I was just interested in hearing it from the horses mouth, I have a pretty good idea though.

Your feedback is much appreciated.

HS Junior, there is really not much of a reason to fill out the forms right now. Really it would do more harm than good to fill them out now. Why don't you wait till you have some good races this fall and then start filling them out? I think February should be the absolute earliest you should fill them out, and unless you would be a stud at the schools you are applying to (ie. you would make their top 7 in cross based on your times this coming fall) I would not suggest applying until after track season is over.

Also, maybe my situation was rare (as I have heard of only 1 other HS coach that did this), but back when I was going through this process my HS Coach also asked for a list of schools I was really interested in and emailed those coaches. I was never sure what was in the emails but based on my recruiting visits they did have some influence. So that might be something you bring up to your coach and have him/her do for your top 5 schools or something, if you have a good relationship with that coach.

Good luck. Enjoy your last couple of seasons in HS, once they are gone you don't get them back, and trust me at some point you will most likely want them back, make them count now.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

I am also a Div I distance coach. Personally, I really enjoy hearing from sophomores or junior who have an interest in our institution. Every program has hundreds of recruits to screen. Finding those that may have an interest in our institution is VERY helpful, rather than spending time on those who really have no interest.

Why as a junior as opposed to as a senior? Many programs have email or snail mail recruiting efforts that are aimed at juniors. We also tend to focus more attention on the evaluating portion of the process on those that are interested in us.

Best of luck!

Thanks Coach,

Those are the reasons I had read about.

Can I ask what you look for in an athlete time wise? For instance, 5K XC time, 1600/3200? Also, if you are interested, do you typically contact the athletes coach to find out how they've been worked in H.S.?