When can I contact a college coach?
You are allowed to email or call a college coach at anytime. NCAA rules restrict when and how a coach can respond to you; but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be reaching out to coaches as soon as you identify that school as one you are interested in.
How coaches can talk to recruits before NCAA rules allow them too
NCAA rules are designed to restrict college coaches from proactively emailing or calling a recruit before their Junior year of high school (for some sports the time line is different). However, coaches are routinely talking to recruits before their Junior year. They do this when a recruit reaches out to them and they respond by contacting that athletes coach and scheduling a time to meet with the recruit. Here is how the process works:
- You call or email a coach and leave the contact information for your high school or club team coach.
- If the college coach is interested in you, they call your coach and schedule a time for you to call or visit so you can meet with them.
- If you call a coach and they pick up the phone, they can talk with you. If you visit a coach on their campus, they can meet with you.
Why aren’t coaches responding to my emails or calls?
College coaches receive hundreds or thousands of emails from recruits. There are three reasons why coaches don’t respond to recruits:
- You don’t qualify for their program athletically, academically or for other reasons
- You don’t have enough information in your email for them to properly evaluate you
- They aren’t allowed to email or call you back and you didn’t include contact information for your high school or club team coach
For many coaches, rather than try and get the information from a recruit they need to move the recruiting process forward, they will simply ignore your email because they don’t have the time to respond to every recruit who contacts them. Writing complete emails to coaches give you the best chance of getting s response.