Webinar Recap and Q&A: Events Roadmap Webinar

10 FAQ’s for Webinar Recap Blog Post

1. What should my highlight reel look like?

We have data showing the average coach does not watch more than 3-5 minutes of any video. This is why we strongly recommend you have 15-20 clips ranging from 5-15 seconds each, keeping your reel within this 3-5 minute timeframe. In this video, coaches are looking for both athleticism and skill. Shy away from showing the same kind of play over and over.

2. How and when should I send my video/highlight reel to coaches?

If you want to get the attention of a coach you have been in communication with, we can tell you a secret: coaches love being able to track progression.

Coaches do not have time to watch full games of all of the prospects they’re interested in. Highlight reels have revolutionized coaches’ capabilities to evaluate players. You need to send your highlight reel to all coaches you are interested in, or coaches you might be interested in. Coaches have busy schedules and can’t make it to all of the events they’d like to, so being able to evaluate you from their office, home, or on the go is pure gold.

3. What does a verbal commit mean to players/coaches?

The NCAA defines a verbal commitment as “non-binding”. This means verbally committed players are committed to the application process of a particular school but not yet officially admitted to the program or school. This verbal commitment becomes a binding contract when the National Letter of Intent is officially signed by the player. This is just like any deal in the real world, it’s not official until you sign the dotted line. Until then, many things can happen. By the way, here are some tips for that unnofficial/officail visit: 5 Tips for Your Official or Unofficial Visit

4. What does it mean to be invited or go to a prospect day?

Prospect days are a great way to get on a school’s campus and play in front of a school’s coaching staff. It doesn’t necessarily mean a school is interested in you as a “prospect” for their school. We recommend prospect days for schools you are very interested in or a school you have had previous correspondence with. All too often we hear, “but they sent me a prospect letter, that means they are interested in me!” That is not always the case. Coaches cannot send you personalized information before September 1 of the player’s Junior year in High School, so they use the prospect day letter as a general reply to a player’s email. That’s why picking up the phone and calling coaches can be valuable (this is not breaking any NCAA violation). Have you never received a prospect day letter? This is what they generally look like:

[ecko_toggle style=”solid” state=”open” title=”Sample Prospect Day Email”]Hi Name, Thank you so much for your interest in XYZ University! We’d love to learn more about you!

If you haven’t already done so, please fill out or update our online questionnaire (insert link here). We are so excited to be welcoming players to our campus soon. Please visit (insert link here) to register for our Prospect Day in June. We hope to see you there! Meanwhile, check out these links to learn more about why XYZ University is so great.

Go (Mascot name here)!!

Best,
Coach X[/ecko_toggle]

Relevant Blog post:

Unofficial or Official Visits: An Overview

5. How do I find the best showcases?

If you watched the Events Roadmap Webinar, you understand why there isn’t a magical list of showcases that committed players attended. Showcases are meant to get you exposure to the types of programs you have interest in and gives you a chance to collect footage. Our best advice? Research! Research! Research! Don’t believe us? Check out The Recruiting Closet Podcast: The Three Pillars of Athletic Recruiting or reference the “Using Showcases to get Recruited” Webinar as proof.

6. When should we be contacting coaches and what do we say?

First, research the types of schools you’re interested in! Then, fill out your profile or recruiting resume. Then you are ready to email these coaches you’re interested in. Make sure you are personalizing these messages to each coach. They are smart and can sniff out a “blast” email (ahem, this is why we don’t let you do this on SportsRecruits). While you might not want to email the same coach every day, you need to email them enough to let them know that you’re interested. Maybe give them a call and have a conversation about their season, your summer, your future plans, their plans, your personal goals, etc. Below are some great articles to reference.

7. How do we gauge if a coach is interested?

College coaches cannot contact prospects until September 1 of their Junior year. However, players reaching out to coaches is completely legal within the NCAA rules, this includes all kinds of communication vehicles. We recommend you call coaches, the very reason you just got nervous and don’t want to is evidence as to how few people actually chalk up the nerves to do it. When you do make that call, coaches know it takes guts and it might be what puts you ahead of someone else on their list. The recruiting process is about trying to separate yourself from the pack. Which coaches do you call? Any coach you want.

For our members, I would start with those coaches who are looking at you. For those who don’t know, SportsRecruits notifies you of which coach is looking at your profile, watching your video, or downloading your academic information. See the article below for more information on trying to gauge coach interest.

Recruiting Engagement: Who is Really Interested?

8. Why use your platform?

We understand you might be overwhelmed with all of the options out there. However, we believe SportsRecruits will be your best resource to save you an incredible amount of time in the recruiting process: using an advanced school search to help you sort through thousands of schools to find ones that interest you, information on every program and school from U.S. News and World Report, email address database of every coach in the country, a messaging system to reach out to those coaches, a tracking feature to know which coaches are interacting with your recruiting information and analytics to help you digest and set realistic goals. See for yourself with this short video below or check out this short blog post:

9. How do I become a member and stay more informed of future webinars?

Visit our pricing page for our membership options. There are 4 packages. All of them give you the same tools and features on the SportsRecruits platform. The only differences are the “bells and whistles” like the recruiting consultation (1 hour deep dive into your process with a recruiting expert here) or having our editing team produce you a professional highlight reel.

10. Aside from webinars, how do we stay informed?

As you have seen throughout these questions, we frequently write articles touching on all aspects of the recruiting process. Visit our SportsRecruits blog sometime and poke around!