Ask Coach Taylor – What Should I Do if my Coach is holding my Recruiting Letters?
December 9th, 2009 - byCoach Taylor – You talk a lot about receiving recruiting letters. My high school coach has been known to hold players letters. What should I do about it?
Holding college mail is really an old school idea which some high school coaches still practice. The reasons I have heard are:
- The HS Coach is worried the player will get a big head and think they have it made and might not work as hard
- The HS Coach is worried the letters or interest from a college coach will distract the athlete
- The HS Coach may want to be in charge of the process and doesn’t want to be bothered until the end of the season
- The HS Coach doesn’t want the college coach to have direct impact with the player in a way that might undermined the team’s goals
- The HS Coach may believe that until the player has completed their sophomore year there isn’t any guarantee that the young man is truly a prospect
Regardless of the reason, the high school coach is most likely hurting the student-athlete by interfering with the process.
Imagine this scenario…
One student-athlete discusses recruiting regularly with their high school coach and the coach in turns passes along any interest from college coaches for the athlete to pursue…
One student-athlete never discusses recruiting with their high school coach only to find out months later that multiple college coaches had expressed interest.
Which student-athlete will be more successful?
So what can you do?
The key is to communicate with your high school coach. For a full outline of how to develop the proper relationship and establish recruiting responsibility with your high school coach, click here.
The first step is to clearly state your desire to play collegiate athletics with your high school coach. The next step is to simply discuss what your high school coach’s policy is about recruiting. Does he pass along letters immediately from a college coach? Does he traditionally hold that type of information? The only way you will know is to talk with your coach and do so in a professional manner. Remember, even if you do not fully agree with your high school coach’s policy, they will be directly talking to college coaches on your behalf…so don’t give them anything negative to tell the college coaches.
I encourage you to open the lines of communication with your high school coach early in the process and find out how they approach the recruiting…it will impact your success!
Send your recruiting questions to askcoachtaylor@ncsasports.org
If you would like to speak with a NCSA Recruiting Coordinator about your personal recruiting situation, call 866-579-6272.
