We’re newbies too at looking at colleges and athletic programs. Has your S reviewed the NCAA timelines? I believe D1 coaches (with perhaps some exceptions like service academies) cannot even meaningfully respond to emails from prospective athletes until junior year. I do think they can accept a phone call. My kid has reached out to a couple coaches because of casual visits we were making to their schools and the first thing they asked my kid to do was to fill out the online recruiting questionnaire. And so far we’ve been relying on the College Swimming website to learn more about specific programs, particularly the kinds of times their athletes have, and also had while they were in high school, to try to gauge which teams are realistic for my kid.