<p>In reading over a lot of the recent threads it struck me that many athletes (and their parents) are pursuing coaches with emails, calls and requests for OV’s, LL’s etc…as opposed to letting the coaches pursue them.</p>
<p>I think there is a bit of an art to being chased by coaches as opposed to chasing them. For instance has anyone not responded to a coaches email or call as a recruiting strategy? Even a recruiting coach from a top D1 school (academic/athletic school)?</p>
<p>and i know there’s a fine line between being strategic and rude.</p>
<p>Interesting point, however in all sports the coaches have a tight band of friendship and communicate with one another. If a recruit does not respond it could affect not only that particular school but another as well if one coach inquires about a player and the coach says something along the lines of - yes he is a good player but he is a poor communicator and does not respond to emails etc… Bad idea IMO</p>
<p>If a coach initiates contact, it is a good idea for an athlete to respond if they have any degree of interest. I would suggest responding politely and not being pushy (and not pushing the scholarship money issue) as opposed to playing “hard to get” or game-playing, period. </p>
<p>Ethics dictate it is only fair to let a coach know when no longer interested so the coach does not waste time and other athletes get an opportunity.</p>
<p>certainly not advocating unethical or rude behavior. </p>
<p>however I believe there is a non-verbal communication going on between coaches and athletes that can be just as important as verbal. And in many ways is similar to dating. And we all know the pursued is a lot more attractive than the easy to get. I think it’s worth considering for athletes in the recruiting pipeline right now. Implementation is another matter, that’s the “art” part, and for those who are more pursued it’s rarely even a conscious strategy, evading the pursuer that is!</p>
<p>There’s also a self confidence thing that rings true with more measured, calm, not in a hurry to get back to you, communications. I noticed with several coaches that the “thinner” the communications the more often they called and emailed and sent letters. Although this can cut the other way, with one school they never sent emails, letters, or scheduled an OV, they called once…and they had my daughter at hello:)</p>
<p>I like the dating metaphor! Here’s a related question --do you let prospective coaches know about other colleges under consideration (i.e., induce some competition/jealousy :))?</p>
<p>Some recruit forms ask for a list of other colleges…but my D has a list 20 long (and 4 leagues)! It is very early in the college search for her. So she has left that question blank, or has listed a couple of her top schools. I suspect the question will come up again during campus meetings…advise?</p>
<p>I suspect that the effectiveness of that strategy would depend on the talent of the player! :-)</p>
<p>We only had one rule that our son had to follow: Be honest with the coaches. If he wasn’t interested in their school, he told them right away so they didn’t waste time recruiting him. If he was interested, he told them right away so they knew. He also let them know if other schools were interested too. That usually got their attention, but the coaching world is pretty small and if they “interest” was fabricated, I suspect it would become obvious fairly quickly.</p>
<p>^^totally agree, the good news is that many recruited athletes fit the pursued “person” dating metaphor, there’s interest by more than one suitor:)</p>
<p>you can assume all the coaches know each other, often well, across the country. But that tight community can also work to your advantage. D had an unfair decision date put on her by one coach at school #2, d told coach at school #1 the truth about her predicament, 24 hours later coach #1 talks to coach #2, no more problem.</p>
<p>the other thing to remember is that at some point in their coaching career they may be hired by one of the other coaches somewhere down the line</p>
<p>I think in many sports, at many highly selective schools, there are at least twice as many kids being recruited as there are slots, so unless you are INCREDIBLE and top of the line academics, I wouldn’t risk it.</p>
<p>D never played hard to get, but at one point she did get a little pushy. She felt one school was stringing her along, possibly as a B-list recruit, and their level of interest was unclear. D was very interested in that school, but feared waiting around for them to decide if they wanted her could cost her spot elsewhere. So she called them up and told them she had 4 OV’s already scheduled/taken, and invitations for other visits waiting for her reply. She said she really wanted their school to be her 5th visit, but wasn’t sure of their interest. They called her back and told her they were indeed interested, made some excuses about their schedule, blah blah, and told her when they could bring her in for an OV. She’s a freshman there now! Was she on their B list? Probably, but she’s happy as a clam to be there, even if her sport involvement doesn’t pan out as well as she’d like.</p>
<p>In response to: Here’s a related question --do you let prospective coaches know about other colleges under consideration (i.e., induce some competition/jealousy )?</p>
<p>It will most certainly come up during any conversations. Keep in mind that if a top recruit joins a coach’s team it also means the the athlete won’t join the rival team.</p>
<p>In my experience, yes, that can work. If you have a definite commitment from somebody but have “higher ranked” schools on your list, you can use that acceptance or commitment from the coach to leverage the schools you want to attend.</p>
<p>At least, this is what my friends and I were taught to do.</p>