WHEN AND HOW A COLLEGE COACH CAN TALK TO A PROSPECT

May 17th, 2022 by Mike Getman

	Division 1	Division 2	Division 3/NAIA
Phone	June 15 before your Jr. Year	June 15th before Jr. Year	No Restriction
Email/Text	June 15 before your Jr. Year	June 15th before Jr. Year	No Restriction
Off Campus	August 1 before your Jr. Year	June 15th before Jr. Year	June 15th before Jr. Year
Tryout	None allowed	1 on Campus (Sr. Year)	None (D3) Yes (NAIA)
Official Visit	1 visit per school (Total of 5) August 1 before Jr. Year	No Limit Anytime	No Limit
Un-Official	No Limit August 1 before Jr. Year	No Limit June 15th before Jr. Year	No Limit

A college coach can only call you after June 15 before your junior year in high school. That means a coach cannot place an outbound call to you specifically to talk to you about playing a sport at their college, until June 15 before your Jr. year. Division III, NAIA and Juco coaches do not have this restriction. The same dates apply when you call a coach.

CALLING A COLLEGE COACH

When you call a coach, one of two things will happen:
1. The coach will answer the phone 2. You will get coach’s voicemail
You need to be prepared for both. How you prepare for a phone call will vary based on how many times you’ve talked to the coach. Assuming you have never connected with the coach before, or the coach has asked you to call them for the first time, you need to do your homework! Prior to the call:

Go on the team’s website to read the recent news, look at recent results, etc
Go on the school’s website to get a feel for and basic information on the school
Prepare for questions the coach may ask you (common questions include, where you’re at in your recruiting process, how your grades are, what your goals are, what positions you play, etc.)
Write down any questions you haveCoaches are very busy people, so it is common to get their voicemail. You definitely want to have a few notes written down so that you leave a well-spoken voicemail. It wouldn’t hurt to even write out what you would say. Something like this is standard:

Hi Coach ___________, hope you are doing well! This is ____________, I play for ________ Soccer Club in ________. I have a 3.9 GPA and 1310 PSAT score. I’m really interested in playing at _______________. I will follow up this voicemail with an email with more information. It would be great if we could arrange to meet in the near future or if you could come see me play. Thanks for your time!

Remember, coaches understand how difficult it can be for a youth player to call a college coach. Their main advice is typically “don’t be nervous, just be yourself”. That’s it, just be yourself and you will do great!