The recruiting email. One of the more painful parts of the recruiting process, but unfortunately a necessary evil.
Make sure to give yourself enough time to write drafts of each of these emails, and to personalize each one. If available, ask a parent or coach to proofread before sending out, and give them enough time to make edits and send back to you.
EMAIL TIPS
Make sure to send your emails about 4 days in advance of tournaments, not too early as to get lost in the shuffle, but early enough so they can put your team on their recruiting schedule.
Personalize your email! Congratulate the coach on their season, tell them specifics about what you love about their academics. This makes the writing and emailing process much longer, but goes a long way in showing a coach that you are interested in their school.
Make sure to include your grade, club team, number and coaches information, and make it as easy to find as possible. Coaches are receiving tens if not hundreds of these emails before every single tournament, so make pertinent information easy to find, and keep your writing concise.
Do all of the obvious things; double check the spelling of the coaches names, double check spelling throughout the document, read your emails out loud to double check for grammatical issues.
Do email coaches before every tournament, with the remaining tournaments that you are attending at the end of your email. If there is someone you felt you particularly connected with after a camp, send them an email as well!
EMAIL TEMPLATES
Use this email template as your first contact with a coach before a tournament or camp!
Subject Line: Name, High School graduation year, Club and Team Name
Dear Coach XXX,
My name is XXX and I am an XXX at XXX High School in XXX, XXX. I will be playing in the U.S. Lacrosse Women’s National Tournament over Memorial Day weekend with the XXX team. I would love to have you come watch me- I will be wearing jersey #XXX
This spring I was the leading goal scorer for my high school Varsity team, and I also won the Unsung Hero award. In addition, I play for the XXX Team based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and my goal is to play at the collegiate level (and maybe even pro afterwards!). For my XXX club team I wear jersey #XXX.
I am very interested in the academic programs at XXX University, specifically the strong science department, and had a lot of fun following your lacrosse program to their conference win this year! Congratulations on a great season, and I hope to learn more about the school and your lacrosse program in the coming months!
I am really looking forward to meeting you this summer at your camp on June 20th!
I will also being playing in these tournaments this summer, and I hope you can see me and my team compete this summer at some point:
Tournament 1, Date, Location
Tournament 2, Date, Location
Tournament 3, Date, Location
My coaches are:
Name, email address, phone number
Thank you and congrats on a great season!
Sincerely,
Name
Email Address
Use this template after a camp, where you either loved the campus and coaches that were running the camp, or met a coach that you felt you especially connected with.
Subject Line: Follow up from XX Camp: Name, High School graduation year,
Dear Coach XXX,
My name is XXX and I am an XXX at XXX High School in XXX, XXX. I had a chance to work with you at XXX camp 3 days ago, and wanted to say thank you for all of the time you spent with me. I enjoyed learning XXX from you, and spent some time looking into your program after camp.
I am very interested in the academic programs at XXX University, specifically the strong science department, and saw you lead the program to their first conference win this year! Congratulations on a great season, and I hope to learn more about the school and your lacrosse program in the coming months!
I will be playing in the U.S. Lacrosse Women’s National Tournament over Memorial Day weekend with the XXX team. I would love to have you come watch me- I will be wearing jersey #XXX
This spring I was the leading goal scorer for my high school Varsity team, and I also won the Unsung Hero award. In addition, I play for the XXX Team based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and my goal is to play at the collegiate level (and maybe even pro afterwards!). For my XXX club team I wear jersey #XXX.
I will also being playing in these tournaments this summer, and I hope you can see me and my team compete this summer at some point:
Tournament 1, Date, Location
Tournament 2, Date, Location
Tournament 3, Date, Location
My coaches are:
Name, email address, phone number
Thank you and congrats on a great season!
Sincerely,
Name
Email Address