The showcase is over. Your car smells like orange slices and wet cleats. This is the best time to write the showcase follow-up email.
A short follow-up, within a few days, helps a coach remember your athlete among everyone they saw.
Three parts, one job
- Thank you. For coming, for their time.
- One specific moment. Something real from the weekend, such as a goal, a tackle, a switch of play, a comeback in the second half. Specific beats general.
- One clear next step. “I’m happy to send video,” or “I’ll be at [event] in November.”
Why it’s the athlete’s job
Coaches want to hear from the player, not the parent. A message in her own voice is more believable. Parents can help find the details and check spelling. The writing is hers.
Sit down with her the day after, while the games are fresh. Ask which coaches she noticed and what she remembers. Then step back and let her write the first draft.
A starting structure (make it yours)
Subject: Thank you, Coach [Last name] — [Name], Class of [Year]
Hi Coach [Last name],
Thank you for coming to watch [Team] at [Showcase]. [One specific moment, in her words.]
I’m very interested in [School] because [real reason]. I’d be happy to send video or answer questions. My next games are [date/place].
Thank you again,
[Name] | [Grad year] | [Club] | [Email]
Don’t copy this word for word. Change the opening, change the moment, and use words she would actually say.
Who to send it to
Coaches who came and fit her list (what to do with the coach list). If a college came for a second or third look (why a coach’s third look matters), write a bit more personally.
If you aren’t sure who came, that’s the problem a shared list solves. One parent taps the college as the coach arrives, and every family gets the list (four parents, two per half, one list).
What not to do
- Don’t send the same email to everyone
- Don’t ask where she stands
- Don’t have a parent write it
- Don’t send three follow-ups in a week
Then wait
A coach may reply quickly, slowly or not at all. That’s normal, and one quiet inbox isn’t a no. A sighting is a signal, not interest (what it means when a coach watches), and a reply or a call is a different signal again (the five recruiting signals worth tracking).
What a coach can say to a family, and when, depends on the level and the date. Check the NCAA’s official recruiting page before you read anything into a short reply.
Before the next showcase
The same athlete-written habit works in both directions. Send the schedule a week before you go (the showcase schedule email), then follow up after. Two short emails, in her voice, beat one long one from a parent.
A quick example
Say a coach from a school on her list watched the second half of Saturday’s game. Her thank-you is two sentences: one that says she appreciated the coach coming, and one about the moment she remembers, such as the second-half switch of play that set up a goal. Then one line with her next games. That’s it. It reads like her, it took ten minutes, and the coach can answer in one line if they want to.
Keep it short
Five or six sentences is plenty. A coach reading fifty emails after a weekend of games will finish a short, specific note and skim a long one.
Know exactly who to write. Get the free CoachWatch Android beta.
Fifty personal emails don’t have to take fifty hours. I’mCommitted.ai, the recruiting app we’re building, learns your athlete’s voice and helps her write each one.