College Soccer Guy breaks down the exact subject line formula coaches actually open: GPA, graduation year, position, and club level in order of strength, plus your specific ask and any real connection to the coach. Put your name at the end, not the start, since coaches only see the first part in their inbox.
What should be in your subject line if you want to get recruited to play college soccer? I'm the College Soccer Guy and I help you play college soccer. Let's get into it. So in your subject line, and I got this approved by hundreds of college coaches, varies based off of the time of year. So we're going to start with the fall season. Now your subject line often needs to coincide with what we call your ask in your email. When I work with a student, I will be very mindful of the subject line as well as the contents of our email. I'll even, in some cases for dream schools, we'll spend 45 minutes writing one email to to that ideal school. And I have a scenario where I had a student come to me as a gap year, was emailing Gonzaga over and over again, never got a response, spoke to me, I resorted their email, and they got a response within the day. That's how valuable that first email can be. So going to your subject line, here are the things you need in it when you write your first email. Almost every time you're going to need your GPA, your grad year, your position, and your club level. Those are non-negotiable for that first initial email. Now the order of those should go based off of the hierarchy of importance. So if you have a 3.2 GPA, don't put it the first part of the email, maybe put it towards the end of the email. Not to say eventually, yes, you're going to have to describe what GPA you have, but you need your subject line to pop. So of course, if you have a 4.0, you're playing MLS Next or ECNL, and you play for Surf MLS Next, that is a great subject line. Coaches are going to go, okay, plays for a good club team, I know what level it is, I see his GPA, and I know his grad year. So you need those aspects inside of that subject line. I mentioned it depends on the ask, so depending on what you want out of the email, you don't really just send emails saying, hey, I hope I hear back from you, thanks for your time. That doesn't really work. You have to ask them something. You can say, when is your recruiting timeline done? May I come to one of your games? May I have permission to come to ID camp? Are you looking for X position for the class of X? So that will vary based off of the time of year and how much communication you've had with them. But for your very first subject line, make sure you've got those aspects. But then I would also add at the beginning, if you have a connection to the team, put that person's name in so when they read the email they go, I I know that person. How do they know that person? Boom, I need to open it. Or maybe you can mention you're going to be at a game, put fall game attendance or camp ID camp attendance. Then they'll be like, oh, this person, we have a connection. I know this person. It's much more likely to get a response. And then the final piece would be when you're writing that subject line, I want you to keep in mind, if you don't have any genuine connection and no, you haven't watched their game, you've got nothing special to add in that subject line, then make sure you put your name at the very end of it. Do not put it at the beginning. Your name provides no value of soccer. Everyone has a name. Now they still need your name in the subject line so they can research you later. But don't put it at the beginning. Put it at the end, because remember, when you open up an email, you can only see a certain part of the subject line. It won't show the whole thing. So that part needs to pop. That beginning subject line is customized based off your situation, and it's hard for me to tell you what that is. If you want more help with your emails and you're not getting responses and you think you're the level, give me a ring. Link's in the bio. Talk to you soon.
