A college soccer recruit explains how to email coaches without sounding arrogant. Skip self-praise. Instead, give your name, team, GPA, graduating class, say you watched them play, and ask for a conversation. Coaches respond to humble and factual.
This is the worst thing you can put in your email and probably why you're getting no responses. So a lot of people say to me like, Zev, what should I put in my email? How do I format it? And the subject line is really important, and don't forget about the email and the video, and can I make my video a GIF, which is like an image so they click on it? What should I do? So the number one thing you should never do in your email is give your opinion. For example, if you say, I I'm really strong, and I'm really fast, and I have a great boot, or I can kick the ball really far, or I think I'd be a great fit for your team because— this is an awful way to start an email, and the reason is, and excuse my French, you come off as a cocky prick. You may not be a cocky prick. You might be a really nice guy or nice gal, but for you to say you're really good at soccer, you have no idea what really good at soccer is for this school. You're not a college coach. You never played college soccer yet. You are, frankly, a nobody. So what you need to do instead is be very grateful and just give the facts. You don't get, you don't have the right to say, "I'd be a great fit for your team." You don't know what they need. You don't know what positions they need. You don't know if you're good enough. Your job is to get in front of them to figure that out. Now, if you believe you're good enough, great, but don't brag that to the college coaches. Instead, in your emails, only give the facts. My name is, I play for, I have a dot-dot-dot GPA, I'm in the graduating class of dot-dot-dot. I'm really grateful for XYZ, "Thank you for your time today. I've watched your team play. I really enjoy their style. I really enjoyed learning about this." Act like a humble student. That's what the college coaches want. Then, if they ask you one day on a phone call, which they will, who else is recruiting you, you can be honest and tell them you have 5 other calls, which they'll love to hear. And at that point, you could say, if they say to you, "Why should you play for me?" Now you could be a little cocky prick. Obviously, you won't be cocky. You'll be a humble prick. Not even a prick. You'll just be humble and you'll say, "This is why I think I'm the right fit for your team." But until then, you do not get to say that. If you want more help playing college soccer, comment the word "call" and we can schedule a call with you and your parents.
