Self-Recruitment Letter

Off Topic
1

hey guys im writing a self-recruitment letter to about 20 colleges can you guys please help me on it? heres what i have so far, please feel free to criticize and give your opinion on it.

I dont know if i should start it out like this??

I’m very interested in your school’s athletic department and would like to maybe one day play for this school. I absolutely love playing the game of basketball. what should i add do this???

First and foremost, im a very hard worker, as I have to get out and practice every day because I don’t like the thought of someone else out there working harder than me. My friends say I’m a gym rat, for example, there will be days in my schedule where I get on the basketball court, do drills, then get on the track do some long distance and short distance sprints and finally ending it with hitting the weight room. I have a set program for myself designed to improve my quickness, strength, and conditioning.

I keep a journal of what I do and would be happy to show. My goal is not only to play college basketball and be the best player I can possibly be, and have a good education to go along. I believe you have to work hard for what you want to achieve and not settle once you reach a goal. I’m doing great in school as I will finish with a GPA of 3.5 or 3.6.

Basketball and school are number one on my list as I make time to do a good job in both. Basketball has been there for me since I was five years old.

To tell you a little more about me, I’m 17 years old, 6"3 and weigh 185 pounds. I’m a good scorer as I’ve scored 23 points against last year’s all-state team Thousand Oaks. I can rebound the ball really well as I also had 11 rebounds in that game. I won Defensive Player of the Year last year as a junior for my team and won Offensive Player of the Year for my team as a freshmen.

I’m an all-around player who can play the one spot or the five spot. My primary position is small forward. Some of my stats are:

Bench Press max-200
Squat max-285
Vertical jump (running)- 32
GPA- 3.5

My coach as of right now is Richard Johannsen for Verdugo Hills High School. We have talent on our team and would like to make some noise this upcoming season. My goals this season is to make the playoffs and just take it one game at a time.

Thank you for your time and I’m hoping this will give you more of an insight on me. Hope to hear from you soon.

2

I just re-wrote the entire thing because I am waiting for Craig Ferguson to come on and I generally have too much time on my hands. I don’t know much about this topic, so I didn’t change the starting paragraph much, as I’m not sure how to broach something like this.

I doubt it’s much better, I just tried to quicky write it and edit it to sell you better. I would assume if it’s a smaller school you can write the coach directly, and if it’s a local school you don’t have to provide the state your highschool is in.

Dear Athletic Director/Team Manager/Coach Name

My name is ____, and I attend Verdugo Hills High School in _____. I am extremely interested in playing basketball for your school under Coach X.

I am 17 years old, 6 foot 3 inches, 185 pounds. My running vertical jump is 32, my current 40 time is X. (Note: I don’t know if they really measure 40 times in collegiate basketball.) My one-rep maximum bench press is 220 pounds, and my one-rep maximum squat is 300 pounds.

(Note: You will reach these numbers, I doubt they matter in something like this though, if lift numbers are relevant at all to basketball throw in your deadlift, if you think it better not to provide this shit pull it, or move it further down in the letter.)

I consider myself to be a very hard worker, and I practice religiously. I get on the court every day, and even on off-days I make sure to get court time and run drills. I also perform windsprints and long distance sprints as apart of my conditioning. I keep a journal detailing my progress and what exercises I perform, and I’d be more than willing to supply it to you if you are interested.

My current GPA is 3.5, and I anticipate it being 3.6 at the end of this school year. I believe in working hard and continually setting new, and more challenging goals for yourself.

I’m a solid scorer, as I put down 23 points against last year’s all-state team, Thousand Oaks. I’m a good rebounder, as I also logged 11 rebounds in that game. I try to be tenacious on the offensive boards and work towards never letting one get away from me.

I won Defensive Player of the Years honors last year as a Junior, and won Offensive Player of the Year honors as a Freshman. (Note: Elaborate on these, was it just some in-team award? If so, it’s not really relevant, but if it’s an indepedent award it means something.)

I’m a solid one-to-three spot player, with my favored position being small forward.

My current coach is Richard Johannsen, and not to self-indulge but I believe we have a very talented team here and we fully expect to make some noise this season. It would be wonderful if you could attend one of our games and watch us play, or if possible I could come and workout for your team.

School and basketball will be number one on my list of priorities if I play for your school. The basketball court has been my sanctuary since I was five years old, and I take the sport very seriously, as I hope you will take my letter.

Sincerely,
Sign Name

Phone Number:
E-mail Address:

3

Stats from the whole season would be more valuable than from just one game. What you really need to do is put together a highlight video of yourself or ask your coach to help with that. Schools will definitely want to see how you move on the court. I’m sure you can find some highlight vids of other high schoolers on youtube for examples.

4

Thank you very much Dweezil! i really appreciate that man. i have a highlight film of me but its off of only games we played in the summer and games we are playing now (saturday league) but its still against the same competition…heres the highlight vid if ur interested…

what do u guys think honestly?

5

If there is even the smallest chance of any coaches talking to each other, this might be a huge mistake. Saying “I’m really interested in playing for your school” and then sending it to 20 schools seems tacky at best, dishonest at worst.

Then again, I don’t know anything about US university (“college” as you guys seem to call it) sports, so what you are doing might be completely acceptable in that context.

6

[quote]Aleksandr wrote:
If there is even the smallest chance of any coaches talking to each other, this might be a huge mistake. Saying “I’m really interested in playing for your school” and then sending it to 20 schools seems tacky at best, dishonest at worst.

Then again, I don’t know anything about US university (“college” as you guys seem to call it) sports, so what you are doing might be completely acceptable in that context.[/quote]
As long as it’s not a small knit school community it’s not an issue. If he’s sending it to major universities, letters like that are sent all the time. If he’s sending it to local schools, he should send it to the one he is most interested in first, then tone down the letter and send it to the rest.

7

hey man, as a former college athlete (wrestling), my suggestion is not to sell your current numbers, but show it as progress. mentioning you’re in the gym, or you’re very dedicated to your plyo program is more important.

universities have strength coaches who will get your numbers up… they just want hard workers that will bust their ass to get stronger. sell yourself. if you believe you’re good enough to be there the coaches will see that too.

my two cents.

good luck with the recruiting

8

A few notes from a college athlete- coach’s son whose parents have sent more than a few kids along to some decent schools.

1.) Send your info to EVERYONE you might remotely be interested in. The more the merrier, you can always just say you’re not interested for some bullshit excuse (academics, location, blah blah) later. Seriously, 20-40 contact letters would be the norm here. A form letter is not bad at all for the first contact.

2.) I would strongly advise you to get your coach to send the e-mail. Type out the letter and ask him to do send them. Offer to do it for him (at school or something) while he is around. These things defintily come off better from a coach. Not critical, but worthwhile.

3.) Fill out the recruiting questionare on their athletic department website. They don’t put you in their system until you do this, so basically any letter you send is probably going to be put in the trashbin. Fill out the questionare, then send your e-mails out a couple days later as a follow up.

4.) Don’t be afraid to follow up on your e-mails. College coaches are very busy and sometimes e-mails slip through the cracks. Give it a month or so and if you get no reply, send it again.

5.) Don’t be afraid of rejection. I didn’t think I had much of a chance to play for Penn State (volleyball), but I sent an e-mail to the coach anyway and he saw me play at a tournament where my team was up against one of his big recruits. He said he didn’t have any scholarship money for me, but that he’d like to see me walk on. In the end I decided that wasn’t the right choice for me, but the point is that you never now. Of course, this is relative- I was being recruited by other schools in Penn State’s conference, so decide for yourself where you fit in.

6.) Make it easy for them to see you play. Unless you are well-known by the nationwide recruiting services (which you probably aren’t or else you wouldn’t need to be selling yourself to schools), they aren’t going to travel very far to see you play if they haven’t heard anything about you or seen anything. If you play on a travel team, say, “I’ll be playing [insert location near school] at this date.”

7.) Sell yourself a little. Some people may say it’s a little unethical, but I think when you establish your first contact, you should exaggerate your stats by a little. Numbers don’t realy mean jack shit but if you’re 5’8", a coach might not come out to see you, but if you say you’re 5’10", maybe he won’t cross you off your list. Don’t say you have a 40" vert if you have a 30", but adding an inch or two is ok.

The biggest key is just to get a way for a coach to see you in person. Video tape doesn’t mean shit, coaches are really just using that to see if you are somewhat in their talent range. If you are interested in a school, get them to see you play any way you can, then it’s all on you to show them why they need you.

And once a coach WANTS you, life is good and you can sit back and let THEM do the work to sell you! :slight_smile:

9

I want to send it from post office mail though…so i can also send them my highlight vid as a dvd…?

10

You need to change the first paragraph of your letter. It needs to stand out at the coach/athletic department. Coaches get hundreds of letters every year that start out with the same first paragraph as yours. Honestly, if I was a coach, I would be bored of that and probably not even look at it twice.

I would start your letter like this:

Magic Johnson. Michael Jordan. Shaquille O’Neal. Dwyane Wade. These players have one thing in common: they have won world championships. They have the motivation, the confidence, the skills, and the hunger to lead their team to the championship the next season. As a future champion, I possess these skills, along with many other skills, and you can benefit greatly from my talents at (Name of University).

Next paragraph, introduce yourself and hype yourself up, talk about your skills, abilities, and talents. Give numbers for the whole season, not just one game. Send a video clip or tape of your game if you can. Definitely mention your 3.5 GPA, so there is less concern if you qualify. And apply to as many schools as you can.

Hope this helps. Good luck and keep us updated!!!

11

thanky ou ver very much!! all you guys!!

one question though…is it better to send through post mail or e-mail cuz i wanna send a dvd with it too.

12

[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
You need to change the first paragraph of your letter. It needs to stand out at the coach/athletic department. Coaches get hundreds of letters every year that start out with the same first paragraph as yours. Honestly, if I was a coach, I would be bored of that and probably not even look at it twice.

I would start your letter like this:

Magic Johnson. Michael Jordan. Shaquille O’Neal. Dwyane Wade. These players have one thing in common: they have won world championships. They have the motivation, the confidence, the skills, and the hunger to lead their team to the championship the next season. As a future champion, I possess these skills, along with many other skills, and you can benefit greatly from my talents at (Name of University).
[/quote]

I respectfully disagree with this. Coaches don’t give a shit what you write to them- they’re not looking for essayists, they’re looking for guys/girls who can play. All that fluff just makes them think you are an athlete who can’t play who needs to use gimmicks.

A letter to a coach should be short and to the point. Tell them:

  1. Name
  2. Age/Grade
  3. Where and who you play for
  4. Height
  5. Relevant stats (you don’t need weightroom numbers, honestly for basketball vertical leap is all you need, maybe a sprint time if you’re fast)
  6. Any awards received (standardized rewards like All-conference/district/state/etc., not “team MVP of my JV team”
  7. Most importantly- WHERE THEY CAN SEE YOU PLAY.

I can’t stress the importance of #8 enough. If a coach doesn’t see you play in person, you’re probably not going to end up at the school.

For instance, my parents run a fairly successful Junior Olympic volleyball club that I assistant coach for. Every year we generally send between 3 and 8 kids to college to play, usually somewhere between mid-level d3 and low-level d1. All of our older teams play in a tournament called the Northeast Qualifier, because it’s a huge tournament that virtually ever college in the east coast (and a lot from all around the country as well) will be at. If a girl is interested in a school, this is typical of how we might go about contacting a school:

1.) Fill out the recruiting questionarre on the athletic department website.
2.) Before a big tournament, send them another e-mail, saying something like:

“Hi, my name is (whoever). I’m the coach for (club and team name). I wanted to give you a little information about a player(s) on my team named (whoever). She filled out the recruiting questionarre on your website but in case you don’t have her information at hand, she is a (height and position). On Saturday we will be playing on Court X at Y time. If you can’t see her play at that time, we’ll also be playing on Court Z at W time on Sunday. Hopefully you’ll be able to get a chance to see (player’s name) and see if she might be a good fit for your program.”

That’s it. Coach reads the e-mail and can make two decisions:
1.) Not interested- either they have no scholarships they want to give out at that position for that year or some other reason.
2.) They swing by on the court and watch her play for a couple of minutes. From there they’ll send an e-mail saying, “I’d like to see more,” or “She wouldn’t be a good fit for X reason.”

A coach doesn’t need to see hours and hours of a kid playing to make a decision as to whether they are interested in starting the recruiting process. All they need to see is a few minutes of play to see how you move and work as an athlete. After that, if they need to make a decision between a couple of players, then they might need to come see some full games, etc.

13

[quote]kobe4life08 wrote:
thanky ou ver very much!! all you guys!!

one question though…is it better to send through post mail or e-mail cuz i wanna send a dvd with it too.[/quote]

Send them an e-mail (or even better… get your coach to send an e-mail!), and put something in there to the effect of, “I have some game/practice/skills footage of me, would you prefer I sent it in VHS or DVD?”

14

Jtrinsey brings up good points. My high school football coach did this for me (generic letter stating my #'s and highlight video)and sent it to a bunch of I-A and I-AA schools across the country. I ended up with a scholly to a I-AA school. Coaches are very busy and receive many letters / videos. Make the letter and video direct and to the point. Cut the first 20 seconds out of your video. Coaches won’t care to see you walking slow motion across the court to make an inbounds pass. Some will have turned the video off by then. Personally, I’d drop the music and slow motion sequences as well.
Ultimately, it will come down to whether or not you’re good enough for their team and they have a need for you, not how well your letter is written or if the video has cool background music.
I’d also recommend attending as many camps as possible at the schools you are interested in. That way they can see your skill level up close and you can sell yourself in person. Best of luck to you…

15

how do i fill out the questionaires? i went to the ucla bruin website and couldnt seem to find it.

im going to this showcase sunday. the best players in southern cali are going and thers gonna be scouts and media there.

i also received this letter from arizona state university couple months ago and they said they wanna further evaluate me or something.

thank you all for the help

16

Usually it’s something that says “recruiting” or “prospective athletes”.

17

[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
tmoney1 wrote:
You need to change the first paragraph of your letter. It needs to stand out at the coach/athletic department. Coaches get hundreds of letters every year that start out with the same first paragraph as yours. Honestly, if I was a coach, I would be bored of that and probably not even look at it twice.

I would start your letter like this:

Magic Johnson. Michael Jordan. Shaquille O’Neal. Dwyane Wade. These players have one thing in common: they have won world championships. They have the motivation, the confidence, the skills, and the hunger to lead their team to the championship the next season. As a future champion, I possess these skills, along with many other skills, and you can benefit greatly from my talents at (Name of University).

I respectfully disagree with this. Coaches don’t give a shit what you write to them- they’re not looking for essayists, they’re looking for guys/girls who can play. All that fluff just makes them think you are an athlete who can’t play who needs to use gimmicks.

A letter to a coach should be short and to the point. Tell them:

  1. Name
  2. Age/Grade
  3. Where and who you play for
  4. Height
  5. Relevant stats (you don’t need weightroom numbers, honestly for basketball vertical leap is all you need, maybe a sprint time if you’re fast)
  6. Any awards received (standardized rewards like All-conference/district/state/etc., not “team MVP of my JV team”
  7. Most importantly- WHERE THEY CAN SEE YOU PLAY.

I can’t stress the importance of #8 enough. If a coach doesn’t see you play in person, you’re probably not going to end up at the school.

For instance, my parents run a fairly successful Junior Olympic volleyball club that I assistant coach for. Every year we generally send between 3 and 8 kids to college to play, usually somewhere between mid-level d3 and low-level d1. All of our older teams play in a tournament called the Northeast Qualifier, because it’s a huge tournament that virtually ever college in the east coast (and a lot from all around the country as well) will be at. If a girl is interested in a school, this is typical of how we might go about contacting a school:

1.) Fill out the recruiting questionarre on the athletic department website.
2.) Before a big tournament, send them another e-mail, saying something like:

“Hi, my name is (whoever). I’m the coach for (club and team name). I wanted to give you a little information about a player(s) on my team named (whoever). She filled out the recruiting questionarre on your website but in case you don’t have her information at hand, she is a (height and position). On Saturday we will be playing on Court X at Y time. If you can’t see her play at that time, we’ll also be playing on Court Z at W time on Sunday. Hopefully you’ll be able to get a chance to see (player’s name) and see if she might be a good fit for your program.”

That’s it. Coach reads the e-mail and can make two decisions:
1.) Not interested- either they have no scholarships they want to give out at that position for that year or some other reason.
2.) They swing by on the court and watch her play for a couple of minutes. From there they’ll send an e-mail saying, “I’d like to see more,” or “She wouldn’t be a good fit for X reason.”

A coach doesn’t need to see hours and hours of a kid playing to make a decision as to whether they are interested in starting the recruiting process. All they need to see is a few minutes of play to see how you move and work as an athlete. After that, if they need to make a decision between a couple of players, then they might need to come see some full games, etc.[/quote]

The reason I said this is because coaches get hundreds of letters every year with the same intro. This one stands out, and the coach can place the player with the intro letter, and will remember the player, than a letter with a basic beginning.

But above all, your game should do the talking. If that is good enough, it doesn’t matter what your letter says.

I would send an email and post mail DVD. 2 channels of communications are better than 1.

18

cant i just post the media file as a download link in the email??

19

[quote]kobe4life08 wrote:
cant i just post the media file as a download link in the email??[/quote]

That will work.

20

I would think that if you were any good to begin with you would be receiving interest without having to promote yourself.