5 College Recruiting Hacks for 2019

College Recruiting HACKS

For Field Hockey Athletes

Follow these 2019 trends & hacks to set yourself up for success in your college journey

1. Loop'd in

Before you send that email or go to their clinic, ALWAYS be up-to-date on what is going on with that team and program.

  1. Go to the team website and click 'news', skim through articles over the last few months
  2. In the fall, go to the team's schedule and know who they play, the scores, their upcoming games
  3. Check out their team Instagram and twitter
Try to find something relevant to start or end your email, such as "good luck against Richmond tomorrow!" or "congrats on being awarded North East Coach of the Year!"
Coaches will notice these small details, and it will give you a competitive advantage.

2. the Questionnaire

Go to the team website and fill out their questionnaire. Don't limit yourself! There is no reason you can't fill out this form for 50+ schools (remember, the coach is recruiting from thousands of athletes).

You might have to dig on the website to find it, try looking under 'Recruiting' and then 'add your info to our recruiting base', or 'prospective student athlete' or 'recruits' and then 'prospect form'.

Most coaches use this list to help them manage and sort their recruits, and use this list when deciding who they will watch at showcases

3. Copy. Paste

...is NOT your friend when it comes to emailing college coaches. If you have an email template, it's great to use it for reference, but when you decide to copy/paste, you are setting yourself up for failure. To o often athletesput the wrong name, leaving in the 'XXX', or addressing it to the wrong person.

NOTE, coaches can usually tell if it's a generic template because it's not customized to them. Keep it short, but make sure to add a sentence unique to that school or program and what you like about it, and what you can contribute to them.

4. Networking

Create a list of anyone you know who has any association with college field hockey.
Some ideas:
  • the older girls in your club & high school, their parents, their older sisters who got recruited
  • chances are, if someone played in college at least some of their old teammates are now coaching at the collegiate level. Ask them for their networking list and add it to yours!
  • any and all coaches, especially your club coaches and club director
  • if you've already done a EuroTour, utilize our staff, coaches & your EuroTour teammates
  • any camp/clinic, ask your coaches what resources they have and ask for their guidance
Continue to build your list and ask for guidance. You never know, maybe someone on the team can give you a tour of campus, or someone can intro you to a coach via email, or maybe you get a little nugget of info so you can learn if the school is the best fit for you.

5. Hockey

At the end of the day, a college coach just wants to continue to have better seasons from previous years, and ultamitely win a championship. And they need your hockey talent to get there .

Training with high-level coaches is key in this process. You need to be continuously learning, growing, training and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.