What To Do If You Don’t Get Phone Calls On June 15th

Contributor Rick Paine is an expert on the college recruiting process. He is also the Director of Swimming at American College Connection (ACC). AAC is a Swimswam Partner. 

You are a high school rising junior and it is the evening of June 15th and the phone hasn’t been ringing, what do you do?

• Panic and assume that no one is interested in you
• Start calling the college coaches
• Give up on your dream of swimming in college
• Change sports
• Email the college coaches your cell number
• Have your coach call the college coaches
• None of the above

The correct answer is……………none of the above. There are a lot of D-I coaches who won’t even pick up the phone on June 15th because they assume that everyone else is. D-II coaches can start calling on June 15. D-III and NAIA coaches are not limited on phone calls.

Hopefully, you have sent your information and video to college coaches at the schools you are interested in long before June 15. If not, do so right away.

If you have sent your info out prior to June 15 and didn’t get any calls, wait a couple of days to give the coaches time to call. After that resend and change the subject line in your email.

The subject line can make it or break it for you. You have to catch the coaches’ eye.

You can also add another assistant coach to your email.

Here is what American College Connection does for our swimmers (you can do most of this yourself).

September to June of grade 10:

• We ask our swimmers for a list of schools they are interested in and we contact each coach from their list to let them know they are interested in their school and try to find out if they are interested in our swimmers.
• We receive a response from approximately 80% of the coaches. For the 20% who don’t respond, we re-contact them until they do.
• Many of our swimmers will schedule a call with us to do some role-playing for when the coaches call.
• We provide our swimmers and parents with a list of questions for the coaches and we provide them with tips on how to engage a coach when they call to personalize the conversation.
• We advise them on how and when to commit to an official visit and how to ask for scholarships.

July:

• Near the end of the first week in July we ask our swimmers for a list of all the coaches that have called. We re-contact the coaches who have not called and continue to do so until they call or let us or the swimmers know they are not interested.

Most coaches will call to get to know you better and in most cases ask if you are interested in taking an official recruiting visit in the fall.

Make sure you have your list of questions to ask the coaches and be sure to take notes.

We recommend taking calls at home where it is nice and quiet and where you have your notes. Give your cell number out sparingly.

You should feel honored to receive a call from any college coach. If they take the time to call you, be sure to show respect and find out more about what their school and swim program have to offer. Don’t assume you know it all.

If you are sure you are not interested in a program it is advisable to let the coach know when they call. You won’t waste your time or theirs by being honest.

Have fun and enjoy all of the attention. You can let this be overwhelming or you can enjoy the process.

Remember, it is far better to be overwhelmed than underwhelmed.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and you will never go through anything like the college recruiting process again.

ACC Recruiting is a SwimSwam ad partner. Go here and learn more about ACC and their team of college recruiting experts.