by Bryan Matthews, Tudor Collegiate Strategies
Coach, you are recruiting a person, a student, and an athlete to your program. They don’t want to only talk about their sport, or their recruiting process. They want to know that you want every aspect of them as a student-athlete.
Therefore, try striking up the conversation about one of these things – they’re topics our staff has tracked, and we’ve found them to be areas of interest that get your recruiting talking:
- Their admissions acceptance
- Their overall financial aid package
- Their favorite NFL/NBA/pro sports team
- The holidays/their plans
- Their school pandemic format
- Your school pandemic format
- End of semester grades/routine
- New Year resolutions/plan
- Holiday/winter break traditions within your program or yourself
- Possibility of upcoming snow storms
- FOOD, FOOD, FOOD
- Best way to do holiday shopping now
- A funny story from your winter break past
- Favorite follows on social media
- New music/movie/streaming releases
- Streaming expirations after 2020 (sad face) like The Office on Netflix
- Are your favorite teachers still your favorite without seeing them in person each day?
- Funny fact about yourself or them
- Can you wrap a gift?
For many sports at many levels, this is a normal time where commitments are possible and, this year, it may have a little bit of a lull. Maintain that consistent contact even around breaks and holidays. No need to overwhelm them, but just keep the regular contact.