How to be seen by College Coaches at a Tournament


What did that coach think of that touch? Did he see the shot I just took? Why does he only seem to be watching when I make a mistake? Are these your players thoughts when playing in a tournament with college coaches observing?
To be successful at a tournament, you have to ignore the college coach on the sidelines and focus on playing while you’re there.

Why is it so important to focus on recruiting before a tournament even begins? Let’s do some quick Math. The average tournament has 16 teams in each group. There are three age groups from which college coaches recruit, and there are 15 players on each team. That means that there are 720 players at the tournament. For any given player, the odds of randomly getting seen are very low, about .1 per cent.

How then to beat the odds? College Coaches typically go to a tournament with a list of players they want to see play. The list may include five names or they may have 50 names. Either way, the college coach is focusing his attention on a fraction of the total number of players at the tournament. Simply put:: you need to get on that list.

Fortunately, it’s not difficult. Once you’ve figured out which colleges you like and started communicating with them, email the coaches your tournament schedule. A week before the tournament begins, send the coach a quick email saying something along the lines of: Hi coach so and so, I’m excited about playing next week at whatever tournament. Are you planning to be there? If so, I would really appreciate it if you’d take the time to see me play. My scheduld is as follows: Saturday and the time and Sunday and the time.

I’m very interested in playing for you and I hope that after seeing me play, you’ll be convinced that I’m a good fit for your team. Thanks so much for the time. I hope to see you there next week.

An email like this is surprisingly simple, but it shows a coach that you’re interested in playing for him and that you’re doing everything you can to have him see you play. This makes a big difference to coaches, who otherwise have to spend an absurd amount of time chasing players down to see if they’re interested. Simply showing you are can drastically advance your cause.

O.K. so you’ve emailed coaches your schedule and at long last you get to the tournament. You’re pumped and ready to play, if a bit nervous. Inevitably, you look over to the sideline and there he is, sitting on his lawn chair, pen and paper in hand, school logo emblazoned on his shirt.

The best thing you can do is play the way you normally do. Don’t start dribbling all over the place in an effort to impress him. Most importantly, don’t dwell on mistakes- college coaches know everyone makes them. In fact, the way you respond to your mistakes is something that coaches often watch. Most importantly, enjoy the game and embrace the opportunity to play. If you do that, you’ll be able to sideline your concerns about recruiting.