This document provides guidance on how to effectively email college basketball coaches to express interest in their program. It advises focusing the email on the coach and school rather than just stats. An example is given of researching the coach, Chris Holtmann of Butler University, to personalize the email by mentioning his challenges and leadership that season. A sample email to Coach Holtmann is outlined addressing his accomplishments, the student's interests in Butler, and asking for next steps to learn more. Personalizing the email for each coach and school by researching them online is emphasized to make the email stand out.

1. How To Email a College
Basketball Coach
Goal: College Athlete
www.goalcollegeathlete.com
By Steve O’Brien – Goal: College Athlete
When trying to get a college basketball coaches attention via email the key is
being personal & relevant. Make the email unique for that particular basketball
coach. Too many athletes make the email all about themselves, their stats and do
not focus on what the coach may need or want in a student­athlete. Also, mass
emailing coaches is just spam and will rarely get looked at or responded to. Most
importantly, almost all the college basketball coaches I have asked want the
potential recruit (you) to be more personal and show them why you are interested
in THEIR school and program specifically.
How do you make it more personal? Do Some Research on the Web
For example, say I wanted to email the Head Basketball Coach at Butler, Chris
Holtmann. You can find out a lot about the coach by doing a quick Google
Search:

2.
Take a few minutes to read up on the coach. Also, click on “News” and “Videos”
located underneath the Search box. “News” will provide more recent articles

3. where Coach Holtmann was quoted and “Videos” will show press conferences
and interviews.
(Related Post: ​The Best Time To Send Emails To College Coaches​ )
If you simply read his Wikipedia page and a few other articles you find out that
Chris came to Butler as an assistant coach but because of an unforeseen medical
condition the Head Coach, Brandon Miller, had to withdraw his position and Chris
was named interim head coach shortly after the start of this season. It mentions,
due to his leadership, he overcame these obstacles and lead Butler to an
outstanding season and another NCAA bid. As a result of his success, Coach
Holtmann was named permanent head coach of Butler University basketball.
Coach Holtmann noted that it had a lot to do with the players and staffs ability to
keep focus and not get consumed by outside distractions.
We also find out that Chris is a defensive technician and when he was an
assistant at Ohio the team turned in the 6th lowest opponent field goal
percentage in school history.
Finding out this information only took a couple of minutes and now gives us
some great information to send Coach Holtmann a more personalized and

4. relevant email. You might be asking yourself how? I am going to provide an
email example below to show you:
Example Email:
Hi Coach Holtmann,
Congratulations on a great first season as Head Coach of the Butler Basketball
program! I’m sure it was a difficult situation stepping in for Coach Miller. I
watched a video where it mentioned you met with players and their families to get
through the situation and stay focused on the season. I thought that was great.
My name is Steve O’Brien and I am very interested in being a part of your
program at Butler. I am a junior forward for Braintree High School in Braintree,
MA. I want to play for a coach who cares about his athletes and will do what it
takes to get everyone focused on one goal. I pride myself on playing both ends of
the floor and putting my team first.
Coach Holtmann, what would you recommend as a first step in engaging with
your coaching staff and learning more about the school and program?
Regards,
Steve

5. Steve O’Brien ’16
Junior | Forward | Braintree High School
GPA: 3.1 | SAT: 1550 | ACT: 23
(Link to Baskeball Profile)
(Link to Highlight Video)
Phone: 888.555.1212
We are missing one important piece: the Subject Line.
The Subject Line is very important. It must need to be attractive or catchy enough
for the coach to click through to the email (especially when Coaches probably
check email more on their mobile phones than they do on their computers). If
they don’t click through and ignore the email, they may never come back to
it…..that is just how email works these days.
For this example I would type this in the Subject Line:
Coach Holtmann, Great Leadership in a Challenging Season

6.
I think that would be a pretty powerful and complimentary subject line that would
get Coach Holtmann to click thru to an email.
(Related Post: ​How To Create an Email Signature in GMail for Your Recruiting
Emails​)
Now that we have written the example I want to quickly breakdown parts of the
email to explain why it will be more personal to the coach and have a better
chance of getting a response:
1st Part:
Congratulations on a great first season as Head Coach of the Butler Basketball
program! I’m sure it was a difficult situation stepping in for Coach Miller. I
watched a video where it mentioned you met with players and their families to get
through the situation and stay focused on the season. I thought that was great.
This part shows the coach both the reason for your email and also that you are
doing your homework to learn more about him as a coach. You are also paying
him a compliment which can’t hurt. Most of all, you are talking about him, not

7. yourself, which will stand out from every other email he is getting from potential
recruits.
2nd Part:
My name is Steve O’Brien and I am very interested in being a part of your
program at Butler. I am a junior forward for Braintree High School in Braintree,
MA. I want to play for a coach who cares about his athletes and will do what it
takes to get everyone focused on one goal. I pride myself on playing both ends of
the floor and putting my team first.
In this paragraph you are introducing yourself but also describing how his
qualities as a coach match with your qualities as a student­athlete (example:
showing that you care about defense). You are showing him that there is a
potential “fit” between you and the program which may spur him to want to learn
more about you (i.e. respond to your email positively).
3rd Part:
Coach Holtmann, what would you recommend as a first step in engaging with
your coaching staff and learning more about the school and program?

8. In this part you want to make a request and you want to make it an open­ended
question (Not a Yes or No question). In the example, I ask how I can engage with
Coach Holtmann’s staff and learn more. Within your emails, the request could be
something else. Maybe you are visiting campus or attending a camp the coach is
at and you want to see if they have time to meet with you. This gives the coach a
reason to respond to your email.
This is just an example of how to try and engage with a College Basketball Coach
via email. By no means is it the ONLY way but I think it gives you a good model
when writing your emails. It makes the email more personal and relevant to the
Coach which may hit a “nerve” and get them respond back.
See below more example emails you can utilize when emailing College Coaches:
Example Email: Referencing a Quote From a Coach
Example Email: Referencing the Program’s Upcoming Losses to Graduation
Example Email: You Have Played With a Current Member of the Team
Example Email: The Team Just Won a Game/Event
Example Email: Contacting Assistant Coaches

9. I hope this post has given you some ideas and confidence as you try to email
college basketball coaches. Sending emails and putting yourself out there is not
easy, but if you really want to play basketball in college it is worth the time and
effort. If you make your emails personal and relevant to multiple college coaches
and programs your chances of engaging in a recruiting process with schools will
increase. I wish you the best of luck!
Questions? Don’t be afraid to shoot me an email: ​steve@goalcolllegeathlete.com
All the best, Steve & Julia O’Brien
Goal: College Athlete