Step 2: Contacting Colleges
Once you have created a profile the next step in the recruiting process is to put that profile into college coaches hands. Many girls often ask “How many schools should I write to?” I wish there was a numerical answer, but in fact there are really two lines of thought:
1. If you are focused on your career, then softball is simply one of many ways to pay for that education. So the best plan of attack is to identify the schools that contain the major you are interested in and try to get into one of them. If you can’t play for one of your top picks (academically) then attend the school anyway and just show up and see if you can make the team as a walk on.
2. If you are in a situation where you really don’t know what you want to be when you grow up, and your absolute highest priority is playing softball in college then you don’t have to as selective. Then it becomes a matter of identifying how far you are willing to travel to school (will you get homesick) and how big of a school you will be comfortable with. Then you write to those schools.
Based on either of the plans above you want to write to as many schools as you need to in order to get in, and don’t stop your search at just your favorite pick. While you may be one of the greatest pitchers in the country, it could be that your “favorite” school has 4 great pitchers that are 1-2 years ahead of you and they aren’t looking for a pitcher the year you graduate. Think of it this way … If you were really hungary and wanted to eat, you could either drop 1 fishing pole into the water and hope you get lucky. Or you could prop up multiple fishing poles, the choice is yours. Odds are good that the more poles you drop in the water, the better your odds of finding a fish.
So how do you find out what schools offer your major, or fit your requirements? How do you find out who to email? Both of those questions are answered very easily by clicking on the Resources link and then choosing College Prep. There are links available to search by major, school size, region of the country etc and it will come back with a list of the schools that match your criteria. Another link lets you search by the conference and shows you the schools in that conference, shows you their field and gives you their head coaches email. As with anything on the web, some of their information may be out of date. But if all else fails, look up the school name using Bing or Google, go to their site, find softball or contact their Athletic Director.
The easiest way to begin the process, is to BEGIN THE PROCESS. That means quit sitting around dreaming about it, look somebody up, and send that first email. While it may be nerve racking, the only worse is sitting around worrying about it. You will learn and gain confidence as you go forward.