Introduction

One of the hardest parts of college swimming recruiting is figuring out how interested a coach really is in you. A coach may ignore your email, tell you to “keep us updated,” schedule a phone call, or start talking about getting you on campus. But what do those things actually mean?

The easiest way to judge a coach’s interest is to look at how much effort they are putting into recruiting you.

College swimming programs have limited time, money, and staff. The more of those resources a coach is willing to spend on you, the more interested they probably are.

Think of recruiting interest like a temperature. You can be Cold, Warm, Getting Hot, or Hot. Sometimes there simply is not enough information yet to know.

You send an introductory email and do not get a response. Does that mean the coach is not interested?

Maybe. But one unanswered email is not enough information.

College coaches are busy and have limited recruiting resources. You may also be reaching out earlier than that particular coach normally starts focusing on your recruiting class. The coach could still be trying to finish the class ahead of you.

Send a few follow-up emails before making any assumptions. Give the coach something new each time such as a meet result, time drop, academic update, or upcoming meet schedule.

If you continue reaching out and receive no response or effort in return, you are probably moving into the Cold category.

The clearest sign that a coach is cold on you is a lack of effort.

Maybe they do not respond at all. Maybe every response is short and generic. Or maybe you keep getting some version of:

“Keep us updated.”

Recruits often wonder why a coach will not simply tell them they are not interested.

The answer is that there is very little benefit to the coach in doing that. What if you have a massive breakout season? What if you suddenly drop enough time to become exactly what that team needs?

If the coach completely cuts ties with you now, they may burn a bridge they want to cross later. It is much easier to tell you to “keep us updated” and leave the door cracked open.

Signs that you are probably Cold include:

• No response after multiple attempts to communicate.
• Repeated “keep us updated” responses with no additional conversation.
• No personalized questions about you, your swimming, or your college search.
• Only receiving mass recruiting emails.

Mass emails do not move you from Cold to Warm. Neither does being on a recruiting mailing list.

Cold does not necessarily mean permanently Cold. Coaches’ needs change and swimmers improve. But if a coach is putting almost no effort into recruiting you, there is probably no sense of urgency from that coach right now.

The first major sign of real recruiting interest is usually a phone call.

Sending a quick email takes very little effort. Scheduling a call means the coach is giving you something much more valuable: time.

College swimming coaches have limited time and resources, so getting some of that time is a big deal.

Signs that a coach is Warm on you include:

• Personalized emails or text messages.
• Questions about your swimming, academics, or college search.
• A scheduled phone call.
• Multiple phone calls.
• The coach following up after one of your meets.

Pay attention to the effort after a phone call is scheduled too.

Coaches are human. They miss calls and things come up. But if a coach misses your call and does not proactively apologize or try to reschedule it, you should take notice. If you were at the very top of that coach’s recruiting board, they would probably be very concerned about missing that call.

Warm is where a lot of recruits spend most of the recruiting process. The coach likes you enough to invest time, but you have not yet become one of their highest priorities.

Remember that the coach is also looking for effort from you. They want to know if you are genuinely interested in their program or simply casting a really wide net. If you want the relationship to move from Warm to Hot, the interest needs to go both ways.

The next major step is when the coach starts talking seriously about a visit.

That could mean an official visit, an unofficial visit, Junior Day, or another opportunity to get you on campus.

A visit requires more than just the coach’s time. It may require involvement from other coaches, swimmers, admissions staff, and the college itself.

But there is an important difference between talking about a visit and actually scheduling one.

“We would love to get you on campus sometime” is encouraging.

“Can you come in three weeks?” means a lot more.

If a coach is talking about getting you on campus six months from now but nothing is actually being scheduled, you are probably Getting Hot, but not quite Hot yet.

Getting a recruiting visit scheduled is one of the clearest signs that a coach is Hot on you.

This is especially true for an official visit. Official visits require time, coordination, and often money. Those are precious resources for a college swimming program. Coaches are not going to waste them on recruits they are only mildly interested in.

The clearest sign of all is a roster spot offer.

Roster spots are the most precious recruiting commodity a college swimming coach has. The average college swimming team only brings in roughly six or seven new freshmen per gender each year. If a coach offers one of those spots to you, there is no mystery about their interest.

Signs that a coach is Hot on you include:

• A recruiting visit is scheduled.
• The coach is pushing to get you on campus soon.
• The coach offers you a roster spot.
• The coach gives you a deadline to make a decision.
• The coach asks what it will take to get you to commit.

Roster spot offers often come with deadlines. The coach needs to know whether you are taking the spot or whether they need to offer it to another recruit. Once a coach is pushing you to make a decision, you are one of that coach’s top priorities.

The Bottom Line

When trying to figure out how interested a college coach is in you, pay more attention to effort than words.

No response or repeated “keep us updated” emails probably means Cold.

Personalized communication and phone calls mean Warm.

Serious conversations about getting you on campus mean you are Getting Hot.

A scheduled visit, roster spot offer, or scholarship offer means Hot.

Your recruiting temperature can change. A Cold coach can become Warm after a breakout swim. A Warm relationship can become Hot as the coach works through his/her recruiting board.

Your job is to keep communicating, keep improving, and pay attention to where coaches are actually investing their time and resources.

How Do I Know if I am Fast Enough to Swim at a Specific College?

The best way to understand how a college team will recruit in the future is to analyze how they recruited in the past. That historical recruiting analysis can be broken down by looking at the average Impact Rating (more info) of the current team when they were in high school. If you are a member of SwimIntel, you can see that average on each college’s profile page (example). Comparing your Impact Rating to the historical average of a team’s recruit will help you understand if you are faster or slower than the average recruit and by how much.