Questions to Ask Recruits
For college and club coaches, and for current players hosting a visit, who want better questions to ask recruits and their families on a call, in the living room or during a day on campus. The list follows the order a recruiting conversation tends to take: getting to know the athlete, academics, why this program, coachability, family and money, then the decision itself. When and how you may contact a prospect differs by division, sport and class year, so check your own rules before you use any of it.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Getting started
What are you looking for in a college and a program?
Why ask it
Ask it early, before you describe your own program, so the answer is theirs and not an echo of your pitch. A recruit who can name two or three things, such as a major, a distance from home or a style of play, has thought about it. If all you get is 'a good fit', ask what a bad fit would look like.
What are your goals in college, as an athlete and as a student?
Why ask it
Most answer the athletic half and stop, so prompt for the other. A goal with something concrete in it, a conference final or a teaching degree, gives you something to be straight about: say whether athletes on your team have gotten there recently. A vague answer at seventeen is ordinary and no mark against them.
How did you get started in this sport, and what has kept you in it?
Why ask it
An easy one that most recruits enjoy answering, which is why it belongs in the first minutes of a call. Pay attention to the second half. An athlete who stays for the daily work or the teammates has something to lean on in a first college year when results are thin.
How is your season going, and what are you working on right now?
Why ask it
Naming one skill or one weakness means they are already coaching themselves. If you have watched their film, say what you noticed, because it tells them you did your homework before asking them to do theirs.
What is your role on your current team?
Why ask it
Ask about the role and leave the statistics alone, since you already have those. A captain, a specialist and a player who splits time each arrive with a different picture of year one, and it is kinder to hear that picture now than halfway through their first season.
What do you do when you are not training or competing?
Why ask it
The answer shows how they already run a full week, whether that is a weekend job, a younger brother to look after, a second sport or an instrument. It also hands a player host something to talk about over dinner that is not the sport.
What has recruiting been like for you so far?
Why ask it
They can tell you how far along they are without your asking for a list of schools yet. A family going through this for the first time may need you to lay out your own steps and dates before any other question will land.
How would your coach describe you if I called tomorrow?
Why ask it
Most recruits know you may well make that call, so the answer is usually candid. Note what they put first, effort, attitude or talent, and compare it with what the coach tells you.
Who has had the most influence on you as an athlete?
Why ask it
The person they name is often the person they will consult before committing, which is worth knowing by the end of a first call. Ask what that person taught them. You will hear what kind of coaching they respond to.
Academics
What do you want to study, and how sure are you?
Why ask it
Check the answer against what your school offers before you say anything encouraging. If the major is not there, or its labs fall in your practice block, tell them on this call. Undecided is a normal answer at this age, so ask which classes they look forward to.
How are your grades right now, and which class takes the most work?
Why ask it
The transcript will reach you anyway, so this is about how they talk about it. 'Chemistry, and I go in before school on Thursdays' describes a habit you can count on. Leave any prediction about admission to your admissions office.
Have you started the application, and where are you with testing and eligibility registration?
Why ask it
No two schools ask for quite the same steps, and an association may add its own, so spell out which ones apply to you and the date for each. Families doing this for the first time often do not know the steps exist. Send the list in writing after the call.
How do you get schoolwork done during the season now?
Why ask it
College is the same problem with more travel in it. Ask for last week as an example. A recruit with a system, even a rough one, will need less watching than one who says it just gets done.
What kind of help has worked for you when a class got hard?
Why ask it
You find out whether they ask for help or hide the trouble, and which of your support services to show them on a visit. A tutor, a teacher's free period, a parent at the kitchen table are all fine answers. 'It never has' deserves one gentle second ask.
What size of school and classroom do you think you would do best in?
Why ask it
Recruits tend to picture a college by its stadium and have not thought about a lecture hall of three hundred or a seminar of twelve. If your campus is nothing like their high school, say so, and arrange for them to sit in on a class.
What do you want to be doing five years after you graduate?
Why ask it
Few teenagers know, and you should say that is fine. You are listening for whether the degree matters to them apart from the sport, and for a professor or a former player you could introduce them to.
Which teacher knows you best, and what would they tell me?
Why ask it
A second reference from outside the sport, and one recruits rarely expect a coach to want. If you plan to contact the teacher or a counselor, say so and ask how the school prefers that to be done.
The fit
What do you already know about our program?
Why ask it
Put this before your own presentation. It shows what they have looked up and what they have wrong, so the time goes on the gaps. Knowing your roster and your schedule is interest shown without being asked for.
What put us on your list?
Why ask it
Honest answers run from the nursing program to 'my club coach told me to'. Every one of them is useful. If the pull is a person, such as a current player or an assistant they met at a camp, make sure that person is in the room next time.
How do you see yourself fitting into the way we play?
Why ask it
It only works if they have watched you compete, so skip it on a first call with a recruit who has not. When they have, you learn how they watch the sport and whether the role they imagine is the one you have in mind. Correct a wrong picture now, kindly.
What kind of coaching brings out your best?
Why ask it
Some athletes want it blunt and in the moment. Others take it in better one on one, afterward. Neither is a flaw. Answer in kind by describing how you and your staff really coach, so they are choosing with accurate information.
What is the best team you have ever been on, and what made it good?
Why ask it
A memory tells you more than a list of values would. Notice whether the story is about winning, about the people, or about how the group got through a bad stretch. Then say honestly which of those your team is this year.
How far from home do you want to be?
Why ask it
Recruits can be shy about saying that distance matters, as if it made them less serious about the sport. Ask it plainly, then ask the family on their own, because the two answers do not always match.
What would you want your first year to look like?
Why ask it
Here is where an expectation of starting right away comes out, or of sitting out a year to develop, or of easing in. Whatever they say, reply with what first-year athletes at their position have done in your program over the last few seasons.
What part of college life outside the team matters to you?
Why ask it
What keeps an athlete enrolled when the sport is going badly is often something else entirely: a faith group, the marching band, a part-time job, a city close by. A player host can ask this more naturally than a coach can, and can walk them over to the thing itself.
What do you want to know about the team that you would not ask a coach?
Why ask it
One for the player host, out of the staff's hearing. Recruits usually want the plain things: how hard the mornings are, whether first-years get left out, what the coach is like after a loss. Answer truthfully, and do not carry the question back to the staff as a mark against them.
Coachability
Can you tell me about a time a coach told you something you did not want to hear?
Why ask it
The story matters less than where the blame lands in it. Listen for what they did the following week. If nothing comes to mind, ask about the hardest correction they got this season.
What do you do best as an athlete, and where is your game weakest?
Why ask it
Set the answer beside your own evaluation from film. Where the two match, your corrections will not come as a shock. If they name a weakness you never noticed, ask where they got it from, since it is often a past coach's phrase they have carried for years.
Have you ever spent a stretch on the bench, and what did you do with it?
Why ask it
Plenty of recruits have been the best player on every team so far, and for most of them college is where that ends. One who has already sat and stayed engaged has shown you something film cannot. If they never have, say so kindly and ask how they think they would take it.
If you were not competing much in your first year, what would keep you going?
Why ask it
Pose it as a real possibility and not as a trap, and only if you are willing to say how likely it is. The answers worth trusting mention something concrete: the degree, getting stronger, pushing the starter every day in practice.
Have you ever had to sit out with an injury, and what was that stretch like?
Why ask it
You are asking about the experience, not for a medical file. Health details belong with your athletic trainers and whatever process your school has for them. How the recruit describes rehab, whether they stayed around the team and whether they rushed back tell you how the next setback will go.
What do you do the day after a bad game?
Why ask it
Short, and most athletes have a true answer ready: film, silence, an extra session, a long talk with a parent. You are learning how long a poor result stays with them and what a coach should do, or leave alone, the next morning.
When you disagree with a coach's decision, what do you do?
Why ask it
Nearly everyone says they would go and talk to the coach. Ask for the last time they did and how it went. Then explain how players raise things in your program, because they are judging that as well.
What do your teammates count on you for?
Why ask it
It gets at leadership without using the word, which makes teenagers give speeches. Quiet answers such as 'I keep people calm' or 'I am the one who stays to put the gear away' are often the truest. Check it with their coach.
If I looked at your social media tonight, what would I learn about you?
Why ask it
Say plainly that staff look at a prospect's public accounts, if yours do, so it is a fair warning and no trap. Most recruits laugh and then think, which is the point. Stay with what is public, and ask your school what staff may request beyond that before you ask for anything.
What does your training look like when no coach is watching?
Why ask it
Summers and holiday weeks are when college athletes are on their own. Being able to describe a routine, and say who wrote it, is a fair sign they can be trusted with one. Ask about rest days too, so you are not rewarding sheer volume.
Family and money
Who will help you make this decision?
Why ask it
Now you know who needs to be in the conversation: a parent, a grandparent, a club coach, sometimes an older sister who played. Offer to speak with that person directly. A commitment can come apart late over the doubts of someone you never met.
What do you most want to know about how we would look after your son or daughter?
Why ask it
For the parent or guardian. Many are thinking about safety, medical care and who would notice if their child were struggling, and will not always raise it unprompted. Answer with names and routines, and offer a direct contact for whoever handles athlete health in your program.
How often would your family hope to watch you compete?
Why ask it
Getting to competitions is a real cost and a real pleasure for families, and it seldom comes up until after signing. If you stream home events, hold a family weekend or play near their town, this is the moment to mention it.
Have you talked as a family about what you can afford each year?
Why ask it
Hard to ask and worse to skip. You do not need a figure, only to know the talk has happened, so nobody sets their heart on a school that was never possible. Before you say anything about aid yourself, ask your compliance or financial aid office what a coach is allowed to say and when.
What do you understand so far about how athletic and academic aid work here?
Why ask it
Families often arrive assuming a full ride is the norm, or that an offer is one fixed promise for every year. Let them tell you what they believe, correct it with your own school's facts, and pass anything outside your lane to the financial aid office.
Have you started on the financial aid forms, and do you know the deadlines?
Why ask it
Forms and dates differ by school and by where the family lives, so give them yours in writing. Some families skip the forms because they assume they will not qualify. Your financial aid office is the right place for them to test that assumption.
Is there anything we should plan around so your family can make a visit?
Why ask it
Asking lets you set up a visit they can really make around shift work, the price of the trip, younger children or a relative who cannot be left. Before you offer to cover or provide anything, find out what your rules let a program pay for on a visit.
What worries you most about leaving home?
Why ask it
Put it to the recruit, ideally with a current player nearby who can say what worried them at the same stage. Missing a sibling, a dog, cooking for themselves: the small answers are common and real. Do not argue them out of it. Say what helped others.
The decision
Which other schools are you seriously considering?
Why ask it
Ask it straight and without an edge, since recruits expect it. The list shows what they value: all close to home, all one conference, all strong in one major. Never run down another program in reply. It makes the recruit wonder what you say about them.
Where do we stand among the schools you are considering?
Why ask it
Uncomfortable on both sides, which is why many coaches leave it too late. A recruit who tells you that you are third has done you a favor. Follow with what would have to be true for you to move up, and be honest about whether you can make it true.
What is your timeline for deciding?
Why ask it
Line their dates up against your own. If you need an answer sooner than they plan to give one, say so now and say why. Know your own calendar before the call too: when an offer may be made, spoken or written, is set sport by sport.
What will the decision come down to in the end?
Why ask it
Asked late in a long conversation, this often gets a different answer from the one they gave when you first asked what they were looking for, and the later one is the real one. If it is something you cannot offer, tell them. Losing a recruit honestly costs less than keeping one who leaves after a year.
What have you liked at other programs you have visited?
Why ask it
This is no fishing trip for a rival's secrets. It tells you what impressed them, a study hall setup, a meal with the team, a position meeting, and whether you have shown them your version of it yet.
Is there anything you have seen or heard about us that gives you pause?
Why ask it
Few recruits will hand a doubt to a coach unasked, so make it easy by naming one yourself, such as a small roster or a long winter. A doubt said aloud can be answered. One kept quiet decides against you later.
What would you like to see, or who would you like to meet, before you decide?
Why ask it
Whatever they name is your next step: a class, a position coach, a professor in their major, an evening with the team. If they want nothing more, they are either ready or gone, so ask what is still giving them pause.
What questions do you have for us?
Why ask it
Leave real time for it and come back to it more than once over a visit. What they ask shows what they care about and how much they prepared. If a recruit has none, bring up the ones others usually ask about playing time, aid and injuries, then answer them fully.
What is the best way to stay in touch, and how often is too often?
Why ask it
Recruits get a great many messages and most will not tell a coach to slow down unless invited to. Agree on a channel and a rhythm. Whatever you agree has to sit inside your own contact rules, which can limit the channel, the dates and the number of messages.
Running a recruiting conversation that goes both ways
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you make contact
Check the contact rules for your sport first
When a coach may call, message, visit a home or host a prospect on campus is set by the association, the division, the sport and the recruit's year in school, and those calendars are revised. Ask your compliance office or governing body what applies before you reach out, and ask again each season. Club coaches have their own league and safeguarding rules about contact with minors. A current player who is hosting is covered by rules too, and should get them from the staff and not from a teammate's memory.
Do the homework so the questions can go further
Watch the film, read the questionnaire and look at the transcript if you have it. Then cut every question whose answer is already in front of you, or turn it into a follow-up: 'You wrote that you want to study engineering. What kind?' A recruit can tell within two minutes whether this is a call to them or a call to a list.
Pick the questions that suit the stage
A first call needs most of Getting started and one or two from Academics. The fit and Coachability belong to a second conversation or a visit, once there is some trust. Family and money needs the family present. The decision comes last, and its bluntest questions, about other schools and where you stand, land best after the recruit has seen your campus. Six to eight questions is plenty for one sitting.
Know what you can honestly say
Before the conversation, settle with your staff how many you are taking at the position, what role you see for this athlete and what you are allowed to say about aid at this point. Nearly every question on this page invites one back, and a recruit who has answered you openly is owed a straight reply.
On a call, in the home, on campus
A first call
Keep it to fifteen or twenty minutes and let the recruit do most of the talking. Open with the sport and their season, move to school, and close by saying exactly what happens next and when they will hear from you. Save your presentation of the program for the end, and make it short.
A home visit
You are a guest, and the family sets the pace. Put your first questions to the athlete so the parents hear their child answer for themselves, then turn to the adults with the Family and money group. Expect to be asked as much as you ask. If money comes up before you raise it, follow their lead.
A campus visit
Spread the questions across the day so there is no single sit-down that feels like an interview. Walking between buildings is the best time for the personal ones. Let an assistant, an academic advisor and a player each ask a few, then compare notes that evening: recruits tell different people different things.
If you are a player hosting
You are not interviewing anyone. Stay with Getting started and The fit, and leave money, other schools and anything from Coachability to the coaches. The fit ends with a question meant for you: what they want to know that they would not ask a coach. Answer it truthfully, including the hard parts. When the staff ask what you thought, talk about how the recruit treated people, and keep what they confided to yourself unless it concerns someone's safety.
Weighing what you hear
Remember who is answering
This is a teenager talking to an adult who controls something they want, often with a parent listening. Short answers can be nerves. Very smooth ones can be rehearsed with a recruiting advisor. Ask for an example before you judge either, and give a quiet recruit a second conversation in a different setting.
Set the recruit's answers beside the family's
Distance, cost and timeline are places where an athlete and a parent can disagree without having said so to each other. If you hear two different answers, do not pick the one you prefer. Say gently that you heard both, and give them time to talk before your next call.
Check with the people who see them every day
The Coachability answers are a recruit's account of themselves. A high school coach, a club coach and a teacher can tell you whether it holds on a Tuesday in February. Tell the recruit you will be calling, and follow your school's rules on who may be contacted and how.
Write it down the same day
By the tenth recruit of a cycle the conversations blur. Note the major, the family members' names, the stated timeline and the one worry they voiced. Opening the next call with 'How did the chemistry test go?' does more than any brochure.
Mistakes that lose recruits
Running it as an interrogation
Ten questions in a row with no reaction from you feels like a test. Respond to what you hear, offer something about yourself or the team in return, and drop the rest of your list when a subject opens up that they clearly want to talk about.
Promising what you cannot be sure of
Questions about first-year expectations and money tempt a coach to reassure. Describe what has happened to recent athletes in the same position and stop there. A promised starting spot or aid figure that later changes is remembered by the family, their club and the next recruit from that school.
Speaking only to the parent, or only to the athlete
A coach who addresses every question to the adults tells the athlete how they will be treated once they are on the team. A coach who ignores the adults loses the people who are paying and worrying. Divide the conversation on purpose, and ask each of them at least one question directly.
Pressing for an answer in the room
Asking where you stand is fair. Asking for a commitment before the family has gone home and talked is how you get a yes that turns into a late no. If your own deadline is real, state the date and the reason, and leave it with them.
Asking what is not yours to ask
You can ask what sitting out with an injury was like without asking for a diagnosis, and whether the family has talked about cost without asking what they earn. A medical record, a family's accounts, religion, relationships and immigration status are not a coach's to dig into, however kindly meant. Your school or club will have rules on what staff may ask a prospective student and who handles the rest. Find out what they are, and pass those subjects to the office responsible.