Recruitment Tips with Kaia Glickman

When we first chatted with Kaia Glickman, our April Bellalete Player of the Month, she mentioned that one of her future goals was to play for a D3 high academics school and she was busy traveling, doing showcases, and having conversations with coaches at different schools.

A year later + a global pandemic that has changed the landscape of all things, we asked her...

What does that goal look like now?

Kaia:

"Due to the quarantine and softball seasons being canceled it seems that college coaches now have a lot more time to focus on recruiting than they would if they were in the middle of their season.

In the past few weeks, I have noticed an increase in communication from coaches that I have been talking to previously, and a couple of new schools have also reached out.

I am taking the time to go on virtual tours online (YouVisit has great online tours!) and learn more about each of these programs.

I have created a spreadsheet to keep myself organized and write down things I like and don’t like about each school. I highly recommend having an organizational system when coaches reach out to you because the schools and conversations can easily blur together!

On my spreadsheet, I also have a few schools where I haven’t had any communications with the coach, but I think it’s important to write down all of the schools that you may be interested in. I am grateful that I’m talking to some schools that I’m interested in and I am going to continue this process and see where it takes me!"

IS THERE ANYTHING, IN PARTICULAR, YOU DO TO PREPARE FOR THE CONVERSATIONS/MEETINGS WITH COACHES?

Kaia:

"I definitely still get nervous before every call, even though I know I’m totally prepared. I think it’s pretty normal to be nervous, and it shows that you really want the conversation to go well because you’re passionate about that school.

I always have a notebook in front of me to take notes during the call and it’s where I have the questions that I want to ask the coach. I think it’s super important to have a piece of paper in front of you when talking to a coach because it allows you to remember details from the call that you might otherwise forget.

I also try to keep most of my notes from calls with coaches in one place, so I can easily look back and see when I talked with what coach.

I was super nervous before my first call, but they get easier and easier the more you do :)"

Thanks again, Kaia, for sharing a bit of insight into the process. We are impressed with your preparedness and love hearing from you.

Dear Readers, if you have any questions for Kaia, or any other of our Players of the Month, leave a comment here. You can also find Kaia on Instagram @kaiaglickman you can find us @bellalete_

THANKS FOR BEING HERE!