Say you just sent a college coach an email. A day passes, then two days, then a week and you still haven't heard back. What should you do? Here's a suggestion: don't frrrreak out and convince yourself that he's not interested.

Instead, gather your wits and write the coach a brief e-mail explaining who you are and what you sent him most recently.

If you send a second, or third, or even fourth e-mail and you get no response, it's time to give the coach a call. Pick up the phone and dial. Without accusing him of anything, ask why you haven?t gotten any response. The answer may be very helpful.

He may say that he?s been very busy and has had little time to work on recruiting—in which case you've probably done yourself a great service by calling him. You?ve advanced your cause and done his work for him. On the other hand, the coach may say that frankly he really doesn't think that you are right for his team. If this is the case, you have two options:

• It's quite possible that he?s made up his mind. Still, if you are really interested in this school you can be persistent and urge him to see you play before he writes you off. Be careful about expending too much energy on it. This could be a dead end.


• Alternatively, you can let this school fall by the wayside and say to yourself, "Alright, this is probably not going to work out. I'm going to concentrate instead on the five schools whose coaches responded positively to my cover letter and resume."