It takes guts to email a college coach.

The mother of one of our customers shared a powerful story with me this week. Her daughter just signed with a Division I team. But things didn't always look like they'd turn out this well. At first, her daughter was very tentative about emailing college coaches. The question "Why would they want to hear from me?" kept coming up on the ride home from practice.

She got over the initial hurdle and started contacting college coaches, but she didn't hear back from anyone immediately. She dusted herself off and sent another round of emails. Ever so slowly, the responses started to trickle in. And then the trickle became a flood. In some cases, she was receiving contact from coaches who hadn't responded at first. Her confidence surged with each response and she was emboldened to send more.

This is a great story. It shows that writing the first email is tough, and that there are setbacks along throughout the recruiting process. And it demonstrates the importance of taking the risk to contact college coaches and being persistent even when they don't respond.

One thing that struck me so much about this particular story is the point about confidence. Let's face it, cold-emailing a college coach and saying that you want to play for him/her can be a bit humbling. If you don't hear back, it can hurt. It's easy to see how some players get deterred from contacting college coaches very quickly.

But here's the upside: persistence pays off in a big way. When coaches don't write you back, it's okay. The first time you hear back from a coach, it's thrilling. You feel a surge of confidence that says, "Yes, I can do this." Ride that wave and send five more emails. The more you write, the more responses you'll get. And the more responses you get, the closer you'll be to a great college career.

Let's face it: sending emails to college coaches can be intimidating. But emailing a college coach is important, for a variety of reasons. Not only does it put you on the coach's radar, it also shows the coach that you possess valuable qualities: persistence, assertiveness, boldness, etc. Every college coach hopes to find players who match this description.