Most high school athletes lose out on offers for one boring reason: they stop following up.

A coach not responding to your first email isn't a "no." Coaching staffs get hundreds of emails a week during their recruiting windows. The recruits who get seen are the ones who show up in a coach's inbox 3-4 times over a season — a new highlight clip, a tournament result, a "just checking in" — not the ones who send one perfect email and wait.

If you're DIY recruiting (no agency, doing it yourself), here's the simplest fix: build a tracker with every target school, and put a "next follow-up date" next to each one. When that date hits, you send something — doesn't have to be fancy. Consistency beats a perfect pitch every time.

Curious what others here are running into — are you getting responses on first contact, or is it mostly silence until follow-up #2 or #3?