Recruiting styles

Athletic Recruits
1

<p>How much should we factor into our decision-making the manner or style in which a school recruits? For example, if a school is more assertive in their methods than comparable schools, should we interpret that as signifiying a greater interest in the athlete and/or greater ambition or better work ethic on the part of the coach? For example, one school we visited was very low-key, really didn't try to sell their program, and when the coach called he said he wasn't going to call or write every week like some coaches do, but he was very interested in D. In contrast, the coach of a similar school is very regularly making contact, such as with hand-written notes and snail mailing, phone calls, and personal e-mails, etc.</p>

<p>As a second example, one school uses a coach-recruiter to make all the contacts with D, but this gentleman would not be the person coaching her and the coach himself has not made any overtures. We find this rather depersonalized, but maybe a lot of schools do this too--just not the ones we're mostly dealing with. Should we make any assumptions about this? Maybe that the other coaches aren't very personable and so they don't trust them to recruit?</p>

2

<p>Recruiting styles certainly vary. One perplexing thing is that some coaches seem very keen on a player, friendly, etc., but when the player arrives at school, the coach seems completely different. Some of the horror stories we’ve heard from older players my daughter knows are daunting. Of course, we’re only hearing one side of the story.</p>

<p>Other coaches are very understated ahead of time, and the student has an excellent experience. We’re just hoping our daughter’s coach is as great when players arrive next month as she has been during the recruiting process.</p>

<p>It’s probably a good idea to talk with people who know the coach, school, and team first-hand. My husband had some enlightening conversations with current players’ parents during our daughter’s official visit to the college.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the response. Yes, we’re also hoping to gather some more firsthand information on official visits. </p>

<p>I should add that the recruiter mentioned in the OP is very disorganized and keeps asking D to send him stuff she already sent him–sometimes things she sent him more than once before. She has pretty much written that school off her list.</p>

4

<p>In my S’s sport, every coach who had an assistant coach dedicated to recruiting used that person for contact - that’s their job - so I wouldn’t read anything into that. On the Official Visits, your D should meet with the Head Coach. I think recruiting styles do vary and from our experience, the most laid-back (he seemed the most uninterested to us) of my S’s recruiters FREAKED out when S turned down his offer of a likely letter. S had interpreted his laid back style (rightly or wrongly) as a mark of disinterest and formed a bond with another coach and school. After S turned down the likely, the head coach was on the line FAST trying to convince S to change his mind but the boat had sailed. Long story short, if a coach seems less interested than others, he may be. Or he may be more laid back. Or, in my S’s case, it could be that at the last minute my S got bumped up from the interested pile to the “we have to get this guy” pile. You can’t know for sure. Trust your instincts and remember the great advice often given on CC. Remind your D, if she is so lucky to have choices, to pick the school she would go to if she could not play her sport.</p>

5

<p>Coaching styles vary from the recruiting process through the actual team experience.</p>

<p>Recruiting coordinators are usually employed at most good sports programs to do just that - screen, coordinate, communicate but usually only with the Head Coaches approval, interest, etc. in the athlete. Hence, if you have the attention of the recruiting coordinator, you generally have high interest from the Head Coach as well.</p>

<p>TALK TO OTHER PLAYERS and parents. Usually there is an overall consensus on the coaching style, personality, etc., that the athlete will experience with both head and asst coaches. Both are important, as sometimes the player will be dealing with the Assts for most of their practices, etc. Generally, if a coach has been at the college for a long period of time, he/she is invested in the institution and the student athletes as well.</p>

<p>Most important, have your child talk to the coach about the academic end of playing a sport. Many college coaches have contacts and influence not only in the admissions process, but with the registrar in scheduling classes around your particular practice/sport schedule, rapports with certain professors who will be tolerant of “travel commitments”, and access to tutoring, health and financial arrangements that can be of paramount importance in the college you ultimately choose.</p>

<p>Definately decide whether you will be happy at this college WITHOUT your sport (by your choice, injury or other), whether you can AFFORD it without your scholarship, and whether this coach has the type of style, connections, etc. to make your experience as a Student-Athlete an optimal one. </p>

<p>Love the school, the sport and the coach, in that order.</p>

6

<p>Recruiting is marketing. There are many ways to go about it, and ultimately, as with all marketing, once you’ve bought the product, the marketing is a fading memory and you are left with your purchase. GFG, you’ve articulated very well the styles of contact we experienced. Try to see past that and keep schools on your list if everything else is a match. The recruiting visits will be where things become very clear. Your child will find teammates she likes, and they will demonstrate how they feel about the program during the stay. </p>

<p>As others have said, she must love the school even if she attended as a non-athlete. </p>

<p>Beyond that, she should try to think about the things that matter to her about a team: nationally competitive? kids who are fun to be around? a coach who is nurturing? a coach who is structured and rigid about things? a nice practice facility close to the residence hall? and so on. No one can keep all these things straight during a visit, but her gut should tell her if most of the important things are there, or if there is something wrong- unhappy athletes, inconvenient training schedule, not being well-taken-care-of during the visit, and so on. </p>

<p>Some coaches seem very comfortable with the recruiting biz and keep up a steady stream of calls and personal contacts. Others want a natural match to occur- the student falls for the school and program, and the coach doesn’t have to plea, and just issues a polite but sincere invitation to join.</p>

7

<p>Daughter’s coach told me definitively that she only wants players who love, love, love the school, those who would be there without the sport. If they’re ambivalent about the whole experience, there are so many good players out there that it makes no sense for her to compromise.</p>

8

<p>Agree with all of the above, especially loving the school even without the sport.</p>

<p>We also saw many different approaches from coaches last year when we went through this. A lot of contact with assistant coaches who did the recruiting until July 1 when they could call, and then mostly head coaches calling. Some called every week and one said he wasn’t going to call every week, not because he wasn’t interested, but because he didn’t think it was necessary to talk that much.</p>

<p>It also might make a difference as to who your child’s main training coach will be when they get to the school. In my D’s case, she’s in the head coaches’ training group, so it was natural for him to be the one calling her. </p>

<p>Hopefully, your child will get a good feeling for the coach and team when they visit, whether officially or unofficially. On one of out unofficial trips, the head coach saw us talking to the assistant coach, and couldn’t even be bothered to head over and say hello; my D ruled that school out right away. She liked her coach the moment she met him and had a very successful freshman year with him as well as a great year at the school all around.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

9

<p>HRSFRM: You said your husband spoke with parents of current players. Why were they at the school? Was it a school that recruite regionally and there a game that weekend which parents were attending? So far, the only parent we’ve made contact with who has a student athlete at a school D is interested in is my CC buddy riverrunner!</p>

10

<p>We also spoke with parents of students already attending. We always went to several games both at home and away to assess coaches’ coaching style, type of play, etc. This gave us the opportunity to seek out parents’ opinions.</p>

11

<p>TheGFG, </p>

<p>The weekend my daughter went for an official visit happened to be homecoming weekend. Apparently quite a few parents attend, even some from far away. Unfortunately, we won’t be among those with the budget to fly to watch her play. </p>

<p>We also were surprised to find how small the community of players and coaches is. No matter what division, it was amazing how readily we found parents, coaches, and former players who had personal experience with coaches and schools of interest to my daughter. </p>

<p>Probably the funniest story was an assistant coach who contacted daughter after a fall showcase this year. When daughter emailed to thank her but say she was already committed to another school, she received a wonderful response. It turned out the coach graduated a few years ago from the school daughter will attend…and loved everything about it. Small world :).</p>

<p>PS Just thought of something else…thanks to Facebook, D discovered that a former classmate from middle school was a student at the college in question. D and the classmate lost contact when they attended different high schools. Because they were students together at a small school, we knew quite a bit about the student’s academic preparation, personality, etc. Geographically, we’re in the northeast and the school is in the southeast. D contacted the classmate to ask how she liked the school (she was a freshman this year). Former classmate loves the school, doesn’t play a sport, but has good friends on the team daughter will join. She had nothing but great things to say about both sports and academics, so it was a huge help.</p>

12

<p>Hi GFG,
Thanks for the shout-out!
HRSFRM makes a good point. Encourage your daughter to use Facebook (if you allow it) to expand her network to other runners a couple of years ahead of her in all of this. Heck, PM me and remind me, and I’ll ask my daughter if she would be willing to connect with yours that way. The best connection would be someone who knows your daughter (went to high school with her) and runs for a program she is interested in, and could speak directly about concerns your daughter might have. </p>

<p>I know my daughter is very interested in seeing student-athletes who are a fit join her team, and the best way to help that happen is to be as open as possible with recruits about how things work, and to steer bad-fit students to programs they might like. Of course current athletes are usually quick to talk about the strengths of their programs, but especially if the conversation goes on over a couple of months, and into the start of fall season, things not so easy to talk about should become more clear. For example, concerns about the travel schedule, practice routine, how easy/hard it is to juggle social/practice and academics may become obvious if she is checking in with current students on a regular basis.</p>

<p>Take care, GFG and others in the recruiting pool this summer/fall. I know it’s stressful, but once things are settled, you’ll be feeling great!</p>

13

<p>Thanks for the response, riverrunner. D has contacted a few kids through facebook, but there’s only one athlete from her high school who competes for any of the schools she’s looking at. She did contact a few other athletes that she meet through her sport, but there it ended.</p>