{"id":2471,"date":"2011-01-05T13:33:17","date_gmt":"2011-01-05T19:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/\/?p=2471"},"modified":"2011-01-05T13:33:17","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T19:33:17","slug":"mission-impossible-pinning-down-a-college-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/mission-impossible-pinning-down-a-college-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Impossible: Pinning Down a College Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Some Point, It’s Better to Know Than Not Know<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Unless you are\u00a0at the top of a college coach\u2019s recruiting list, pinning one down about a scholarship offer is, well, nearly impossible.\u00a0 Coaches are elusive that way for a simple reason, they have to be.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Coaches are constantly on the prowl for the recruits to upgrade their programs.\u00a0 To survive in college athletics, it\u2019s a method they must adopt.\u00a0 The status quo is unacceptable, that is unless they are not<\/em> expected\u00a0to\u00a0win games and championships, but that\u2019s rare.\u00a0\u00a0College presidents and athletic directors generally\u00a0believe\u00a0that a losing program, as well as a winning one, is\u00a0a direct reflection on the school as a whole.\u00a0 Win and the lights shine a little brighter.\u00a0 Lose, and the school suffers from lack of luster.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about perception.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moreover, coaches are in sports because they are competitive individuals.\u00a0 They love to win and hate to lose.\u00a0 It\u2019s part of their make-up.\u00a0 So,\u00a0coaches are constantly striving to sign better and better athletes and people each year.\u00a0 They want\u00a0wins, titles, trophies and championships.\u00a0 Their pride is at stake, their reputations are on the line, and it all starts with the quality of the prospects they recruit.\u00a0 A\u00a0solid freshman recruiting class can sustain a program for three to four years, if not longer.\u00a0 A poor one can drag\u00a0a team\u2019s progress to a screeching halt in one short season.\u00a0 Even miscalculating on one recruit\u2019s character can derail a program.\u00a0 That is why so much careful consideration goes into\u00a0making offers to prospects.\u00a0 And, that is why coaches often will wait so long to let second tier prospects know where they stand.\u00a0 Coaches\u2019 livelihoods depend on making the right decisions, so they have to be hard to pin down for as long as possible.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Coaches start the recruiting process with a broad brush approach.\u00a0\u00a0The more prospects\u00a0they can identify early on in\u00a0a particular\u00a0high school graduating class, the better chance they have of eventually\u00a0signing\u00a0more athletes which fit their specific roster needs.\u00a0\u00a0To do this, they spread their net as far as possible with recruiting letters.\u00a0 These letters fly out of coaches\u2019 offices to any and all possible recruits.\u00a0 Tens, if not hundreds or even thousands, of letters are delivered to wanting prep prospects.\u00a0 It\u2019s the first true stage of the recruiting process \u2013 recognition.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

In turn, some prospects\u00a0will respond and stay on the coaches\u2019 recruiting lists.\u00a0 Others fall\u00a0by the wayside for\u00a0a variety of reasons \u2013 they may not be\u00a0tall enough, big enough, fast enough, strong enough, have the grades necessary to be admitted to the school, or they simply cannot get video to the coach for evaluation.\u00a0 It\u2019s essentially a weeding-out process which can occur from either end, the coach\u2019s or the prospect\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0Truth told, dropping a\u00a0prospect near the beginning is less bothersome than if it comes in the latter stages\u00a0because the coach really has very little invested in the early casualties.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

As the junior year of a recruiting class draws near, coaches start digging deeper.\u00a0 At tournaments coaches carefully watch how prospects interact and communicate with coaches, officials, teammates and parents.\u00a0 They observe how potential recruits handle failure or bad calls.\u00a0 On phone calls and in emails, coaches start to unpeel the onion, so to speak.\u00a0 With only a few chances to get a grip on these kids, a coach will do just about anything to capture insight into the their inner workings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Convincing a prospect to attend an on-campus, summer sports camp is a favorite\u00a0ploy.\u00a0 When a prospect attends\u00a0camp, relationships are molded, or not.\u00a0 Coaches and prospects work together and the coaches get to\u00a0see them mingle with current scholarship players, examine their work ethic and personalities, and determine if they are a good fit for the program.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great opportunity for prospects, too.\u00a0 They get to see the unvarnished side of a coach, players and campus.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other relationship-building alternatives are available to coaches, too.\u00a0 For instance, there is no limit\u00a0to the number of phone calls a coach\u00a0is allowed to make to a prospect\u2019s coach, but unlike a few years ago, it is the club coach, not the high school coach, who is the focal point.\u00a0 College coaches\u00a0seldom contact high school coaches any longer and unless they know the club or travel coach, some college coaches prefer to eliminate as many\u00a0intermediaries as possible.\u00a0\u00a0However, if a\u00a0college coach has a long standing\u00a0and positive relationship with a travel or club coach, communicating with them can\u00a0expedite getting to\u00a0and influencing a highly desired prospect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the senior year arrives, coaches initiate the process of eliminating those prospects which definitely do not fit their needs.\u00a0 Their methods, though, can be confusing and unsettling to the discarded prospects.\u00a0 In short, many coaches simply stop communicating with unwanted kids.\u00a0 No more letters.\u00a0 No more phone calls.\u00a0 This leaves the prospects in limbo, particularly if the school happened to be very high on a prospect\u2019s list.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Coaches reason that they simply do not have time to send every kid they\u2019ve reached out to a rejection letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why\u00a0second-tier prospects are constantly hearing these\u00a0statements from coaches:<\/p>\n