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The Realities of Early Recruiting - Jan 20, 2009 | 15:51:36
posted by: Ryan Powell
College coaches have heard the stories. We all have. In fact, they're getting more and more frequent. A high school sophomore gives a verbal commitment to a college program. A freshman declares his allegiance to a college coach after playing his first prep season. College coaches troll tournaments for high school underclassmen who might be the next big catch in the high stakes game of college recruiting. As the "early recruiting" anecdotes become more and more commonplace, so do the questions that some around college sports are beginning to ask about the logic - and even the ethics - of high school athletes committing early to a college program. A Division III softball coach who reads the Double- A Zone blog regularly and follows the recruiting advice of Selling for Coaches contacted me last week about the issue of early recruiting. In his sport, early recruiting is a fact of life; the good prospects commit early, a trend that has been accelerating over the past decade. "The biggest problem I see in early recruiting is that it doesn't have the athlete's best educational interest in mind," said the coach, who wanted to remain anonymous. "Even most college freshmen remain undecided about their major because they're not sure what they want to study, and if that's true most high school freshmen certainly have no idea." And that, contends this coach, is the problem with the trend of early recruiting. "These prospects have no basis for deciding if the school they're committing to is a good match for their academic and professional interests." This college coach isn't the only one concerned about the issue of early recruiting. The question is, can anything more be done to reduce it? Moreover, should anything be done? Can the NCAA extend its reach and prevent non-binding verbal commitments? Probably not. It would be virtually impossible to prevent an athlete from telling a college coach that they want to play for them. It's hard not to agree that the current NCAA rules limiting when a prospect can make their commitment official is sufficient. To date, no new proposals offering significant limits on the ability of a student-athlete to give a college coach an early commitment are on the table. With those realities in mind, here is the advice we would give college coaches who want to aggressively - and ethically - get in front of young student-athlete prospects who they might want as a part of their collegiate program a few years down the road: Coaches need to be guides. Deep down, young prospects and their parents want direction through the complicated world of college recruiting. Coaches who take the time to answer questions and give advice are going to rise to the top of that athlete's list immediately. Coaches need to respect the decision making process of a high school prospect. Whether you deem it in their best interest or not, they have the freedom to make their own choices. And sometimes, they will make it earlier than you think they should. In hindsight, some will have made terrible mistakes in committing too early. Others will have a great college experience. Coaches need to understand that many prospects want to get the process done sooner rather than later. The promise of a paid college education is a powerful thing, and it should come as no surprise that today's teens and their parents put a big value on securing it as soon as possible. In addition, the studies Selling for Coaches has done with high school prospects strongly suggest that the recruiting process is both stressful and confusing. Many of today's prospects cite the pressure of the process itself in wanting to end it as soon as possible. Coaches who want to succeed need to get in front of prospects as early as possible. There are plenty of creative ways to put your message and your program's high points in front of young high school athletes you would want to attract. In some sports, this is absolutely essential for long-term success. In others, it is a way to get a big jump on your competition for recruits. Early recruiting is a fact of life in today's recruiting environment. If you creatively and ethically use the additional time to expose their prospects to their program will find those athletes eager to take a serious look at what you have to offer...and maybe secure the services of some pretty good athletes earlier than you ever have before. 
CommentsAs a former college coach I think this guys view is right on the money. We can all wish it were different but if you want to stay in college coaching in this day and age you had better get creative in the way you recruit. This is an important message for today's younger coaches to understand. This is an excellent post! There has been a lot of issues around early recruiting and this post sure helped in clearing things up as well as give young athletes and their parents some idea of recruitment and what it entails. Are there any statistics yet on de-commits (from either side) of early recruits? I suspect it won't paint a pretty picture. As a parent who just went through recruiting with my son, I watched him change his mind half a dozen times, just over junior year. Each time he made a campus visit, he learned so much more about the school and the sports program than he knew from looking at their record or repeated conversations with the coaching staff. Having more complete information often changed his mind. I've watched a couple of basketball players in our area make commitments in middle school. I can't imagine that they have any idea what a "good fit" is, have the perspective to make this kind of a decision at 14, and have the kind of information about what their life will be like at this school and in this program to make it worthwhile to make a commitment so early. It's also a sad commentary that a major part of the motivation is to get the whole recruiting thing out of the way because it's so stressful. I recently wrote and published a parents guide for recruiting (Put Me In, Coach--www.rightfitpress.com) to try and help other parents better navigate this process. In my experience, it doesn't matter if your kid is a blue chip eigth grade commit, or a senior who barely squeaks into a low D-3 program. Recruiting is an equal opportunity anxiety producer. I have been to one of Dan's workshops and one of the things I took away from the session was the idea of understanding that athletes want the process to move along faster than we as coaches sometimes think is "right". But I've really noticed that to be true. When you offer young people the chance to get the process done earlier instead of later they usually are really interested in what you have to offer. It's still tough to force myself to not want to drag the whole thing out, but I have to admit that the advice about early recruiting seems to be on the money. I think this article is sad. To include the message that early recruiting does not have the best interests of the student-athlete in mind, and then to turn around and say that we coaches, in effect the gatekeepers of college sports, have no control over it is completely ludicrous and defeatist. If we want to preserve the integrity of what we do and our positions as educators, we will find a way to end this nonsense. If there are no scholarships offered until a prospect's senior year, then no prospects will make commitments until that time. If no prospect is allowed to have any contact directly or indirectly with a coach until their junior year, then no prospect will commit to that coach before that time. The coaches hold the keys, the money, the blame, and the solutions. I'm a college coach. I agree with "M", but "M's" post is idealistic at best. If the NCAA or coaching associations saw fit to try to regulate... "no scholarships offered until a prospect's senior year, then no prospects will make commitments until that time. If no prospect is allowed to have any contact directly or indirectly with a coach until their junior year, then no prospect will commit to that coach before that time." Coaches will still recruit young prospects, they'll still make 'unofficial' offers to young prospects tell the families they don't have to commit now, but there is no guarantee the scholarship will be there later. That happens already. The family (or kid) makes the decision. If the family determines it is "in their best interest," that is the families choice. We've had freshman and sophomore's commit... it's their choice - they want our school. We've had it with no "ultimatum" at all. Reality is, almost every college or university has enough academic diversity for a kid to choose a major that they'll like. It would be nice if "M" was able to pull this off, but as long as coaches in all sports are being paid (that pay supports their family) to coach and coaches in all sports are being fired for losing... then coaches in all sports will do what coaches do to get the best players. The best players win. You see "Little School U" go to "Big Time BCS U" for a guarantee game. Guarantee means two things... ONE - you are "guaranteed" to lose and TWO - You are "guaranteed" to take home a very large check for that loss. "Big Time BCS U" has better players... they win. If X coach thinks they are going to lose too many games to keep their job, then idealistic things like this go out the window. The NCAA has given the APR ( http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=3694 ) to deter this, to some extent. If a kid goes to a school and transfers the school's program can lose scholarships, and potentially post-season opportunities. That's as close as it's going to get. Every coach figures, "I can keep X-player happy." Good thoughts... not reality, unfortunately. Post a Comment |
  
It means that two very good teams with very good coaches made it to the final game.
- Marie
   
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