College Recruiting From A Recruiter's Perspective?

Had a very successful coach tell me to always recruit potential, Talent is almost always flaky, injury prone and a royal pain in the ass. Doesn't at all address your question, but sooooo true.

from a d-3 coache's perspective:

When does the recruiting season begin and end for you?

Late summer begin; early summer end.

Signing is in February but is there a time of year when you expect to have your verbal commitments made?

typically, 3 out of 5 of my athletes who choose my school have it as a back up. we're a top 200 ranked school academically, and many students want to get into top 50-100 programs. sometimes they do, but won't make a team, other times they can't get in, so they come to me. I request that they tell me in February if we are among their top 2-3 choices.

How much time goes into recruiting each eventual signee?

depends; when i needed numbers, i'd say about 30 minutes per week per person. now that i have a strong men's team, it's more 10 min per week per person. on the women's side, it's more like 30-45 min per week per person.

How many athletes do you short-list before July 1 each year?

don't deal with this at all.

How many athletes will you fund for an official visit?

d-3 doesn't have "official" visits, but i can fund out of state visits and such. the athlete has to meet these standards:

men: 1:58 800; 4:29 1600; 9:50 3200; accepted and told me personally that we are his number one choice, but wants to visit before making the decision. women's standards are 2:22 800; 5:15 1600; 11:45 3200. same decision making process applies.

For state schools, do you actively recruit out-of-state?

We are not a state school, but a private school, and for the 2nd time in 5 years after a bit of pressure from my assistant coaching staff, we are recruiting out of state. I personally do not believe in it--i ascribe by Lydiard's phrase: "Champions are everywhere, they just need to be trained properly." 90% of my team lives within 20 minutes of campus and about 85% commute from home. Combined with the track and field staff, we have three assistant coaches from out of state and so we are recruiting from their home states, and focusing on a 2 hour radius of their high school. This allows me to still hold by my agreement with the Lydiard philosophy.

Great thread. I have a good friend and former head cc coach I assisted with for years. He and I are both retired but he is coaching at a very nice d-3 school. He is looking for boys who run 16's and low 17's in high school and girls who run 19-21 range. If they are strong students, have a good act score they will be able to run for him without paying the 40,000/yr. Lots of "assistance" available but no scholarships. Talk more later.

what do you mean by talent vs potential? Was he meaning talent= successful at the moment? Potential=interest in the sport?

When does the recruiting season begin and end for you? Signing is in February but is there a time of year when you expect to have your verbal commitments made?

It begins in the Fall of their junior year. We send out hundreds questionaires and call coaches and schools to try and get contact info for top recruits. Letter and email correspondenc starts with the top runners junior year. Fall of senior year means weekly phone calls and contacts/evaluations by way of watching meets, attending practice and home visits. Official visits are made winter and spring. Signing starts in February and goes until I'm out of money. Could be March, could be July. Just depends on my needs and how recruiting has gone. Girls tend to sign earlier than boys.

How much time goes into recruiting each eventual signee?

Greatly depends on the individual and our interest in them. Could be a few emails and an unofficial visit all the way up to weekly correspondence from Junior year through to when they graduate including exhausting my contact and evaluation limitations. Recruiting takes up at least 1/3 of my work time.

How many athletes do you short-list before July 1 each year?

I usually like about 5 boys and 5 girls that I am extremely interested in and have shown a lot of interest in us before their senior years. But we will be recruiting 10-15 on each side at the start of the year. We usually will get 1-2 of those 5 and another 1-3 of the 10-15 with at least 1 more coming out of the blue each year.

How many athletes will you fund for an official visit?

If we are only paying for a hotel room and food I will bring in even a recruited walk on. If a plane ticket is involved they need to be one of my top 5-10 and shown great interest in the school by the end of xc season their senior year. Maybe 10 boys and 10 girls.

For state schools, do you actively recruit out-of-state?

We are a state school. We participate in the midwest exchange so any states listed there we actively recruit in although our focus is always our home state. We also recruit internationally but that is usually through established contacts. Any US runners outside of the midwest exchange that we recruit have usually made the first contact with us.

Mr. Battery wrote:

what do you mean by talent vs potential? Was he meaning talent= successful at the moment? Potential=interest in the sport?

Can't speak for Did It, but I assume he means recruiting a girl who ran 5:0x as a freshman and maybe ended up at 4:58-59 senior year vs. a girl who ran 5:25-30 as a freshman but consistently knocked chunks off year-after-year to end at 5:05ish.

Or perhaps its a matter of training. 2 girls who run similar times, say 2:18 and 5:15. But one did it running 50+ mpw and incorporates all the extras (lifting, drills, plyos, etc) vs. one that does it off 25 mpw and lifts maybe once every 2 weeks or so and thats it.

The ability to take what an athlete has done and improve upon it plays a big part in recruiting.

I love this thread. Recruiting is never talked about, but I think about it all the time.

I coach D3. Very difficult in my region. I basically stick to asking kids 3 questions. What's your major? Can you afford a private education? And do you like the city?

If they say the right thing I will continue.

I love hearing about a 21 minute girl with no miles under her. Potential is everything.