by Carrie Bigbie, Selling for Coaches
Being a head softball coach for 8 years, Leslie Huntington at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire has tried all different kinds of recruiting databases, from Excel to high-priced systems loaded onto her office computer. “Some of the systems we were using would do part or most of the job we wanted it to, but none of them did everything,” says Huntington.
That changed when her program – winners of the 2008 Division III National Softball Championship – started using Front Rush as their primary communication tool for recruiting and communication.
Besides using the Front Rush database to track recruits, she also uses the other features to manage her contacts, current roster and alumni of the program. With the contact feature, Huntington can keep track of and contact the other Division III softball coaches in the country. Since she is on the NFCA All-American Committee, she uses this feature to quickly contact other coaches to communicate with them about committee business. It’s easier and more convenient than regular email.
Sometimes coaches need a way to communicate with their staff and team quickly and don’t have time to call each and every person. Within the Front Rush system, coaches have an easy way to keep up with their current roster.
“One of the best aspects of the roster feature is that I can send a text to the team if any practice or game plans change,” says Huntington. “I use this function of Front Rush almost on a daily basis.”
What about former players who are now valuable alumni? If you want them to know everything that is going on with your program since they graduated, this feature of Front Rush will help you keep in touch with them…just like Coach Huntington’s program does. With the alumni tracking function, all you have to do is just a click a button to move players from being a senior to an alumni.
“I have built relationships with my players over the years," says Huntington, "and it is great to be able to keep them updated on what is going on at UWEC.”
As Huntington and her team begin defense of their 2008 national title, using a convenient web-based system like Front Rush enables her to spend more of her time coaching her team.
“Front Rush has everything I want a database to do,” says Huntington, “It does everything I need it to do, and it’s also very affordable.”
