by Greg Carroll, Tudor Collegiate Strategies
Recruiting is not speed dating. It’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon. Yeah, 26.2 grueling (and if you’re not a runner, boring) miles.
Success won’t come to the coach that’s taking the shortcut approach. Your recruit wants and deserves to be courted. If you move too quickly rest assured you will scare them off, no matter who you are and whatever success your program has enjoyed.
We’ve spent a lifetime cautioning our children about talking to strangers. Until you get deep into the recruiting timeline you remain a stranger to your recruits. That fact should help you understand the silence on the other end of the phone when you make the first, second, or even third call. It explains why their initial email responses are less than inspiring, honest, or informative. In reality, they’re doing EXACTLY what we have taught them to do.
For those reasons and a host of others it is vital that coaches be patient about inviting the recruit to campus. A coach’s ability to host a successful visit is driven by how much he/she knows about the recruit and that requires information gathering over weeks and maybe even months. Once you have answers to questions like:
- What are the three most important things they are looking for in their college of choice?
- Is there anything specific you are not looking for in your college of choice?
- What kind of coach do you think you respond to best?
- Describe the best team you’ve ever been on?
- When you’re not playing your sport what do you like to do?
- What do you know about us and what questions do you have for us?
Answers to these questions are a literal goldmine for as you plan the all important campus visit. Armed with this information you can shape the visit for success. For example, if you know that your recruit is deeply interested in service learning be sure you showcase service events your team has done. If you discover your recruit is more of an introvert, a night dancing downtown is probably a bad idea. I would opt for pizza and a movie with a couple freshman in their dorm instead.
My wife is the choreographer for our town’s high school drama club so I have a deep affection for “choreography.” Using the information you have been carefully collecting during the weeks prior to a visit you can strategically choreograph the visit. In doing so know what your recruits want and what they don’t want. Our research tells us they want to spend more than half their visit with the younger members of your team just hanging out. If you change nothing else about your campus visit, please let it be this.
The most important takeaway from any campus visit is going to be a relationship. That relationship may be with the head coach, an assistant coach or a member of your team. But any relationship, even a new one, takes time. They will choose your program not because you have a new locker room or a new weight room. They will choose you because of the people they will be around.
Even with a 21 year old daughter and a 24 year old son I won’t pretend to have a clue what an 18 year old would want to do on a campus visit – but your players do. It’s okay to surrender some of this responsibility provided you know what the plan is, you have approved it, and your player hosts know the consequences of going off script. They’ll make good choices. They want to win as much as you do. Even with that you MUST coach your team hosts on how to host.
- Be extremely clear about where they are allowed to go and where they are not. They already know but go on record.
- If you can’t confiscate their phones during the course of the visit (yeah, I know…) implore them to stay off them while entertaining the recruit. Nothing will turn the recruit off more than being ignored. Pay attention to them.
- Match the recruit with the player. By the time the recruit visits you should know enough about their personality to match them appropriately with a freshman or sophomore player.
- Your players need to be honest about what they tell recruits but do so around things that are safe. It is best to actually rehearse this. Challenge hosts to respond to your questions in the same way they would with a recruit. This may sound silly but it is vitally important. If they’re asked to be critical about something pick something safe (every student hates dining hall food so that’s a safe one!). Ask your hosts to respond to how they feel about your facilities (or lack thereof). Ask them to respond to questions about how the team gets along. This is a good exercise to build the culture within your team.
- Have your hosts hand write the recruit a letter a week prior to the visit sharing their enthusiasm to meet, while asking simple questions (ie. what movies do you like, what games do you play, what do you like on your pizza, etc.).
- Post visit be sure to have the hosts send a quick email thanking them for visit, how much they enjoyed meeting them, etc.
While this may seem like a burden for a freshman know that they want responsibilities. Even though they may not be contributing to the team in a big way as a freshman player they need to realize the importance of being a frosh host, the tradition behind it within your team, how this is the first step toward growing as a leader within the program, how much trust you are placing in them.
The last quick piece of advice relates to the role your admissions plays in the campus visit. While this is an institutional conversation I encourage coaches to realize the importance of controlling all facets of the campus visit. It only takes one BAD interaction to undo months of work on your part. A bad tour guide, a disinterested professor, a distracted financial aid advisor – each of these is an exposure that could hurt you. The best option is to build liaison relationships with people you trust in each of these areas as well as any other department or school your recruits may be in contact with. Coach them up in the same way you coach up your hosts.
Greg Carroll is a former college athletic director who now works with coaches and departments across the Northeastern U.S. To contact Greg, email him at greg@dantudor.com