A Proven Approach to Summer Event Recruiting
Tournaments, camps, and everything else happening during summer: What's the smart, effective approach towards making it all pay off for your program?
There you are, fighting the heat and the bugs and the other coaches and everything else associated with recruiting over the summer at a tournament or recruiting event.
This article isn’t about if you should do it, or where you should go…far be it from me to direct you to the best place to find your best possible lacrosse, swimming or basketball prospect. If you saw me try to compete effectively at any of those sports, you’d know why I say that.
What this article is about is how to effectively build a plan on how to recruit from it. All the scouting and evaluation you spend time doing there isn’t worth the buckets of sweat you leave on the field or by the pool or inside the gym if it isn’t systematically processed effectively so that a coherent follow-up response is done, and responses come in. That’s why you devote the time you do in the summer to building a recruiting list, and I want to make sure you see the results of all your hard work.
It’s not a difficult process - in fact, we’ll boil it down to a three step system we’ve recommended to our clients for years now, with really consistent results coming back to them.
See if it works for you. It’s not complicated, and you can add to each step as you see fit based on your college or specific program process:
Step One: Before the event
If possible, reach out to your prospect you have existing contact with ahead of time and let them know you will be there scouting them. Prospects have told us that they like this, look for the coach to see if he/she is there, and tends to follow-up more after the fact.
If you have their information, contact the parents as well with a similar note. Many coaches who have done this in the past see a huge uptick in parent conversations at the event, and after. You should want this as a serious recruiter.
Whether they are new recruits you have contact information on, or existing recruits, ask them to reply back with their schedule. Doing so creates action on their part, which is an important part of seeing you as a serious coach who is more interested in them that the other coaches they may be hearing from. Performing an action is an important step in the recruiting relationship, and this is an ideal opportunity for that facet of the recruiting process to happen.
Step Two: At the event
Make sure you are seen. Wear your school branded clothing, and stand apart from other coaches who are there as much as possible. Be easy to spot for the parents and prospect who might be looking for you (thanks to the D1 coach who offered that up as a successful tactic recently, and gave us permission to use it here with our Honey Badger Recruiting community!)
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