Building - or Rebuilding - a Program? Better Make Sure You Recruit Builders

You have a short window of opportunity as a coach who has the chance to build a program from scratch, or rebuild something that's in disarray. Here are the recruiting challenges:

A coach asked me a question recently that gets at a reality many coaches face when they are building a program in its early years, even if they rarely talk about it openly. He is in year three of launching program at his college. His administration treats the team with real financial commitment, even though it sits under the athletic department right now as a club sport. But once it’s fully time for season number one, the transition will probably be seamless when that designation officially changes.

The topic he raised with me was pretty straightforward:

So here’s my question:

In the podcast I hear the constant rhetoric is recruits when on visits they want to spend time with future teammates. When I have a high school junior A list athlete on a visit everyone on the current team won’t be on the team. So my question is, what would you do in this case to help reach the goal for the recruit to spend time with team?

My only thought is to invite my local signed high school seniors that were A list athletes for the athletic side of the visit for us. As many of my seniors and college freshman have met at tournaments that we host as Camp/Fundraisers.

So basically, when he brings a high-level junior to campus for a visit, the athletes currently on the roster will not be there when that recruit enrolls. Seniors will graduate, and some underclassmen may not return. As a result, the usual advice coaches hear from us about recruits wanting to spend time with future teammates during visits becomes difficult to apply in the traditional ways we talk about them.

This is where doubt starts to creep in for many college coaches

They begin to wonder whether they are missing something or doing something wrong. It’s not a normal situation as they go through a build-out or a rebuild at the

college level, so when they hear the same recruiting research over and over again focusing on the traditional recruiting process in a typical program setting, they’ll sometimes assume it applies equally to every situation. In reality, recruiting advice that works for established programs does not always translate cleanly to programs that are still being built. (And frankly, maybe I need to do a better job at clarifying some of the exceptions to the rules more often).

Let me just say that the biggest mistake college coaches make at this stage of their program development, over more than two decades of watching coaches go through this process, is trying to recruit as if the program is already finished. They try to emulate traditional visit schedules, messaging, and selling points that depend on history, stability, and a fully formed culture. When they cannot replicate that experience, they get frustrated, and that frustration weakens the message more than the absence of a finished roster ever could.

This is a different type of recruiting project:

Here’s the important point you need to remember as a coach in this situation:

When a program is new or in a kind of reset phase, the value proposition is different for the prospect that you’re talking to. You are not selling a polished product. You are offering an opportunity to help shape something meaningful. That distinction matters, and the right recruits understand it quickly. The goal is not to hide where the program is, but to be intentional and confident about where it is going.

Recruits care about teammates and the relationships the prospect has with those potential new teammates…but early in a program’s life, that interest looks different.

The appeal is not about walking into an established locker room with roles already defined (good thing, because you may not have the athletes or roles to show them!) The appeal is about having influence over what that locker room becomes. Like I told that coach who emailed me, you have to pivot and use what you have, which means it’s more about the chance to help set standards, influence culture, and recruit future teammates is far more attractive than simply blending into an existing environment.

This is where involving committed athletes can help, as long as it is done with the right expectations. Inviting signed seniors or incoming freshmen to be part of visits, range sessions, or informal conversations gives recruits faces to connect with the future. In emerging sports, those relationships often already exist through camps, tournaments, and shared competition experiences. And what we’re finding is that these interactions add credibility and help recruits visualize what is coming.

At the same time, those interactions should support the message, not carry it. The core of the visit should focus on the opportunity itself. If the experience relies too heavily on current or future teammates to create excitement, the bigger picture gets lost. The real selling point is the chance to help build something with intention - and you have to be a coach that makes the most of that opportunity with a group of recruits who might be a key part of the rebuild effort..

What to focus on with your prospects you want for the rebuild

One of the most effective ways to do that is by bringing recruits directly into the conversation about culture. Ask them what kind of teammates they want around them. Ask what standards matter most in their sport. Ask how they respond when a teammate is not meeting expectations. These questions shift recruiting from a presentation into an evaluation, and they reveal far more than any highlight video ever could.