Why Coaches Should Aim to Get Every Recruit On Their Prospect List to Say "Yes"
It's a mistake to only earn the interest of the athletes you're 100% sold on
The prevailing philosophy among most coaches we talk to is this:
I don’t want to get every single recruit on our list too serious about us, because I don’t know if I want them yet.
I get 100% get the motivation behind that thinking. I do.
I just don’t think it’s smart.
Over 20+ years of working with college recruiters, and studying the process from the perspectives of both the athlete and the college, I’ve seen way more coaches burned by only seriously pursuing athlete prospects that they know they want to hear a ‘yes’ from - and they give me two main reasons for taking that approach:
They don’t want to accidentally over-recruit and be stuck with student-athletes they don’t need.
They don’t want to ‘lead an athlete on’ and make them fall in love with the program when the coach can’t guarantee they’ll end up actually being able to offer them.
Let’s label one of the reasons as practical, and the other as altruistic. Let’s also label them both as questionable strategic decisions for coaches - no matter the division level or sport.
How those two lines of thinking hurt college coaching careers:
They hurt college coaching careers because college coaching careers are built on their incoming recruiting classes, coupled now with key transfers. Most coaches don’t lose their jobs because they forget how to strategically coach during games or build-up athletes during practice…they lose their jobs because the athletes competing and practicing just aren’t good enough to beat whoever that coach is going up against. Multiply those bad results over and over and over and over again, and you’re going to be worried about your future as an employee on your campus.
Oh sure, there are always a handful of motivated athletes you make great strides with. They work hard, advance their skills, and become much better athletes than they were when they first started working with you. But most of the time, that’s a big hurdle to clear consistently. Not all of the time, just most of the time (based on observation, as well as hearing fired coaches reflect back on what went wrong).
There’s another set of important recruiting headwinds blowing in the faces of coaches in this situation, too:
Your prospects are ‘over-recruiting’ interested programs and colleges as they go through the process. The more interest, the more possibilities, and the more “blessed to receive another offer to play in college'“ that they can post on social media, the better.
They absolutely want to lead coaches on and make them think that they are in love with their programs, or on their way to falling in love with their program. And they have no problem with ruthlessly approaching the process that way.
Do you see how each side is taking the exact opposite approach towards reaching their goals in the recruiting process?
Yeah, that’s the problem.
A practical approach for college recruiters:
If a student-athlete is on your list, your aim should be to completely sell them on your program as soon as possible, whether or not you are convinced you want to eventually bring them to campus as a part of your next recruiting class.
I’m not saying you’re “guaranteeing” or “promising” a spot that you don’t have…
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