Recruiting

Monday, March 17, gave me my first experience as a basketball recruiter at Methodist University. I got the pleasure of eating lunch with two recruits and parents from Sanford, NC. Recruiting isn't hard, but the hardest thing about face to face recruiting is trying to get a feel for what type of personalities the recruits have. Lunch took about a hour and honestly it was more like the recruits and parents where trying to feel me and the school out. I just asked a lot of questions to provoke any conversation or questions that they might have. Being that it was there first official visit to Methodist I think that they might have been a little overwhelmed by the whole process. After lunch I walked them to the gym to meet with Assistant Coach Ryerson. He took it from there taking them on a personal tour of the locker room and facilities used by the basketball program. The tour ended with a meeting with Head Coach David Smith and by about 2:30 there tour was over. I learned a lot from my experience and I really look forward to my next recruiting adventure.

Saturday, March 22, Coach Ryerson and I took a road trip to Guilford College in Greensboro, NC. Guilford College held its annual Prep All-Star Basketball Camp which consisted of players from the NC region. Some players came from places as far as Maryland just to get their name out there to coaches. We got to Guilford at 12 p.m. just on time for the first 3 games to begin. Coach Ryerson normally attends this event by himself, but with me tagging along we were able to get double the work done in half the time it normally takes him to evaluate players at this event. I learned a lot from Coach Ryerson at this event. He showed me how to categorize players and evaluate them successfully for recruiting purposes. This event was not just for Senior athletes there were players from all grades (9-12) and of course we couldn't do too much with the non-seniors, but it still gave us a chance to add stand-out players to our database. There was a decent turn out with well over 100 players in attendance. The MU program has had some success at this event even though it is a very competitive recruiting spot. It was a very fun experience and interacting with other coaches might have been the best thing about it. I was inside the "coaches circle" were networking is essential and business deals happen. Coaching is a very social job and I've learned that if you don't interact with your peers it's harder to advance in the coaching world.

Recruiting

Now that the season has come to an end. We are entering what may be the most exhausting part of the year. This week we had a meeting to determine what days of the week each coach would take because we have recruits coming until the end of the school year. I was given Monday and Wednesdays, and my responsibilities would be to take recruits to lunch, introduce them around and try to get a feel for what type of personality each player has. After lunch I would then take the recruits to meet the Asst. Coach, Tim Ryerson, and he would take it from there. Once he was done he would take the recruits to see our Head Coach, David Smith. So I'm getting my first experience in recruiting and this is not the traditional type of recruiting most schools may do. Our philosophy, or approach, is different then what most people would think. As a recruiter I'm not trying to "sale" the school, or give recruits the history of each building their first time visiting us. I am letting the experience speak for itself. First impression is everything and as a former recruit I know that most people know, after about 5 minutes, if this is a place they could be or not. Since most coaches are trying to "sale" their school to recruits their first visit, we have decided to take another approach and be different from other programs. If a recruit enjoys themselves and wants to come back for another visit, then we start to tell them more about the technical things their second time around. I can't wait to get started! Like I said many times before, "a coaches job is never over." Even if the basketball season has come to an end there is still more work for a coach to do.

...And it's over!!

Well, staying with the trend, after a #1 ranking we lost Fri. to Averett University in the semi-finals of the conference tournament. It was a tough loss to what looked to be a promising season. We fought hard pushing the game to overtime only to end up losing by 2 points! It's always hard when you know that you've played your last game of the season. As a coach you hate it especially when you have a very good team. But losing is all apart of the game and once your done there are no "do overs". Coaches can't dwell on a loss even if it's the last one, but it really hurts especially for the seniors on the team. The seniors don't get another chance. Coaches and underclassmen get their payback next year. After all this I have learned that no position is safe, to be successful you have to work hard every single day and never get lethargic. Once a team thinks that they are the best and they have everything in control, that team is in trouble. Anyone can beat on any occasion and as a coach you have to instill that thinking in your players from day one! Although the season is over, my coaching career is an ongoing process. Now is the time to recruit hard and work on getting your players better for next year. We will be arranging individual workouts for all returning players and entertaining recruits visiting the school. For a stable coach there's always next year, even though I hate to go out the way we did.