Weekly Word: Trending Down
The recruiting of Division-I prospects in Indiana is alive and well. Year after year they are highly sought after by everyone from the Midwest, to the South, to the East Coast. But as far as all of the small college…
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Continue ReadingThe recruiting of Division-I prospects in Indiana is alive and well. Year after year they are highly sought after by everyone from the Midwest, to the South, to the East Coast. But as far as all of the small college prospects go, there is a trend picking up steam that could increasingly affect future graduating classes if it doesn’t change very soon. It is unfortunate, a little scary, and somewhat disappointing. This isn’t something that just “popped up” overnight, but it is something that could become the norm in the very near future.
A couple of months ago I was having a casual conversation with a Division-III Head Coach. During that conversation we got to talking about Indiana kids they might be recruiting, and I heard this…”we’ve actually begun recruiting Michigan and Ohio a lot harder, because it’s just easier for us.” Obviously I followed up on that comment with that Head Coach, but it also prompted me to do a little research. I have now spoken with close to 20 in-state non-Division-I Head Coaches, in both men’s and women’s, and a lot of them feel the same general sentiment, but they all expressed it in a slightly different manner.
There are a lot of factors that play out here, but one thing that nearly all of them kept circling back to was that prospects from other states are just easier to deal with all the way around. That prompted me to first ask if maybe those non-Indiana prospects were receiving less interest, and they all felt like those non-Indiana kids had the same number of offers, the same “level” of offers, but that they were just more sincere, more direct, and they handled their recruiting in a much more open and timelier fashion than Indiana prospects. Below is a quick look at a handful of the thoughts expressed to me by these Head Coaches:
– Indiana prospects are terrible about communication. They are either very delayed in returning calls / texts, or they don’t even return them at all. When they do get on the phone, many of them are very short, quick, and impersonal, and they don’t allow coaches to learn much about them.
– Indiana prospects take much longer in making a decision. This was a pure guess on the coaches’ part, but they estimated after they make first contact with an Indiana prospect, they don’t hear about a final decision for 6 to 10 months. With non-Indiana prospects, they think that timeframe narrows itself to 4 to 6 months.
– The small college coaches think Indiana kids are quick to take unofficial visits to Division-I schools without an offer in hand, but if a non-Division-I school asks them to take an unofficial visit without already having an offer, it’s about 50/50 that they can get them on campus. For non-Indiana prospects, they feel like that number increases significantly and is closer to 70/30 they can get them on campus without an offer.
– With regards to non-Indiana prospects, it’s typically just the prospect and their parents, plus maybe a high school or grassroots coach that they have to build relationships with to land a recruit. With Indiana kids, they feel like there are also friends, uncles, cousins, personal trainers, etc., that are in each prospect’s ear steering them one way or another in their recruiting. Too many voices for one prospect means it’s almost too complicated and too much or a hassle for college coaches to deal with, so they just move on to someone else.
– Finally, I had one coach ask why they should even attend Spring and Summer events in Indiana where there are mostly Indiana teams, spending $300-500 per coach on admission fees and roster packets, when none of the Indiana kids they recruit during that time choose to attend their school. They have had much better luck during the Spring and Summer recruiting kids from other states, and the Indiana kids they do get are usually recruited during the Winter High School season.
Final Thought
I would like to stipulate that this is a broad, generalized article based on what a surveyed group of small college Head Coaches have expressed in regard to their experiences in recruiting. This doesn’t apply to every Indiana prospect, but at the same time, the mass group affects everyone, because small college coaches without major budgets don’t want to spend time, money, and other resources on low-percentage recruiting. They want to find the most efficient way to recruit, while still getting talented players to help their roster…whether they are from Indiana or somewhere else. My simplest advice is to be open, honest, and direct, and don’t drag out your recruiting and play games. If you are unsatisfied with the opportunities you have, I completely understand wanting what’s best for yourself and waiting for something else. But if you are in the Spring of your Senior year, and you have had offers for a while, especially offers where you could see yourself playing, then please don’t drag it out just for the sake of enjoying being courted or waiting for one more offer.