Illegal Recruiting.

I hate it I hate it I hate it

Illegal recruiting appeals to the worst aspects of a players personality. Most of the time its kids that are talented but have issues and personalities that could break either way.  Once the recruiting starts the personality breaks the wrong way. In the times we have lost kids its almost always been like good radiance because the recruiting starts well before they chose to leave and the effect it has on their character starts to make them cancers.

Ironically the team that does the most recruiting in our state has not won state the years it recruited heavily. Those years they always finished 2nd or bounced early in the playoffs. The years they won state they actually didn't recruit and had a home grown team. It seems that the kids they recruit always end up being locker room cancers ... I wonder why???

You cant appeal to the worst aspects of human nature and then expect those people to be good teammates.

If the coaches didn't do anything to entice the move it isn't illegal recruiting. 

Isn't all recruiting illegal?

One school we played last year was a private school. The rbs dad was a heavyweight champion who is missing half his ear. Anyway we were beating them at the half and had the ball on the ten with ten mins left to tie and didn't score. This was with our rag tag group. When our basketball team went to play them they walked in and the lady said "are y'all here for the football recruiting visit"? Recruiting sucks. 

It's been a fact of life everywhere I've lived and coached, typically with richer public programs poaching the best players from less successful programs in the neighboring county systems.

I hate it, but there's not much you can actually do unless they are being stupid about it. Talented kids will always find ways to play for winners where they get a lot of exposure and nice things and programs who have that to offer will always find ways to get them there.

I think it's about the sleaziest thing a coach can do to another program, though.

I don't understand why coaches do this. I mean, I get the whole notion of wanting to have an "all star squad". But, those kids ALWAYS end up being more trouble than they're worth.

I'm all about helping kids hit their caps. Not raising the cap and hoping it's enough to win. Coach who's there. We're supposed to be in this for the kids.

I've been coaching at the school I'm at for 10 years and we've had one move in come into our program during his high school career and be a difference maker. Definitely seen it happen for others, it just hasn't happened for us. Others have become contributors but only one real difference maker.

Now, some of the best players I've ever coached came into our program as freshmen on a variance because they chose not to go to their zoned school. These guys were studs for us but they would have been studs for anybody so we sure can't take all the credit for their success.

Ha. Think More along the lines of the quote under your picture.

Holyfield?

I have a bit of a differnt opinion of this than most, although I believe if a coach or someone from a team actualy recruits a player that is sleaze, but I believe players should be able to transfer schools and not suffer a punishment (ie:setting out partions of a season).  

If I am a stud player, and the school I am at is not very good I should be able to pursue options at other schools.  If said player has talent to go play college ball and school A has a not very good program, no recruiting to speak of and very little success.  While school B has D1 coaches roaming the halls, why wouldn't you transfer?  Even if it isn't to be a college player or whatever, if you just want to be part of a better program why not be able to go.  

Don't say where you play doesn't make a difference, I have heard plenty of college coaches say they recruit kids from winning programs (right or wrong) and if you are on a losing team you won't get the looks. Also, if you disagree with this opinion, I guess you have never left where you are working to go to another place of employment because it was a better place to work.

99% of the kids that play HS football or other sports want to play with their friends, so this doesn't apply to a load of players. 

I understand this point, at the same time, what do you say to a kid if this happens to them in college?  We see all the time when you have a RS junior who gets out performed by an incoming freshman stud player.  It sucks, but it happens.

The atmosphere of a competitive program should always be 'the best player plays.'

I state these ideas with a little bias:

In 2011, the year after we won state, I had two STUD transfers come to my program.  And of course, after you win, everyone thinks you're going to go back-to-back.  I'm sure this was a part of these kids' mindset.  But they both stated that they were coming over because they didn't have much rapport with their current coaches.  My staff (at that time) had strong reputation for being relationship builders.

One kid was a corner who ended up signing with NC State (has since transferred). Another, had grade issues, but was a legitimate D-1 RB (he was actually better than the kid who went to NC State).

I can also add that both of these families actually moved into our zone to become legitimate.  Despite investigations on them, which I personally requested, they were cleared and played without issue.  It boggled my mind, that people would actually go to that length to be in our program.

However, the players on our team knew who these (transfer) kids were and understood the impact they would make.  Those kids also increased our competitiveness as a program overall.

Ironically, we went 7-3 that year and missed the playoffs.  Without these kids we wouldn't have been .500.  And that's irrelevant, because that is h.s. sports.  Everyone has their ebb and flows.

I'm not even sure what point I was trying to make.  I just wanted to share my experiences with transfers, I guess.

Pretty sure we have been ransacked by this with 4 kids minimum leaving, 2 to 2 different schools. I will say at least 1 straight up transferred after the first to did. The first two went back to their home district, we are a small private, after that school changed coaches last year and made a run of sorts. Now I think parents in this case had more of a hand in it than kids necessarily, but leaving your teammates of 3 years hanging is crappy even if the talent level may be down a little elsewhere. The 3 kid was a PITA and had been mentioning transferring to this school awhile. Other 2 left, he pulled the trigger and we said, "bye Felicia". All 3 kids have d1 potential and/or offers. It put us in a spot, then our TB left to go with bye Felicia kid. May lose another linemen, but we don't know. It's crazy and silly. I don't think those kids are going to get the best recommendations from college coaches from us.

I mean we are a private so everyone thinks we recruit...yeah we sell our program to those who listen, but we don't go out of our way to find kids and have back room meetings. Not our style.

It's been a crappy summer for us. That being said, I love the kids we have, just have to coach them up. I'd rather lose with them, than lose with the other kids if that makes sense.

I hope that makes s

The better teams in the greater bay area have the best recruiting coaching staffs

it is kind of sad, they do a better job than the bay area colleges do of recruiting... and i am not exaggerating that

I am not even including De La Salle in this post

speaking of just some public schools in the area
the better ones have probably 10-12+ kids on their varsity team who based on where they live are not supposed to go there

one team in our has had multiple players move in with coaches, relatives of coaches, and other players, to try to play for them

"Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy"