Recruiting Your Own Building

Coach,

We sit each player down in the off season and ask him who he thinks from his class should be playing football We normally get about 20 kids per grade from the players. I like to ask the players to see who they respect and who they feel could help. From there i send a letter just to feel the kid out, then I try to find each one and talk to them personally. So as of right now i have contacted 60 new kids and I feel if we get 20 of those kids that is awesome.

I will also go up to kids in the hallway who look athletic and simply ask them if they have considered playing. If they say no or they do not want to I keep saying Hi every day and ask them how they are doing. And eventually you wear a few of them down and have a few new players.

Here's a question that falls under the category "recruiting your own building:"

Do you recruit high school students that have played a different sport during the football season? ie. soccer/cross country

Many coaches frown upon "stealing players." I know in my school the basketball/wrestling coach are at odds because the basketball coach might work on getting Junior/sophomore wrestlers to go out for basketball.


You might laugh at me wanting to get cross country kids but I'm at a very small school with a rich cross country tradition. I'd love to have some of those tall cross country kids on my team! I usually recruit the 8th graders hard but once they tell me they want to run I will leave them alone...

it amazes me how a kid could wanna fo CC instead of football.. CC isnt a sport, its a punishment. "Hey kids for todays practice go run a few miles"
- Maybe i just dislike it cuz im fat...

I recruite kids for offense more than anything else.

If the kid is a senior and has never played before, then he can come out and maybe learn to get in someone's way.. run a route and catch a pass.. maybe take a hand off and run for his life..

But its hard teaching defensive football to a kid who has never played.

Sometimes you dont have a choice. You have to SELL THE PROGRAM, not beg. There is a big difference.

begging "cmon Jones, youd be great, you could help us win the conference"

selling "Jones, if you buy in and do what we coach you to do, you will improve quickly and become a valuable member of the program. Weight training and discipline will help you earn respect among your peers and among employers"


one thing I have been stressing lately is that things like playing football, being a team captain and being part of success will look good on a resume in a difficult economy. One needs to give oneself every edge and football players, particularly captains, often have a few more doors open to them. Thats my story and I am sticking to it.

We recruited a kid from the cross country team going into his junior year. A year later he was elected co-captain with 100% of the vote from every coach and every player. All conference as a senior at QB and easily our best player defensively at safety.

Hey guys I agree the sun shines on a monkey's asss occasionally ;D.... Yes if I coach long enough I will steal an athletic B-Ball player who can play WR and what not...

But back to the point -

I really do not think that year in and year out you will consistently get new kids who will help you... Yes the kid every now and then but to build and sustain a program in all honesty usually comes from years of development and this starts at the feeder and middle school level.

i agree w tdmaker. in my situation (new hc at school w little to no tradition) recruiting the halls has not only turned some kids on to football and are now coming out, but at the same time it gets the athletes, students, teacher and administration thinking about football outside of just August-November. I've made an effort to go to baseball, track and even softball games. since we're not in the building yet i feel that me and the staff need to become as involved as possible.

touchdownmaker,

This is what I'm talking about. I know there are many coaches out there that are not in a similar coaching situation. Consequently they see little to no value in recruiting their own buildings. But, to me, not every kid gets turned on to football in the 7th or 8th grade. Maybe they don't have the build and won't come out. Maybe they just didn't get interested in football until they got into high school.

I think we, as coaches, sometimes forget we are dealing with kids. In some cases, our kids are no exception, very poverty stricken kids that do not come from much at all. In my experience, many kids just need to feel genuinely valued. They feel good about someone telling them that they have the potential to do something well. They also want to know that there is an exclusive group they can belong to and benefit from their particular skills. We cannot make the genuine investment in the junior high because we do not have the resources to make that happen. Periodic visits to the junior high are important but are no substitute for constant attention to prospective players. I have three staff members in the high school and I feel like we can recruit the freshman and sophomore classes heavily and find some hidden gems. I am not at all against recruiting the upperclassmen because what if you do get a contributer out of the effort, then that's one more than we had before. When you are facing the numbers issue that we are, we must become more creative with our recruiting tactics.

I have developed a "We Want You!" Oscoda Owls Football Brochure out of the whole Uncle Sam concept. Basically, it outlines what each player will get as a result of participating in football. The brochure also outlines the achievements the program can possibly reach if they make the commitment to it. I am also contimplating a recruiting day with a media presence before the end of the school year. This would showcase the traditions of the program and bring those prospective players in on that. Give them a taste of the brotherhood, game experience (pre-game in particular, highlight tapes and create an excitement around it. I think sometimes we try to get kids out for football and expect them to know exactly what they are getting into. Honestly, they don't. Why not show them. These are the ideas for recruiting our own building that I've come up with and plan to use this May to see how many more players we can get out. We'll never know for sure what effect it had until August. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Any other creative and innovative recruiting ideas such as these that anybody has, I would be extremely grateful to hear about them. Thanks in advance Coaches.

That is very good stuff. Kind of what I emphasized earlier hit up the feeder programs and middle schools and that is the best way to build the program for the long haul. I really like some of your ideas.