Losing the recruiting battle in our school

Go through the chain of command. Talk first with your AD about what the bball coach is doing. Your AD may be able to handle it if notified.

Easy.....do the math. How many basketball schollys are available each year? How many football schollys are available each year? What are the chances of getting an athletic scholarship between the two?

In small towns basketball often is king.

It wont do anyone any good if you are adversarial for sure.

Work on the top athlete, if you can get him...other kids will jump on board.

The biggest problem we face is basketball is winning and we are struggling. Part of that problem is the best athletes are not playing. Our budget is small so it is hard for us to buy the kids many perks. We had two of these athletes come out this year and one was a game changer, but he "coincidentally" quit when bball could start practice. The other quit the same week. Both kids were starting and playing a lot. We have repeatedly talked to the coach as well as our AD, and of course there are denials all around. We are preaching family, integrity, and accountability and really trying to do things right, but in the end we are losing our higher end kids. I know we are not the only school to face these issues but I'm sick of this crap. Thanks for the input and I welcome any advice anyone has to give.

You can't build with kids that bow out before the season is over.

I assume this is an exception, not a rule. (or does this happen EVERY year?)

When I came back to my alma mater, the program that I had been a part of had died. No remaining staff. No remaining players. No remaining values. We went from a three level (Frosh, JV, Var) 120 kid program in a school of 1,300. To a two level (Frosh/Soph, Var) 36 kid program in a school of 1,250. We had to start from scratch. We now have 78 kids in the program and are looking to go back to a three level program for the first time in 7 years. Here's what we did.

Focus 100% on player retention. Coach the HECK out of your kids. Build relationships with them. Ensure that every single one of your kids has an awesome experience. You want to retain upwards of 90% of your kids. If you only get 20 kids, you had better keep all 20 of those kids.

Sell the parents on how hard you will work with them on graduating. Sell the school staff on the same. Parents and admin love when their kids play. They love even more when kids sit out a game because they didn't take care of business in the classroom.

Win games. I know that it seems like one of those chicken or the egg type of conundrums. But, it's simple. Kids nowadays aren't willing to risk failure in an attempt to be successful. They live in a world of hate. If they join and lose all year then that's all they hear in the halls, on Facebook, on twitter, on Instagram, on kik, etc. Win games and kids will start to show up.

NO participation, period.

The quitting rule might be a tougher sell because it couldn't ever hurt football, since no sport starts before it nor does any sport overlap, since football starts at the beginning of the school year, so you might be better having someone from a different sport support it so it isn't so transparent.

The problem with trying to play up scholarship opportunities, is that now you have to deliver the scholarship opportunities.    If you go to kids/parents and tout that one advantage of playing football is scholarship opportunities, I guarantee you they will NOT  consider the fact that those opportunities are still only going to those genetic lottery winners, who also work hard and have the grades.  So if you are running around saying "Play football, Scholarship opportunities are better than other sports"  you are going to have issues with the 5'9 245lb OT who thinks he he will end up wearing a Golden Dome on Saturdays.   

Also, I feel it is a bit disingenuous to hint at the fact that football scholarships are somehow plentiful.  You are still looking at about a 2 out of every 100 kids.... 

I wouldn't touch future opportunities with a ten foot pole regarding recruiting for my program, OTHER than to make sure that the student athletes and their parents in the school are properly educated about the realities of ALL collegiate athletic opportunities.  This article helps :
www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/sports/10scholarships.html?_r=4&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&

Plenty of good suggestions. I would suggest you examine how you and your coaching staff are being perceived by the athletes in your school and compare that to how the bball coaches are being perceived. Perhaps what you are doing and saying is not reaching the kids. We started to get players from a rival school come to our school without actually recruiting. When we asked the kids what's going on at the rival school the athletes began trashing the coaches. One player was quoted as saying "they are a bunch of old guys yelling at players all the time." I brought this to the attention of one of our rival coaches and he began trashing the players saying they were just quitters. Well, the truth was probably somewhere in between. Fact is sometimes people do vote with their feet and perception is 9/10ths of reality. That coaching staff might have been better served by working to change the perception. Talk with the athletes at your school. Show them you are likeable. Connect with them first as a caring adult and it will be easier to transition conversations to the subject of having them sign up for football. Get on their level. Pump them up and tell them how much the team needs them. Talk with the parents to determine level of commitment. Don't waist time, however, with those on the fence. Football players must have "want to." They must have desire. Some basketball and baseball guys drop everything, including football, for those sports. That's ok. Don't waist time with those athletes. This should lower the number of quitters and form the basis for building a foundation of committed athletes. Good luck.

This is almost identical to the situation I am in. Took over a program at absolute rock bottom two seasons ago. We are improving, but one ongoing struggle is still recruiting. A few things that I have found to be vital to winning this battle, especially if you're competing with another program like basketball:

-get assistants in the building: no matter how much you recruit or how enthusiastic you are, you can't it by yourself.

-make the kids who play feel special: you have to offer opportunities that other programs don't especially if they're winning more than your program. Let a committee of kids design some fancy new uni's when you're up for new ones, get them nice helmets and shoulder pads and constantly remind them that they're same ones NCAA & NFL players wear, start new traditions like team dinners or a new award. We give out t-shirts, hoodies, lanyards, stickers and other things as new awards I started. Weight room attendance or performance, player of the week, some kind of "bad ass"of the week award (we call ours the Blackshirt Club), these are all things that will make them feel special. I know your budget is too small, but call your reps and tell them you want cheap t shirts that you will be buying with your own money. I have a great Riddell rep who did some tech tees for $4 for us because he knew it was coming out of my own pocket. Kids will do A LOT for a t shirt or sticker. Like Napoleon said: "A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon."

-be careful about which kids you put on a pedestal. I have been in schools that heap all of the awards on the stud athlete who is a jerk/poor student/doesn't lift/doesn't eat sleep and breath football. You have to pick the kids that you want to make positive examples out of, then nominate them for every award, all star game, scholarship, etc. Use them as an example to everyone else of the great honors they can earn if they are part of your program & do things the right way.

-don't be shy about having parents help or thanking them. You know which ones support you and your program, so do everything you can to make them feel appreciated. Our National Football Foundation chapter has a fan of the year award which I nominated an outstanding senior mom for. When she got the letter telling her she was nominated she called me & thanked me profusely. She also wanted to know how she can stay involved & still help now that her son had graduated. That gets out and parents will rally to your cause.

It's nice to say: "just win baby", but I know first-hand how tough that can be when you can't even get kids out. The above four things have really helped our program the last two years.

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Most kids are looking for three things out of sport.... 1.. Hang/Play with Friends 2. Approval of adults they respect (Coach, Dad, Teacher, townspeople) 3. They want to have fun, fun=a positive experience. If you provide these things for kids kids will participate, now you may have a couple of groups that have been lost at this point that you can't get back. Our focus (school of 250 as well) is always ensuring these things happen at our middle school and JV levels. At those levels we work very hard to make it attractive to the majority of the boys so they have friends playing, we try to get adults to coach that are very encouraging, supportive, and respected wether they be young guys right out or popular teachers, and we know that it isn't much fun to not play so we try to have as many teams as possible so that everyone is needed and coached up this gives the kids a purpose in playing and the coach a need to instruct all the kids not just the best players. Treat the kids with respect always welcome to come out for the team and coach them up to be as competitive as you can be each season.

Having coached at a school that small- you are going to have to be willing to give some when it comes to basketball. The best athletes in your school are most likely the starting kids on the basketball team, they, because its a small school, will likely find success easier in basketball because they will play other small schools, some so small that they don't offer football (am I correct?) - while in football, you will probably be one of the smaller teams in the state. (am I correct again?)....

so, be welcoming, loose, accommodating and make playing football fun, rewarding while understanding that basketball will remain first. When I coached at a tiny school like that, I found out when all of the summer basketball games were and worked around that.