TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Coaches Help Link Players, Colleges

ADVERTISEMENT

By ADAM ADKINS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 12, 2007

Updated: 11/11/2007 11:33 pm

Armwood's Sean Callahan thinks he spends roughly two to three hours a day, minus what he does with film. Plant's Robert Weiner says maybe 20-25 hours per week, and that's in-season time. Out of season? Think upward of 40 hours per week.

Hillsborough's Earl Garcia couldn't peg the amount of time, but his answer summed it up perfectly.

"It's a full-time job," Garcia said.

What these Hillsborough County football coaches are referring to is the amount of time they spend in the college recruitment process. It's become the third full-time job coaches take on during the season, joining their teaching and coaching duties.

Those hours are spent on the phone making calls, on the computer sending e-mails, in front of video recorders making highlight reels, mailing game film and doing anything they can to essentially sell their player to a prospective college.

That's because for every super-prospect who essentially has his pick of Division I programs, there are two or three other players talented enough to play at the next level but need someone working overtime in their corner. And that's where the coaches come in, taking a salesman-like approach to make it happen.

"It's a lot of work; a lot of work," Callahan said. "But I've always enjoyed it because I always get a kick out of somebody getting a scholarship and going away to better their life."

In a process that now seems to only revolve and never end, coaches first take care of the simplest tasks.

The mainstay is the recruit information sheets, which contain basic contact information for the players, their current GPA and test scores, etc., an easily accessible piece of paper that can be passed to recruiters. Of course, these can be expanded, like the questions Weiner has his players answer - every question he's ever heard a recruiter ask, a running list that's been compiled during his days as an assistant at Jesuit to his time as Plant's head coach.

And then there's the film work. Coaches spend hours producing highlight reels for each player, an attention-grabbing mechanism, to say the least. How extravagant can this tool be? Callahan believes he's got a bread-and-butter technique that helps his kids immensely, one he's been using extensively this season.

"In-season cut-ups," Callahan said, referring to highlight-reel DVDs from games this season, which he gives to recruiters who come to Armwood. "I would say nine out of every 10 recruiters are happy with my cut-ups. So when I give a cut-up of a guy who is never making a mistake, he looks pretty good."

There are other ways of getting an edge. Some coaches use various recruiting services, though they are wary of ones that charge players instead of college programs. Others take their players to football camps, and try and make sure their players are labeled on recruiting Web sites like Rivals.com and Scout.com.

But the biggest impact coaches can have for players is an old-fashioned approach: building a rapport with the people they are dealing with.

"The bottom line is it's still the connection between the college coach and high school coach," Weiner said.

Added Callahan: "It's all about schmoozing and stuff like that. You've got to be good at that."

Some of those relationships take time to be forged. However, in some instances, coaches said, all it takes is for a previous recruit to work out. When that happens, recruiters are more inclined to hear out the coach when trying to advance another player. Of course, that works both ways.

Most of the time, the hours the coaches put in are rewarded. And regardless of how time-consuming the process has become, it's an aspect of the job they feel is worth accepting.

"It's become another part of the job description," Garcia said. "But if you've got a prospect, regardless of level, you want to do anything to try to market that kid."

Reporter Adam Adkins can be reached at (813) 657-4533 or aadkins@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT