ODDS N ENDS

• Providence College recently announced that they signed 11 men's lacrosse players to National Letters of Intent to play lacrosse at the school. The 11 players are represented from 9 states as far west as Ohio and as far south as Florida. Another good example of how you need to prepare yourself to make decisions earlier than you may be ready to. While you may have one timeline, a coach may have another and will be looking for commitments from players on the coaches schedule. The majority of the players signed played used an agressive camp and showcase schedule to increase their exposure. This is why I am not huge on timelines as different players from different sports being recruited by different schools will all have a different timeline.
• The NCAA has recently announced that cross country and track and field participation has increased significantly over the last 20 years. Simply put, there are more opportunities to run in college than ever before. Run Forest Run!
• New York Times Magazine had a good article on the IMG Academy in Florida several weeks ago entitled - THE THOROUGHLY DESIGNED AMERICAN CHILDHOOD; Constructing a Teen Phenom. IMG is like a private school for athletes who spend the majority of their day either in class or on the field and can receive specialized training. Students can also attend school somewhere else and simply use the academy for athletic training purposes. IMG has worked with athletes such as Andre Agassi and Derek JeterCosts range from $20,000 to maybe $40,000 depending on your situation and desires and can go higher with more personalized individual instruction. There was a funny passage in the article that talked about a soccer player who was spending about $30,000 a year in the hopes of getting a soccer scholarship to college. The author humorously pointed out that the money the parents are investing in training at the Academy would have paid for a few years of college to just about any college in the country. Unless this player ends up getting a full scholarship, the family may end up actually paying more for college than they would have if the student attended a public high school in his hometown and developed his soccer skills through local programs.
• I was talking to a friend of mine in the recruiting world last month and he was telling a few stories about football players out in the Midwest. One player he mentioned received 30 letters from Wisconsin and 50 letters from Notre Dame and had responded to the coaches in the way the letters indicated. Hopes were high and he assumed he was going to get recruited by these schools. Unfortunately no official visits were offered this fall, which is a bad sign if you are a Division 1 football prospect and that should have a been a red flag for this family. I was told Wisconsin was recruiting 25 players from a list of 4,000 prospects they had identified. This story hails in comparison to the kid from Chicago who received 180 letters from Nebraska and never got one phone call or official visit offer, but serves to show that letters can mean very little until the coach is calling your home and inviting you to the school for an official visit and offering you a scholarship.
• I got an interesting email last week asking the following - A D1 coach faxed a note to my high school saying they were practicing at a high school field in the area and iviting coaches and players to come watch. Is this a violation? - It's not unusual for college teams to practice at other venue's as some colleges don't even have fields to use. It also doesn't seem strange to watch a team practice that is on a public field. While I didn't think there was any violation, it sounded strange and my advice was to call the school and ask the NCAA compliance director or someone in the athletics department.
• Before you dismiss private college as being too expensive, consider the fiscal state of many state schools and the lack of scholarship dollars they are going to be able to offer. While private school is often 3 times as expensive as state school, if you have a hook, you may be able to receive as much if not more scholarship and academic/financial aid dollars at a private school. A hook is something that makes you stand out from the pack of applicants. Athletics is a hook, being extremely smart is a hook and the combination of the two make for a powerful hook in the recruiting process. I met someone who was working with a family and they got two offers, $20,000 a year from a private school and free books from a public school. In the end the private school will be less expensive. You should also remember that room and board will be roughly the same price at a state school as it will be at a private school, so focus on the tuition difference.
• Apparently there is a new special helmet designed for pole vaulting called the Kdmax helmet. Apparently it’s lighter than a bike helmet, but “slightly” stronger.
• Number of football players on the Rivals Top 100 list from the state of Florida (16), number of top 100 prospects from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, (19).
• In related football news, I was watching ESPN Classic Notre Dame vs. Southern Cal from 1986 last month. That year Notre Dame had a decent player named Tim Brown who won some trophy called the Heisman. During the game Brown ripped off a 40 yard punt return and the announcer then said that Tim Brown scored 25 touchdowns in high school. I wasn’t that impressed until the announcer paused and said, “the average length of those touchdowns was 45 yards.” That takes a minute to sink in, but soon you will realize that is almost an unbelievable statistic.
• I attended and spoke briefly at a small recruiting seminar in Connecticut last week and fielded a few questions after. One question was as follows – My son is possibly interested in being a journalist, how can he find out what jobs might be available for him and what programs he should focus on in college? – My answer – Have your son call up a reporter or two at your local town paper and ask them if they would be willing to spend 30 minutes or so talking with him. Ask them what they studied in school, what jobs they pursued after college and what advice they would offer for that career path!
• Arkansas recently revealed that the school had a 49% graduation rate for scholarship athletes that entered the school in 1997. Sounds awful. Unfortunately the graduation rates for the student body during the same time period was 48% and that 48% comes from students who took 6 years to graduate, so athletics may have little to do with graduation.
• Wow, I was browsing the Harvard baseball website looking at results from last year. On March 6th, 2004, the team played 3 games in one day to start the season beating Air Force 25-20, and losing to Texas Tech 18-6, and 30-8 later in the afternoon. That my friends is a long day. Harvard did have 2 wins over Michigan to end their spring trip.

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• Rochester Institute of Technology will move it's nationally known D3 hockey program to Division 1.
• Lewis University (Illinois) was placed on 4 years probation and gave back its D2 national volleyball championship for violations. The NCAA stated that 14 athletes were allowed to play, practice, and receive financial aid even though they were ineligible. The NCAA also found the baseball, men's volleyball and men's soccer teams granted more athletic scholarships than allowed, and the men's and women's track and field programs provided cash for books, and one athlete received a loan from a coach.
• Central Arkansas a D2 school has applied to move it's football program to 1AA and its men's and womens basketball programs to D1A.
• The soccer field for New Jersey Institute of Technology has been resurfaced with SprinTurf, an artificial surface.
• The University of Massachusetts was recently voted #45 on a list of Worlds top 50 universities published by the Times of London. Umass has changed and grown over the last 20 years for the better, but when I see that BU, BC, Duke, Dartmouth, and Brown were not in the top 50, I have to wonder what criteria was used for the rankings? The published criteria was as follows - peer review, research impact, faculty-to-student ratio, the ability to attract internationally-known faculty, and the ability to attract students from all over the world. We are unsure as to whether the ranking took into consideration the 300 UMass students who had no bed to sleep in this fall because the school had more students than dorm rooms!
• Men's lacrosse and women's swimming will become the 14th and 15th sports programs at Saint Leo University, effective for the 2005-06 school year.
• Minnesota State University Mankato has added bowling as a women's varsity sport. With the addition, Minnesota State-Mankato will offer 12 women's varsity sports.
• Millersville University of Pennsylvania is renovating Biemesderfer Stadium. The first phase will include the installation of new synthetic turf, a new all-weather eight-lane track (with new jumping and vaulting areas), and refurbished home locker room and athletic training facilities. Phase 1 will be complete for the 2005 season.
• Chatham College dedicated its $18 million Athletic and Fitness Center October 22. The four-level facility features an eight-lane competition swimming pool, a basketball/volleyball court seating 600 spectators, an athletic training facility with a hydrotherapy room and rehabilitation equipment, and offices for coaches and staff. It also offers a variety of features for the campus community, including a classroom with adjoining human performance laboratory, fitness and cardiovascular rooms, a rock-climbing wall, a dance and aerobics studio, a three-lane walking track, and a "smoothie bar".
• Santa Clara is adding track and field (outdoor) for the 2005 season
• Western New England College has a new baseball field.
• The University of the District of Columbia canceled its men's and women's basketball seasons due to problems with recruiting, academic eligibility, and financial aid. Now that’s a recruiting problem!

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ARTICLES
Here are two interesting recruiting articles I found. The second one below has a little note about participation numbers to go with it. Article 1

This is a decent article on the recruiting process but has one common flaw that is always discussed by people who do not understand high school athletics and college recruiting. It has to do with the number of high school athletic participants who go on to college to play athletics. When you discuss pure number of high school athletes and the percentage of those who go on to play in college, the odds seem against you. As this article gives an example of, there are more than 1 million high school football players in a given year but only 6% will compete at any NCAA level. I don’t even think those numbers are right and using them to scare people about recruiting isn’t responsible writing. In reality there are roughly 250,000 seniors that play high school football – In a given year you are theoretically competing against 250,000 other players for a potential college roster spot, but in reality, you aren’t, Why? Simple, because the percentage of seniors football players wishing to play at the college level is significantly lower than 250,000 players, not to mention that most kids won’t have the strength, size, speed or desire to play football in college anyway. This goes for every high school sport as the number of players wishing to play in college and having the ability to play in college is always significantly lower than the number of players actually competing in high school. Many of those participation statistics also do not take into consideration that most high school athletes play multiple sports, which inflates the numbers even more. While playing in college is difficult and there are thousands of talented athletes who wish to play in college, understanding that there is a smaller percentage that have both the skills and desires to play in college will give you a better prospective on the process. If you have the skills, do the necessary research, contact coaches you need to contact, and put yourself in a position to be recruited, finding a place to play in college will be easier than many would like you to believe. - Article 2

BALANCING A ROSTER
Several years ago a friend of mine who follows college basketball and has a basketball background said that Duke University had a couple of kids at the end of their bench who might be OK D3 players. So the question is, what are they doing on the Duke bench playing in one of the best college programs and conferences in the country? One of the most difficult aspects of coaching in college and recruiting/retaining players is balancing out your roster. If you have all stars on the team, someone is going to be unhappy because everyone cannot be a starter or play the entire game. If you have all players of marginal talent, you won’t be a very good team. The tricky part for coaches is finding that balance of good players and players who can play but will be happy (let’s say somewhat content) in not being the star of the team or receiving significant amount of playing time. Lets pretend Duke recruits roughly 3 players a year for scholarship. Now, let’s say that they recruited 3 top players, kids who were stars of their high school team and the prep circuit and kids who are getting offers from schools all over the country and will see significant playing time no matter where they go. If you are starting a team from scratch, the equasion is much easier. Now, after one year the coach likely will recruit 3 more scholarship players, again players of significant talent. Now the coach has 6 players of exceptional talent. Now lets say in 3 three, the coach recruits 3 more players of exceptional talent. Now the team has 9 top players, and players who could have gone to any school in the country on scholarship. The problem now becomes playing time and competition. While you would like to fill your team with the best players, you have created competition among players who are used to playing and expect to play significant minutes and when the don’t they are going to be unhappy. While top D1 programs recruited talented players, many of these top players are smart enough to know when they will and will not be getting the playing time they expect or think they deserve. If you go to a team with more talent, odds are that you might not play as much, and many players are not looking for that scenario. Because of this, coaches need to balance out their roster with players who have different roles and skills and while the 101th player on the Duke roster is on a scholarship, his role on the team is much different than JJ Redicks role who plays 40 minutes a game sometime. This means coaches cannot recruit the very best players in the country each year because you cannot take 12 McDonald’s All-Americans on the same team and keep everyone happy.

So this begs a question that you can ask yourself – What role will college athletics play in my life and what do I want my role in college athletics to be? There can be many answers to this question and your first answer may change as you learn what college athletics is about and settle into a program. If you reasonably expect that you will not become a professional athlete, and that is like 99% of all college athletes, then college athletics needs to serve some other purpose and than can range from a fun activity, to how I help pay for my education and anywhere in between. If you know you are not going to be happy sitting on the bench, you need to find a team and program that will give you a realistic chance to play in some capacity. If you know your education is linked to your ability to pay for college (i.e., a scholarship) you need to understand that regardless of your role on the team, without athletics, you might not be attending the college you are. Finding a balance is difficult but a goal well worth obtaining and it’s important to have an idea of what you want, what you expect, and what you can live with. Not everyone will win a national championship and not everyone will start every game and be an All-American. For some sports like basketball, football, or hockey, being a part-time or role player can be ok because you can play sporadically during the game and have a role, a few minutes hear and there. For other sports like baseball or softball, sitting on the bench hoping to get an inning or an at-bat at the end of a 9 inning game, is less enjoyable, especially when you are spending time traveling. The graduation rate for NCAA college athletes (athletes receiving scholarship money) is roughly 60%. This means that 40% of NCAA athletes that enroll in a 4 year school do not graduate from that school within 6 years. Some transfer and graduate at other programs, others don’t. The 40% that “move on” usually move on because some aspect of the school was out of balance with their expectations. In many cases, it is the athletic opportunity that did not present itself, i.e., playing time. Since many of the scholarship players going on to college are talented and set their expectations higher than they should, some are disappointed at the playing time they receive. Many fail to understand that despite what the coach tells you before you come, you will be playing against athletes that are bigger, stronger, faster and more experienced than you are and very few freshman start for their varsity team in high school. College is often no different, and finding that perfect fit can be hard. If you have an idea of what you want and you evaluate yourself and evaluate each program, you will find a place that is a better fit for your desrires.