The recruiting on-the-road “contact” season has begun. As I wrapped up the first home visit of this time of year tonight, I was struck once again by how much fun it is to have the opportunity to play a part in the building of a program and Cornell team 128 in 2014. Having been blessed to have the opportunity to coach high school football for two years, it is clear recruiting is the fundamental difference between coaching at the high school and college level.
Make no mistake: high school is where the real COACHING takes place. Especially for those high school coaches reading this who practice in the public school context, we have nothing but the utmost respect for what you do as each new season you attempt to mold an entirely different set of young men that you didn’t have the opportunity to personally SELECT into a cohesive unit. Every college coach truly appreciates all of you who work with us in the recruiting process and ALLOW us to be able to do our job; without the high school coaches there would be no game and no players to fill our rosters.
The fun that I spoke of earlier is especially apparent when all of the parties involved operate in mutual respect and trust. Because there can be so many interested parties these days, maintaining these two characteristics throughout the process can be very difficult as everyone has their own perspective and certainly everyone has their own ego. My hope here is to help inform the process for those high school coaches who are reading specifically about the intangible sub-characteristics that guide us through the process as we evaluate each prospect. What follows is what Coach Archer has developed for us at Cornell but hopefully it can apply to other schools as you work with them. Working with these to frame the process can be useful to hopefully place more players because usually the college coach will make up his own mind regarding the athletic-physical evaluation whereas these intangible areas are where the most differentiated knowledge can be gained about each individual kid and where we most often go wrong.
Here is what we focus on for each prospect:
CARPE DIEM – Does the young man see every moment as an OPPORTUNITY that he can attack, compete in, and most importantly learn from?
TOUGHNESS – The ability to do what is right and perform at a championship level no matter how you personally feel.
ACCOUNTABILITY – Can a young man do what is asked of him individually in all areas all of the time?
DEPENDABILITY – Can a young man do what is asked of him when his actions have an affect on the outcomes of others?
SELFLESS – Can a young man reach a level of consistency where he can begin to think of and act for others?
INFLUENCE – Does the young man have the innate ability or the opportunity to develop to a level where what he continually does will enable his position group, unit, team, or program achieve a higher level of success?
Most of what is listed may of course come across as football and coaching 101 but unless it is attacked with a systematic and checklist-mentality, mistakes will undoubtedly be made in what is already a complicated and non-scientific process. To the high school coaches – thanks again for all that you do for kids and football!