There is long standing belief that coaching, like business, is a cutthroat profession; every coach looking out for him or herself and willing to go down any dark and narrow path to achieve their goal, staking anyone along the way. To be perfectly honest I’ve never felt that. I know every coach wants to win and will go to great lengths to place their feet upon the highest of pedestals, but I can’t attest to having been taken advantage of by anyone in their quest. Granted I am still exceptionally green, and perhaps no one has felt the threat of me yet, but to this current point in my career I have been overwhelmingly blessed by the coaches that I have come to know. I still harken back to a snowy evening in Scottsbluff, NE where I sat with two JUCO coaches sharing stories and trying to soak up any ounce of knowledge they breathed. I was an assistant at Hastings College still and had journeyed 300 miles from Hastings to Scottsbluff with my JV squid to, quite simply, play ragdoll to two JUCO teams. I don’t think I’ll ever forget driving the bronco bus in the midst of a terrible snow storm. I had to pull over multiple times and climb up on the bus to try and free the windshield of the ice that felt the need to accumulate and impede my vision. I maintained a calm face for the sake of my kids, but my knuckles turned whiter and whiter with every turned over semi I passed. In the end the 5 hour drive turned to 7, but we arrived safely at the Lamplighter Inn, Scottsbluff. Teams like Hastings JV get invited to JUCO Classics for JUCO teams to get extra games in and games they can use to boost their record. Schools like Hastings send their JV’s to get abused because the JUCO teams give guarantees such as stipends and hotels. It’s quite the ideal set up for everyone but the actual JV team. Nevertheless, my girls suited up day one to play the Trojans of Colby Community College. It was ugly early. It didn’t get better. Following the game Colby’s head coach offered me an invitation to meet up with him and Coach Harnish of Western Nebraska at the Applebee’s next to the Lamplighter later that evening. Appreciative of the offer despite still seething from the loss, I accepted. That evening while talking and watching Coach Harnish drink his tomato beers I sat thinking that the Junior College route was one that was very enticing: high level of athleticism mixed with the coaching challenges of recruiting a new team every year and trying to coach fresh faces all the time. Coach Harnish had been at Western Nebraska for nearly 30 years, and Coach Jasper at Colby for 3. They had the opportunity to coach athletes from all over the world, and Coach Harnish had been to a number of national tournaments. We talked through most of the night about recruiting, fundraising, the challenges of coaching girls, and where we saw ourselves in the future. Amidst it all I never imagined that in less than years’ time I would be in that same Applebee’s, but with my own Junior College team.
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| The team with Holly during her signing to play at Olivet Nazarene in Illinois. |
In building one’s own team one of the most grueling, yet most important processes, one which I’m still learning, is the art of recruiting. Having not been hired till August of last year I was unable to recruit the athletes I was to be coaching my first year at Otero. This coming year will be the first time the athletes I invested in bringing to Otero will be on display. It is an interesting feeling to consider as the athletes I bring in could make or break our team for next year. As a Junior College, we have to recruit at minimum half a team every year. We have to bring in 17 and 18 year old kids and expect them to play at levels that they’ve never reached before, and in a year’s time they will be expected to lead an entire team. Such heavily weighted tasks make the process of selecting and obtaining athletes so important. Throughout the year I have been calling, texting, mailing, emailing, and watching athletes from all over the state, country, and world. I’ve always looked at recruiting from a coach’s perspective. Having only been actively recruited by one school during high school I had little experience as the recruited. I didn’t understand the process to any degree and didn’t even fathom the sheer number of schools and opportunities that could’ve been available for me. I had misconstrued notions regarding schools, higher education, and really life as a whole. Now that I am in the position I am, I have the opportunity to educate young athletes and their families on life beyond high school. Nevertheless, because I didn’t fully understand the player’s perspective I learned a great deal about what goes through the minds of the 18 year old girls that I’m investing my career in.
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| A note that two of my new recruits and one of my returners left on my door for me. The things that go through the minds of 18 year old girls. I am going to have a talk with them about their grammar. |
Now that all my recruiting is said and done for this year I signed 5 new athletes to National Letters of Intent (i.e. athletic scholarships): Three Colorado athletes and two international athletes. Each will bring different strengths to our program, but above all I feel I recruited great individuals. My international players reign from Hungary and Spain. One is a 6’0 finesse post player that is the stereotypical European basketball player. She has great touch with the basketball, is fundamentally sound, and has a great feel for the game. My young girl from Spain is a 5’11 wing player who can shoot, handle, rebound, and drive. A very all-around player that I may have to teach how to defend, but will be an exceptional skill. My three Colorado girls are all guards and all went to small schools: Trinidad (3A), Las Animas (2A), and Vanguard Charter (2A). All of them earned All-State honors, and competed in at least the first round of their respective 32-team state tournaments, with two of them reaching the elite eight, and one winning the consolation championship. While they are all guards by nature I see them filling different roles and being exceptionally complimentary. During my time recruiting one of my Colorado girls I had many long conversations with her father about recruiting, about environment, and about the pros and cons of Junior College. During one of our talks he made an interesting comparison to what he perceived recruiting to be like. He likened it to dating a girl. He went on to explain that in his mind when a coach is recruiting a player he says all the right things, tells her how much he wants her, offers everything he has, until he comes across a better girl, where he then “breaks up” with the old one and moves on to the new one. I was slightly offended by the perception, but I could relate to it. I long compared recruiting to asking a girl to prom. You want to take the best girl (the best athlete), but so does every other guy (school). There is a long courtship from each school who wants the girl to come with them, but she can only choose one. Often the girl will listen to each coach, think about who she should go with, sometimes get approval from her parents, sometimes not, and then make a decision to go with one and leave the others in the dirt. Some of the factors include who has the nicest car (offers the most money), and who will take her to the nicest restaurant (who has the best facilities). To try and put yourself into the shoes of a young person making one of the biggest decisions of their life, you have to take a step back and truly consider all of the feelings and concerns they have. It’s easy to slip into selfish mode and think that you know what’s best for someone. Most of the time we don’t do what’s best for ourselves so how can we begin to think we know what is best for someone else? Even though this fall I will have a number of girls that I brought in, there really won’t be much difference from having girls I didn’t recruit; I have to teach, build, and grow the young ladies that I have been entrusted with. I have to live a culture that will make this team successful. I have to love and be loyal. Coach Reed said something profound to me during the heart of the recruiting season: “No matter who you have next year, it will be the team that God wants you to have.” That alone makes this recruiting season a success.
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| A note that one of my graduated sophomores left for me. Making an impact on kids is our purpose. |
Till next time,
- Coach Kyle
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