Let me tell you a story…
This is a new series I am considering on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. It will highlight things I have seen and been a part of throughout my many years of coaching and evaluating prospects. These stories are meant to…
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Continue ReadingThis is a new series I am considering on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. It will highlight things I have seen and been a part of throughout my many years of coaching and evaluating prospects. These stories are meant to be entertaining, and they are not fabricated in any way, but I have chosen to keep everyone anonymous, as there is no need to really “expose” anyone here. With that said, let me tell you a story…
This story comes from a couple of years ago. It takes place on a Tuesday, about this time of year. I was sitting at my computer updating whatever recruiting list I was working on, and I had just emailed a list of the top uncommitted Senior prospects to the college coaches I work directly with. Shortly after sending that email, I received a text from a Division-III Head Coach updating me on one of the players from that uncommitted list. Below is an approximate timeline of how that Tuesday went, and it’s kind of ironically funny how everything worked out.
10:00 a.m. – I sent out an email of the top uncommitted prospects in that year’s Senior class to my distribution list.
10:05 a.m. – I received a text from a Division-III Head Coach (we’ll call them D3-A) informing me that they had just spoken with prospect John/Jane Doe within the last couple of days, and Doe indicated they were walking on at a specific Division-I school.
10:15 a.m. – I sent a text to an Assistant Coach I know at that Division-I school, saying I heard Doe was coming there as a walk-on and I thought Doe could help them in practices, etc. The response I got was, “Who is Doe? What is he/she? Can he/she play? I’ve never heard of him/her.”
10:20 a.m. – I ended up calling that Division-I Assistant Coach, and I described Doe to them, but I was a little surprised that they had never been in contact with a kid who had reportedly decided to walk-on there. This Assistant’s response was, “We can’t take them. We need someone who can guard our point guards in practice 94-feet. That’s all we’re looking for in a walk-on right now.” Let’s just say Doe wasn’t that. Doe was a frontline player.
10:30 a.m. – I felt a bit of an obligation to inform someone close to Doe of what was going on, so I dug up Doe’s High School Coach’s phone number and I texted them, first introducing myself, then informing them of what I heard from “D3-A”, while following that up with what I had discussed with the Division-I Assistant Coach. I didn’t receive a response from Doe’s High School Coach.
At this point, much of the day goes on and I don’t think twice about it.
5:05 p.m. – I’m sitting at home, scrolling through my Twitter account, and I see a Tweet from Doe stating that they had decided to commit to a Division-III school…a completely different Division-III school from my conversation that morning (we’ll call this school D3-B). Knowing the Head Coach at “D3-B” as well, I called and left a voicemail for them and I shot them a text.
5:15 p.m. – The Head Coach from “D3-B” calls me back and I told them this story about how the day had unfolded. We laughed, and I teased them a little and said, “you couldn’t give me a heads up?”, to which he replied, “Brandon, we hadn’t heard from Doe in about four months and had given up on him/her. Doe literally called us out of the blue 15 minutes ago and said he/she wanted to come to school here. We were caught off-guard.”
5:30 p.m. – I finally receive a returned text from Doe’s High School Coach, and it said, “Thanks for the message. I spoke with Doe’s father, and he informed me that Doe committed to “D3-B” a couple of months ago. Let me know if you need anything else.”
At the end of the day, I think this kid thought he/she was just going to go to a school they wanted to attend (the Division-I school), that school would have “open tryouts” for walk-ons or give them their own personal tryout, and then they would just become a walk-on at that Division-I school. Unfortunately, that’s not how walking on works at most places anymore. It was a very odd and ironically funny day, and interestingly enough, it’s not even close to the craziest recruiting stories I’ve heard or been a part of.