Recruiting

It is 12pm on a saturday and I am sitting in the NSU press box entertaining guest. But these just aren't any guest, they are recruits looking to come to NSU and run run track/cross country. Recruiting is when a coach contacts high school seniors and tries to pursuade them to attend their program. I asked my coach what was the hardest part of recruiting and he replied with "making phone calls". He told me how some nights he will call up to fifty recruits to get their attention on NSU's program. As the recruits came in for their visit to NSU they were greated by the coaching staff and current athletes on the team. Coach had ordered about what looked like thirty pizza's and who knows how many drinks for the recruits to enjoy. After all the recruits received all their food they sat at a large table with me and my fellow athletes. We had to try and entertain the recruits and answer all their questions. After we ate it was our coaches turn to try and awe the recruits with his coaching philosophy. Coach began talking about every little detail that goes witht the program, from weight training to the type of snacks given out on meet days. Observing this whole recruiting day amazed me that coaching entails so much more than just coaching. The coach has to be a good salesman if he wants to land good athletes. I could tell my coach was stressed the whole day by how he kept going through his notes. Thats when I realized coaching is only a percentage of what the job is made up of. I could tell by how stressed he was that this was very important.