Social media has expanded our ability to get information on anyone at any time. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. Rest assured that college coaches are learning about potential recruits by checking their facebook pages.
This can be a good thing or a bad thing for recruits. I recently sent a young lady’s info and video to quite a few college coaches. She is very talented and an excellent student. She has a great deal of potential which is what I presented to the coaches.
Within 5 minutes of sending her info I received an email from a coach at a very strong Division I program telling me that he really liked her academics and current times and would normally be very interested in recruiting her and probably offering her a solid swimming scholarship, but after looking at her Facebook page he is no longer interested.
I called this young lady right away and she had no idea that coaches were looking at facebook. The stuff she put on her page was mostly just having fun and joking around with her friends, but the coaches don’t know this.
She has since cleaned up her Facebook page and gone private, but the damage was already done.
Coaches and schools are investing a lot of money in a recruit’s education. You can bet that they are going to get to know everything they can about the person they want to recruit.
So, if you don’t want a potential coach to see it, don’t put it on Facebook.
Stuartc
They do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with recruiting. No calls, no emails, no taking them around, nothing. Why would Ed or Kris want feedback or have a manager/volunteer assistant that is not even going to be around the following year for the recruit handle anything with the recruiting process? Those are not the people/reason the kid is interested in Texas, it is Ed and Kris.
Does that mean they do nothing in regards to the program in general, no. I described their duties above. And to your point, they don’t do a lot, but more so they are not being compensated a lot. In the example of the VAC, he gets paid nothing for his time. His compensation is… Read more »
Wow
The way you describe it, these volunteer coaches and assistants don’t do a heck of a lot!! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING you say!
I doubt that considering they are the number one team in the country! So when a recruit comes on an official visit, the only interaction and help they get is from the head coach and assistant? – nobody talks to them, nobody gives Ed and Kris feedback! Doubtful! You don’t win national championships with people doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
Stuartc
You are BEYOND wrong. So, I will take the time to show you where you were wrong and how it really is structured.
For the mens team you have Ed and Kris, PERIOD. Scogs is the diving coach for both programs, he has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with swim recruits contrary to what you said, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
They periodically have a Pt volunteer assistant coach. He normally is FT for Longhorn and then works with the mens program for the experience. He does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with recruiting. Really the most involved he is with the program is standing on deck explaining the set after Ed gives it and yelling off times. NO INVOLVEMENT WITH RECRUITING.
They… Read more »
Suartc
You obviously disqualify yourself by the means of stating Texas Men have 4-5 assistants. Words cannot describe how inaccurate your post was on so many levels. You also have no comprehension of NCAA rules, as there is a limit to coaches on a team and you blew right past it. So, really, the rest of your post can be regarded as rubbish for not knowing even the basics of NCAA program structure..
If it is SOOOOO difficult as you imply then how does Ed pluck these guys out of no where? I will tell you, he is connected and he is dam efficient. The whole point of your post is basically stating that coaches are not efficient enough… Read more »
Wow
I think that the time has come for you to logoff!! You really should do your homework!!
http://www.texassports.com/roster.aspx?path=mswim
1 Head Coach, 1 Full time assistant coach, 1 full time Diving Coach that also helps with swim recruits, 1 volunteer swim coach, 1 volunteer diving coach and 1 team manager!
Total of 5 (not counting team manager). Add the 5 on the women’s side and you have 10 coaches!! Most division 1 teams have 2 coaches TOTAL (for men and women).
Finally you should read the article again – the coach NEVER called the recruit – Rick did!
Facts Wow Facts Wow!!! 🙂 🙂 Bye WOW!
Swimfan, we did advise her, but she didn’t listen. Now she has. We also advise the kids to make sure their voice message on their phones is proper.
So if you were advising her how come you had not advised her before the feedback to review her social media page?
We are a client of Rick’s and that is one of the first things we were told by Rick and staff was to be careful what is put on social media. They told us not to post anything a Grandparent wouldn’t want to read.
Our swimmer didn’t really need to hear this from them because we have drilled this into his head many times but ACC does inform their clients about the importance of being responsible on social media.
It is ultimately the parents responsibility to educate their child and the swimmer’s responsibility to make good judgements. No blame can be placed on anyone other than the parents and swimmer themselves.
I have been receiving emails from college coaches since the article came out. Here are some comments from one of the top D-I coaches in the country.
“Thank you! By the way, I’ve enjoyed your swimswam posts. Some of the best things that go on that site are from you. The social media one was great. I have passed on a great deal of prospects after doing my research and getting mixed results when I call them and start asking more people about them.”
Hello to all,
The fact is, we ALL have to answer for our SM content. People get hired/fired over posts and such. There is NO doubt that coaches/employers/etc… use it for information. It honestly doesn’t matter whether you personally think it’s right or wrong. Of course we are all welcome to an opinion on this, it just doesn’t matter. It will continue to be utilized by various people for different applications. So… the onus is back on the person with the account. As it should be. Grow up and take responsibility for you actions/decisions and deal with it.
-Rocky