Essay On Athletic Recruitment

Now, with the abundance of online communication methods all participants expressed the need to be able to communicate with recruits via social media outlets. Generation Y, the current generation of potential recruits, is often cited as wanting to be in constant contact with others and being the most prominent generation of technology users. This trend has lead coaches and recruiting staff to learn about different types of social media and how to use these sites in a proficient and professional manner.

I guess with social media becoming more popular you know coaches have had to learn how to use it to keep up with how students want to be contacted nowadays. Facebook was a cool thing that people were putting together but people still weren’t …show more content…
It seemed like prospects liked text messaging more. For example, if I audit a coaches phone record tomorrow it seems like prospects are text messaging more then they are picking up the phone calls. Seeing again you’re seeing more text messages and social media messaging then phone conversations nowadays.

Even though communication via social media seems to be becoming the more favored form of contact between coaches and prospects, some participants argued that face-to-face communication is still the most convincing medium. The coaches suggest that athletic recruitment functions much like any other industry you would find in the United States. Whether you’re walking across campus to discuss housing options for student-athletes or meeting a recruit for the first time, the participants stated that meeting with someone face-to-face is going to be a much more effective way to communicate.

So ultimately I think always the big sale for recruits is coming on campus and having the face-to-face interaction with the coach or having a coach go to a prospects home to do a home visit – to talk about the program and sell the program face to face. It will always be the biggest sale rather than just online