A few years ago, I was given incredibly impactful advice from Dr. Rhadi Ferguson (former US Olympian):
“The most important part of player development is player selection.” As college coaches, we must
select the right student-athletes based off several factors and in doing so, we must apply different filters
to each prospective student-athlete as we go through the evaluation/recruitment process. Equally as
important to the player selection element, is the retention or what we call “student-athlete experience”
piece. I am going to highlight the process we use to evaluate who belongs in the University of
Charleston Baseball program, how we go about providing an elite student-athlete experience and advice
to players looking for the “right fit” in their recruiting process.
PLAYER SELECTION
Each year, our staff evaluates hundreds of prospective student-athletes. Out of the masses we are
charged with building a recruiting class capable of maintaining a championship standard of roughly 15
players depending on our needs. We have structured our model (think of it more like filters) to look like
the following:
1. Identify prospective student-athletes physically capable of improving our program.
• Having tracked our measurables (60, Arm Speed, Bat Speed, etc) each year, we are able
to identify what the average of the top 50% is at each position and we allow that to
create our baseline. This gives us the chance to then dive into a smaller population of
prospects to then move on to the next filter (#2).
2. Make sure they are going to fit into our program’s environment of “Total Person Development”
• Our program is built on so much more than the ability to hit, run and throw. If a
prospective student-athlete does not see the value in our whole experience, it won’t be
a good fit. Over the last three years, our young men have built an environment where
excellence on and off the field is the expectation and in a lot of ways, they police
themselves. I believe whole heartedly that this has been accomplished through finding
young men of high character who believe in what this experience represents for their
future. The following are some examples of initiatives we have incorporated to make
sure we are developing the whole person:
o “1000 Hour Project” and “Get to Give Program” (Community Service)
o Leadership Development Program
o Professional Development Program
o Diversity and Inclusion/EQ Training
o Individual Academic Monitoring
• In the recruiting process, “tie breakers” are more prevalent in this filter. Academics, off
the field reputation, etc. will get a player in better favor with our staff than slightly
faster bat speed will. Our time spent with the prospect on the phone and on the visit, is
crucial to determining fit.
ELITE STUDENT-ATHLETE EXPERIENCE
In every recruiting pitch, college coaches are establishing what the player can expect out of their
experience. One thing I have been adamant about is making sure “we say what we do and we do what
we say.” We often reference our attempt in trying to create the most “positive student-athlete
experience possible.” This doesn’t mean we show up to practice with ice cream and cookies, it means
we live “above the line” of what the players expect based off what was discussed in the recruiting
process.