How Coaches Evaluate Character
August 11th, 2008 - byCharacter matters in recruiting. When I ask a coach in any sport what they look for in a recruit the words high character always come up in their top three. Taking a chance on a “risky” recruit can often come back to bite a coach in the butt.
In 2007 Texas threw former high profile recruit Robert Joseph off the team for getting caught breaking into cars at a hotel parking lot. The incident drew a ton of heat for the school, administration and football staff. To make matters even worse it came to light that Joseph had a felony record when he came to Texas, but it went undetected by the coaching staff since his juvenile record was sealed. This was simply a case of the details slipping through the cracks.
Today’s Austin American Statesman discusses with Texas Head Coach Mack Brown the steps he uses to make sure that no other details fall through the cracks.
“First, we look at the kid,” Brown said. “If they’ve got good values in their family and they tell you the truth, they call you when they’re supposed to, they show up when they’re supposed to, they e-mail back when you e-mail them and they’ve done things for the school and leadership with the community - they’re responsible. Those are no-brainers, but that makes sense.”
Then it’s on to the next phase: talking to a recruit’s parents.
“We prefer kids from two-parent families because they tend to be more stable,” Brown said. “More recently, we’ve accepted kids from one-parent families because half the kids come from those homes. Now our rule is that there has to be one strong parent as a role model.
“If we have trouble with the parents, we don’t recruit the kid.”
The Longhorns also look at grade-point averages, preferring players with a 3.0 or better, depending on the school. And they look at test scores to make sure the scores are in line with the recruit’s grades.
“If he’s got a high test score and low grades, it means he hasn’t really been working as hard and isn’t putting as much effort into school,” Brown said. “That’s a red flag.”
They look at confidence. “A confident kid is going to have success and isn’t as prone to falling into something because of peer pressure,” Brown said.
They look to see if a player has transferred schools.
Next, it’s on to coaches.
“It’s not just about the head coach,” Texas A&M recruiting coordinator Tim Cassidy said. “You’ve got to talk to the assistant coaches, coaches of their opponents. The coaches of the opponent might not know as much about character, but they’re good to talk to. The more people you talk to, the more you know the kid you’re recruiting.”
If you want to make it to the highest level of your recruiting potential it is of the upmost importance that you make the right choices to ensure that your character is judged to be of the highest quality.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I really want to go to college and play basketball.
I want to make basketball my career, I love to play
basketball so much, but my grades are really bad,
also my grade point average is also really bad.
I inform you that I’m really working on that, I’m going
to get better. So just remember me (Jessica Noonan)
I’m going to make no matter how hard I have to work.
August 16th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
As a parent, I agree that character counts - it should be a number one priority for any path in life. I also believe that high character is innate and not learned. As a single-parent I would like to comment that I have to work twice as hard as a two-parent family to acheive the same goals. I must be both mom and dad. As an observation, I have seen many kids with outstanding character come from single-parent families as well as the reverse. I have also seen outstanding character in kids whose parents sorely lacked high character whether the parents were two-parent or single-parent scenarios. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think a student/person’s character should be evaluated solely upon the student without regards to whether or not they come from a two-parent family.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I am extremly motivated and this character subject has built my confidence more. Schoolis my mai objective this year and I assure every coach by my Senoir year (currently a Junior) I will have a grade pint average equal to or greater than a 3.0.