#Relationships May 15

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I have been asked to describe college recruiting and my best answer is “RELATIONSHIPS”. 

When I look back on the recruiting efforts I was involved with over that time period I can reflect on what worked for me and what was not important. My first year taught me to know what the player I was recruiting wanted. I learned you really had to care about their goals, dreams, and aspirations. How could you help them get what they wanted? I have to confess when I first started I wanted them to know about what I wanted.

If you can do RELATIONSHIPS you can recruit, sell, or influence. The catch is you have to work very hard at one of my favorite acronyms RDOP –RECRUIT DAILY OR PERISH.

My opinion on how to successfully do RELATIONSHIPS can be summed up with a phrase. That phrase is “People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care”.  You have to reach people hearts before you can ask them for a helping hand or to join your team.

My first year of college coaching a player I was recruiting for East Carolina Basketball was John Virgil. I wrote a post about that back in 2014. John Virgil taught me a valuable “Life Lesson” that I want to profile as part of the 30 Day Life Lesson Challenge

Hard work by itself was a belief I had would lead to success. I went to watch John Virgil practice every Saturday morning in Elm City NC. In addition I watched every one of his games during his senior year. East Carolina and Davidson up until almost the end of the season appeared to be the two universities most likely to secure a commitment from John.

Davidson was at nearly every game and some of the practices but they hadn’t put in the work I had. Davidson’s Assistant Coach was older than me and knew something I didn’t know as a rookie coach. Davidson knew that young man we both were recruiting dreamed of playing at UNC Chapel Hill and was convinced being at UNC was a ticket to the NBA. 

The last regular season game of the season UNC Head Coach Dean Smith came to watch John Virgil play and the rest was history he enrolled at UNC and had a brief career in the NBA.

I learned two life lessons thru that first year recruiting experience. The first is that hard work is important but it doesn’t always guarantee success. Second relationships are powerful in getting someone to reach a decision. When you start a relationship the first thing is to learn what the other person really wants. When that takes place you will never be surprised and it lets you devote your energies to helping them get what they want. Dean Smith knew that John Virgil wanted to be a Tar Heel and play in the NBA. He helped him get both.

John Virgil got drafted in 1980 by the Golden State Warriors and he taught me about the importance of RELATIONSHIPS.