Emma Guzdek, Featuring Rick Filighera & Steve Fabiili August 26, 2024
The landscape of college sport recruiting has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past several decades. The recruiting process was once a relationship driven process where athletes, coaches, and their peers were able to communicate on a personal level. Coaches relied heavily on their personal connections, recommendations, and scouting trips to swim through their pool of potential recruits. However, recruiting was limited by geographic constraints and the coach's network. Athletes from small towns or underrepresented areas frequently went unnoticed, regardless of their talent. The evolution of college sport recruiting reflects broader changes in society, technology, and the sports industry itself. It encompasses shifts in communication methods, data analysis, the nature of amateur athletics, and a continuously changing generation of kids.
According to Rick Filighera, Head Coach of SUNY Cortland’s Women’s Ice Hockey Team, recruiting was a long, tedious process. From 1997-2004, Filighera was the Head Coach at the University of Maine. Filighera shared a time that he drove his family home to Fredonia, NY and drove to Buffalo, NY, to St. Catherines, ON, to Bellville, ON, to Ottawa, ON, and to Quebec. He shared, “There were ten girls or so I met with on that seven day trip and I would maybe get two of them.” Now Filighera can do these visits via ZOOM, from the comfort of his home at a time that works for the recruit and their family. Filighera said, “back then I had to drive back home from wherever the recruit was. If they lived four hours from my home, I spent the day with them and then had to drive four hours home afterwards.” For Filighera, technology has made the recruiting process easier.
For Cortland Women’s Ice Hockey, Filighera believes that they have only gotten better over the last seven or eight years. Filighera said, “It’s not because I’ve changed the way I’ve coached, obviously it’s the recruiting process.” Resources like NCSA, livestream, highlight reels, and other resources help reduce the time spent on finding recruits. “You eliminate a lot of wasted time on the road to now narrow your list of recruits down just by watching some film or looking through these recruiting websites,” Filighera remarked.
Filighera is not alone in these feelings. Steve Fabiilli, Head Coach of Concordia University - Wisconsin’s Women’s Ice Hockey Team, says that technology allows coaches to scout from the office. “I never had LiveBarn when I started, most teams never recorded their games,” he shared, “you can do a lot from your office to catch games that you weren’t able to attend in person or watch someone more than once or twice.” Technology also gives players more access to information than ever before. Players have the ability to research schools and programs themselves. “They can actually start the process of identifying potential fits without even going through any time consuming effort,” said Fabiilli.
More recently, hiring an advisor has become a common theme amongst youth and junior players. Advisors are notorious for taking personability out of the process by limiting direct communication between the coach and player and by having their players use a templated script when emailing and talking to coaches, and by taking away the emotional aspect of the process for players because they’re less involved. “A lot of student-athletes are only relying on other avenues to get where they want to be through advisors and recruiting services, and not necessarily putting in the work themselves,” Fabiilli stated. From Filighera’s point of view, as long as a player does their homework, reaches out to a coach, and they’re good enough to play then they will find a team. This loss of personal touch can potentially impact the player's ability to get a true feel for a program's culture and their potential fit within it.“I feel as though kids should be in charge of their own recruiting,” says Filighera, “almost every single girl on my team reached out to me with interest.” Similarly, Fabiilli expressed that players should be advocating for themselves. “They can do a lot of things recruiting services do on their own. Education can come from asking questions to college coaches about what they should be doing in the recruiting aspect and to get their name out there,” advised Fabiilli. However, there are certainly some situations where an advisor is more appropriate to have. Filighera adds, “I haven’t been in the Division I game since 2004 and it looks like it is ultra competitive so maybe advisors are needed for that level.” Whether a player has an advisor to compete at the Division I or Division III level, it is important to not let the advisor make a decision for the players. “I want a player to come to Cortland because they want to, not because their advisor feels as though it’s their best fit,” Filighera shared.
The evolution of college sport recruiting reflects a broader shift in how athletes and coaches connect in the digital age. While technology has streamlined the process, making it more efficient and accessible, it has also introduced new challenges. The rise of advisors and recruiting platforms has expanded opportunities for athletes but potentially at the cost of personal connections that were once the cornerstone of recruiting. Filighera's experiences highlight both the benefits and drawbacks of this transformation. The ease of virtual meetings and online scouting has undoubtedly improved the reach and efficiency of recruiting efforts. However, the increasing role of advisors and standardized communication methods risks depersonalizing the process, potentially obstructing an athletes' ability to connect with programs and make informed decisions about their futures. As college sports continue to grow and evolve, finding a balance between utilizing technology and maintaining genuine human connections will be crucial. The most successful programs and athletes will likely be those who can navigate this new landscape while preserving the personal touch that has always been at the heart of team building and athletic development. Ultimately, the goal of the recruiting process has remained the same: matching talented athletes with programs where they can thrive both on and off the ice.
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