Recruiting materials

Recruiting from sport to sport is so radically different that it boggles the mind.

For some sports, the cycle starts extremely early -- checking out young players at club and AAU events when they are barely removed from middle school. For other sports, videos and DVDs of prospective student-athletes help to market them in an intensely competitive recruiting environment.

And then there is track/cross country.

The thought is fresh in my mind because a prospective student-athlete today sent me a very impressive DVD of himself and his excellent track performances to date. I was very appreciative to have received it.

But here's the thing: In our sport, performances are all that matters.

It kind of simplies things. If someone is fast or strong or can jump high or far, all that is needed is verification of performances -- and that's easy enough on the Internet.

All we need is a time or a mark that can be proved, and it validates whether a prospect is worthy of our attention. In a way, that's kind of refreshing.