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the walk-on contributions, our largest recruitment
comes from athletics, and significant additional
revenue comes from that,” he says.
Coaches are asked to fill at least 60 percent of their
roster with students who come within two-and-a-
half hours driving distance, he adds, which includes
a wide swath of Georgia in addition to Alabama
“We don’t have a huge recruiting budget lik
other schools, especially those in the NCAA,” E
reflects. “It’s almost exclusively coaches gettin
the car and watching athletes. We have a coup
tryouts a year. They get a call saying, ‘ You shou
look at this kid.’ The next thing I know, I’m bei
asked to sign this travel form. It’s a challenge.”
Coaches serve as the main recruiters at Hib
Community College, with the college’s digital
media playing a key role in addition to relatio
ships with high school coaches, Raich says. “A
of them are finding, between the website and
social media outreach, that’s becoming more a
more important,” he says. “If you develop a sol
program, not only from a wins-losses perspec
but a respectable program where kids are goin
succeed in the classroom, your high school co
are going to be more likely to recommend Hib
Community College to their athletes.”
Raich also mentions on-campus housing a
critical challenge to recruiting athletes from o
of the immediate area. “If you’re sending your
kid across the country or across the state, you
better with a college employee as a housing m
ager,” he says. “And they can walk half a block
be inside campus.”
At Snead State, finding enough residential
ing for students from out of the area in a rura
ting is probably the top challenge, Exley says. T
college also faces handicaps, like any rural sch
in recruiting those from metropolitan areas who
might be used to more amenities like a variety of
restaurants, he says. “And the third huge challenge
is having the quality of fitness and training equip-
ment. Those are expensive endeavors. I’ve got to
weigh those expenses. I wish our training facilities
n and of itself presents a broad array of
es, Henry says. “You wear so many hats,”
“You are the compliance director, facilities
r, game management director, marketing
fundraiser, community liaison, controller
dget and involved with booster clubs.” The
director also is many times a coach and/or
n academic department, she adds.
dly speaking, athletic directors and college
rators must be prepared to support student-
more than the general population, if only
many of them are from out of the area,
e are from urban areas or a different cli-
ich says.
challenge having enough support mech-
nd processes in place,” he says. “You can
ds assessment upfront as they come onto
It’s absolutely a requirement that you’re
support athletes to help them be success-
e classroom.”
community college sports programs feel
to succeed because they are so prominent
ommunities, Trzaska says. “If we don’t do
ng in a small town, rural America, we hear
ery quickly,” he says. “It’s not like we can
ind other things going on in town. The
y to the community presence is very real.”
n education writer based in Illinois.
Northeastern Junior College has 188 student-athletes in 10 sports.
