Assistant Coaches: Gatekeepers of College Recruiting

College assistant coaches offer prospects opportunities extending beyond logo shirts and clipboards.

Prospects, parents and even high high school and club coaches are generally unaware that recruiting begins in earnest at the assistant coach level. Assistant coaches are the gatekeepers.

National Scouting Report scouts know that assistant coaches are the ones who first evaluate prospects and approve or reject them. Approval means prospects are passed along to head coaches. Rejection means head coaches never see them.

A prospect may have the tools and grades to impress an assistant coach, but because the prospect, family or high school/travel coach demonstrated a clear bias against the school, the assistant may unceremoniously drop them.

In addition, assistant coaches move around a lot.  Every two or three years is not unusual.

So, when assistants leave one program for another, regardless of the reason, they take with them the memory, if not the actual records, of the prospects they encountered.  Those who made positive impressions could find new and unexpected doors open to them.

Conversely, when prospects and parents ignore or perhaps even disrespect assistants from programs they have no interest in pursuing, assistants also remember them.

The lesson to learn is that no assistant coach should be viewed as inconsequential.  Today, they may work for a school that a prospect won’t consider, but tomorrow they could be the gatekeeper for one of the prospect’s top choices.

Prospects should honor every college coach, regardless of rank, because the time could arrive when that coach is in a position to recommend them for scholarships.  In short, what goes around could come around.