Recruiting ‘different’ this season for college coaches

Due to COVID-19 mitigations limiting attendance at high school basketball games this season the recruiting process has changed for college coaches.

“It’s been a little different,” Illinois Valley Community College women’s basketball coach Josh Nauman said. “But at least they’re playing. That’s been a good thing. I was worried if nobody plays and we don’t have a season, it was going to make recruiting real tough.”

Many area high schools are allowing only two fans per home player, a few also are allowing one fan for visiting players and some are not allowing any fans.

“It’s just a lot different having to call the athletic director to get permission to go,” said Nauman, who has signed Putnam County’s Sophia Harris so far during this recruiting cycle. “Every school has different policies and procedures. Some schools are letting people in and others aren’t. I have a couple players I’m trying to recruit and they’re not letting anyone into their home games, so I have to try to catch them on the road.”

While Nauman and IVCC men’s basketball coach Chris Herman aren’t able to get to as many games in person, one benefit of limited attendance at high school games is that most schools are live streaming games.

“It’s been good and bad,” said Herman, who has signed St. Bede’s Gunnar Jauch during this cycle. “With our season being canceled, we’ve been able to focus on recruiting a little more. It’s difficult to get out and see people. I kind of like the fact I can get online and watch games.”

Nauman said he’s been taking advantage of the streamed games not only to watch the players he’s currently recruiting but also to see a variety of teams to identify players not on the Lady Eagles’ radar, as well as younger players who could become recruits in the coming years.

“It has been very nice with everybody broadcasting,” Nauman said. “It makes it easy to watch players and see a lot of games. I’ve been doing a lot of that.”

While streaming games has given Nauman and Herman opportunities to watch, it hasn’t come without issues.

“Sometimes it’s kind of hard to tell how good a kid is looking on a small phone or tablet,” Herman said. “I was watching a kid [recently] and the stream kept going out or freezing. That made it kind of difficult.”

Watching online also removes the face-to-face contact that typically plays a key role in recruiting.

“I think it’s huge,” Nauman said about the ability to recruit in person. “I think it makes a big difference. A lot of people I’m recruiting now for next season I saw play last year and know we’re interested in them. I’ve been texting back and forth. I lot of them I planned to go out and see this summer and talk to them, but with no summer games and the [high school] season getting pushed back, I’m finally now able to go out and watch them play in person and talk to them a little instead of just texting.”

Herman said he’s had some high school coaches bring him to practice to see players, while he’s also been in contact with high school and AAU coaches.

“I worry about kids out of Chicago and places like that,” said Herman, who noted another recruiting wrinkle this year is current college players not losing a year of eligibility, thus limiting open spots on college teams. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with a lot of those kids. There will be a lot of movement in the next month. Kids will be looking for schools and there will be some desperation creeping in.

“It’s definitely an interesting time.”