Recruiting coordinators becoming vital at high schools

Tim Tebow's recruitment and college announcement (above) earned national coverage back in 2005. AP

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John Outlaw peeked outside his office a few weeks ago and saw a star-studded group.

"We had Bob Stoops, Mack Brown, Charlie Weis, and I don't remember the other one," the Lufkin (Texas) High coach said. "That's four hours of my day gone."

Make no mistake, Outlaw appreciates the interest in defensive tackle Jamarkus McFarland. He also appreciates the fact that college coaches have given scholarships to 138 of his players in 13 years at the school. Unfortunately, there aren't enough hours in the day for Outlaw to entertain every visiting coach, track down an answer to every college assistant's question or answer every reporter's phone call. He does, after all, have a program (and a school athletic department) to run. Fortunately for Outlaw and the college-bound football players at Lufkin, they have recruiting coordinator Brooke Stafford.

Stafford, who also serves as Lufkin's defensive line coach, has dealt with the crush of college coaches and recruiting service reporters since 2001. He has helped high-profile recruits sift through dozens of scholarship offers. He has helped barely recruited players earn a free education and a chance to keep playing. Stafford is not alone. He is one of a growing number of high school assistants who have added -- usually at little or no additional pay -- the title of recruiting coordinator.

"An offensive coordinator and a defensive coordinator are important to a program on Friday night," said David San Juan, the recruiting coordinator/defensive line coach at Ponta Vedra (Fla.) Nease High. "A recruiting coordinator is important year-round."

San Juan added a second title after the Nease staff visited Odessa (Texas) Permian -- the program chronicled in H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights -- in 2003. Besides a few new plays and drills, the Nease coaches brought back a plan to organize their system for handling recruiting.

At the time, Nease had several young players in the program that would draw interest from schools throughout the nation. Quarterback Tim Tebow (Florida), linebacker Charlie Kirschman (Alabama), offensive lineman James Wilson (Florida), cornerback Mario Butler (Georgia Tech) and offensive lineman Clyde Yandell (Georgia Tech) were among more than two dozen Nease players in the classes of 2006 and 2007 who went on to earn scholarships. San Juan, an entrepreneur who designed a series of educational videos that he sold to schools and churches, was the perfect assistant to help market those players to colleges.

Several years on the job have convinced San Juan that every program needs to assign an assistant to handle recruiting. At coaching clinics, San Juan delivers a Power Point presentation telling coaches how to create a recruiting coordinator position. The presentation includes advice about when to send game film, how to educate players about the NCAA Clearinghouse and how to convince parents and high school booster-club members that they need to help foot the bill for Web sites and film mailings.

Recruiting coordinators have two jobs. They must manage the sometimes overwhelming recruitments of the Tebows and the McFarlands, whose abilities sell themselves. The coordinators also must help match less recruited players with schools, which requires more work but also provides immense satisfaction.

San Juan proudly recalls sending out films and calling coaches on behalf of offensive lineman Buster Garrett, who didn't develop into a Division I-A prospect until his senior season. Garrett wound up signing with Toledo in 2009. "He's a kid that could have fallen through the cracks," San Juan said. At Lufkin, Stafford makes it his mission to find scholarships or aid packages for any player he can.

"If you don't go to college or continue your education, you're going to be in trouble, or you're going to be in the woods cutting timber," said Stafford, who hopes to find scholarships for four more players before the school year ends. "There aren't a whole lot of options."

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