Changing the Game: Streamlining Kalamazoo College Athletic Recruiting

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to serve as a resource for Kalamazoo College athletic coaches in their recruiting of qualified student-athletes. Research, both primary and secondary, has been conducted in order to establish a deeper understanding of athletic recruiting as a whole. A detailed look into the preferences and experiences of current Hornet athletes serves to establish a foundation for what it means to be a student-athlete at Kalamazoo College and what kind of people fit that profile. Throughout the process of this research, the help of current K coaches was enlisted to gain a greater understanding for their aspirations, motivations, and strategies as well as their struggles, limitations, and needs. This paper was therefore assembled in a way that appeals to Hornet coaches across all sports by providing perspectives from every division level, sport, gender, and age group. Only the most accurate, meaningful data is presented in an easy-to-understand way that emphasizes its impact on the way coaches look at recruiting. Information regarding the latest trends in recruiting, newly developing recruiting strategies, and changing student-athlete preferences has been compiled alongside data collected from current K student-athletes. Through this material, questions such as "Is playing time or coaching more important to the typical student-athlete?" and "What makes Kalamazoo College more like Brown than Harvard?" will be answered. Every angle of the college athletic recruiting game has been analyzed in a way that could change the way Hornet coaches play the recruiting game. What it means to be a Hornet is rapidly changing, and the future is bright for Kalamazoo College Athletics.