All the kids are doing it. Now their coaches are, too.
In an effort to gain an edge recruiting prep stars, college coaches have quickly learned that if they want to capture the attention of today’s technologically savvy teenagers, it doesn’t hurt to speak their language.
That language is spoken via text messages. Sent between cellphones, the quick notes are short enough to fit on a bumper sticker and disjointed enough to make your English teacher cringe.
“A lot of coaches are using it,” said Boulder’s John Kyed, who avoided a lot of the hoopla by committing early to Stanford. “And the best part is those older guys, the ones that don’t keep up with the modern technology, having to learn how to do it. It’s a youthful technology, and it won’t be long before it’s just part of the mainstream.”
Big-time coaches and their staffs across the country are hammering out text messages to recruits, checking up on their day, wishing them good luck before a game or asking them for a call back.
It’s a doorway the NCAA opened in 2004, when it ruled text messages be classified as general correspondence, making them akin to letters. Coaches are allowed to send as much general correspondence as they want during approved recruiting times while still being limited on personal visits and phone calls.
With cellphones in the pocket and purse of nearly all teenagers these days, zipping out a quick note is instant access with a more personal touch than a typed letter that spent three days in the mail.
Most local recruits received at least one text message, and most agreed it was an effective way to keep in contact. However, most said it quickly lost its charm.
“In the heat of recruiting, I had about two or three messages a day,” said Mullen senior lineman Chris Guarnero, like Kyed a 2005 All-Colorado selection by The Denver Post. Guarnero picked California over Miami, Louisiana State, Oregon and Colorado. “At first it was cool, but after awhile it was just, ‘There’s my phone going off again.”‘
Gateway’s Greg Bolling committed to Wyoming despite receiving numerous text messages early in the recruiting process from former CU coach Gary Barnett.
“I thought it was pretty cool at first. But then I started getting more than three or four a day, and it became a little annoying toward the end,” Bolling said. “They will text you and say anything to get you to come to their school.”
And some schools will use anybody to say it. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush reportedly sent a text message to coveted New Jersey cornerback Myron Rolle to express his support of Rolle’s interest in Florida State.
Stories like that and of recruits receiving dozens of text messages a day have some predicting the NCAA will reconsider its position.
Tom Ehlers, director of football operations at CSU, thinks the NCAA will simply do the math.
“If a top recruit gets 50 text messages a day, that’s $5 a day (depending on the kid’s cellphone plan),” Ehlers said. “I can easily see the rule being changed to one text message a week.”
That would be fine by Evan Eastburn, a Fairview lineman who is headed to Maryland.
“I’d rather talk to somebody,” he said.
Said Kyed: “I would much rather do the person-to-person thing, there is much more value in that. But the coaches can only do so much, especially during their dead weeks, when they can only make one call. Texting is that one link they have to recruits, other than letter writing. … I’m sure the NCAA will catch onto that pretty soon.”
Cherry Creek kicker Aric Goodman has his own form of communication. When callers reach his cellphone, they are serenaded with a long country song before being asked to leave a message.
“I’m going to Wyoming. I got to get ready,” the future Cowboy said with a laugh.
Goodman said coach Joe Glenn’s staff still text-messages him, pointing out recent newspaper articles or other sports-related small talk.
It’s a simple thing, he said, and it helps an athlete get to know his new football family.
“It continues a relationship on the basis that it keeps you interested and reminds you that they’re there,” said Goodman, who received four to six text messages a day from Louisiana State before committing to Wyoming. “It helps you to know that they’re still thinking about you.”
Brady Delander and staff writers Neil H. Devlin, Natalie Meisler and Jon E. Yunt contributed to this report.
