A video on @camelathletics from April 8 features student-athletes describing why they chose Conn.
“Camels are resilient!” says Norm Riker, Head Coach of the Women’s Soccer team. Coach Riker’s reference to our mascot’s reputation for surviving extreme conditions is intended to inspire his athletes, and himself, to stay motivated while off campus. Despite students remaining in quarantine due to COVID-19, the recruitment process is still in full swing. Last year, Coach Riker said he had about 70 prospective student-athletes visit campus to talk to him. Today, the challenge is to keep the same amount of people interested while only utilizing online resources. He is used to the Spring being very busy with recruiting duties, such as traveling around watching games and meeting with players, running clinics for high school juniors, and showing recruits around campus. Coach Riker has had to adjust to the consequences of COVID as best he can.
Riker feels lucky that soccer is a Fall sport because his roster for the recruited Class of 2021 is mostly full. He has met with or seen action clips from most every prospective student athlete. Riker says that, “we [coaching staff] have been able to respond to a difficult situation in a positive way.” He feels that all the staff have been working tirelessly to make sure prospective students are still interested in the school, even if they cannot tour or meet current team members. These new circumstances are allowing Riker to use some of his older tactics like writing postcards, which he enjoys. He has started having more in-depth phone calls with recruits, along with sending handwritten postcards. Writing a personalized card to a student is a great way to show effort and it reflects the essence of Conn: connection.
Ned Bishop and Luke Maher, Head Coaches of Women’s and Men’s Cross Country and Track and Field, respectively, have also had to deal with the challenges of recruiting online. The goal for both of them is to find a way to “do the same” things that they’ve always done, but without the same resources they are lucky to have on campus. With around 75-100 visitors to campus for both the women’s and men’s team throughout the year, Bishop and Maher have been zooming with prospective student athletes to try and replicate an in-person recruiting visit. When I spoke with them, Bishop mentioned that he had the opportunity to talk “face to face” with a potential recruit from across the country, one who would not have been able to visit campus in person. Now that universities have shifted to online learning, and students everywhere are having class on Zoom, WebEx etc., it seems as though students are becoming more comfortable with speaking “face to face” and not just over the phone. This helps create the personal connection that coaches would have been able to make with in-person meetings on campus. Bishop recently held a Zoom call with a few current CC runners and all the high school seniors who applied to Conn and were waiting to make a decision, or had already decided to go to Conn. He got word from one of the undecided high school seniors shortly after the meeting saying that she had committed to Conn, proving that meeting virtually can still be an effective tool in helping students get a feel for Conn. Bishop and Maher both said they will be using Zoom next year, even with the expected conclusion of the COVID-19 epidemic, to speak with students from across the world.
With the help of Maher, Jackie Smith, the Women’s Basketball Head Coach, and several other members of the school community have formed a recruitment committee to address the unique challenges facing the athletic department. The committee created an online tour of campus that allows students to virtually see the ins and outs of Conn’s campus, gym facilities, and the ability to hear a few professors share their insights about the college. Each coach that I spoke to emphasized the importance of seeing the campus in attracting prospective students. Our campus is beautiful no matter the season, and rarely fails to impress prospective students and student-athletes. Maher has found that students have adapted very quickly to the temporarily virtual world, as almost all of them now ask about online tours. The website now has about 1,500 views and climbing, which is great news for all the coaching staff, as well as for the Conn class of 2024.
Not only is there a virtual tour, but Maher also created an Adobe Spark website that highlights each team at Conn and provides a statement from individual coaches about their respective programs. The website has pictures of current student athletes in action and in their element which helps people see some essence of Conn’s teams. Lastly, one of the most beneficial ways that Conn has been marketing the sports programs is through social media. Coaches have been able to share their thoughts, training programs, and walk viewers through their days on Instagram stories. Most students who are looking at potential colleges to attend scroll through their social media platforms and showing students that Conn’s profiles are fun and active is a great way to showcase the college. Through Conn coaches’ Instagram “takeovers,” virtual tours, and tireless efforts to reach out to students, Conn’s recruitment process has not slowed down at all during COVID-19. Resilience is the key word! •
