Friday, August 1, 2008

July Recruiting


Hello Falcon Fans!

I hope everyone is still enjoying their summer. Our entire staff just got off the road from recruiting for most of the month. This week, Coach Roos, our associate head coach, writes about life on the road in July! We are all very glad to be home and celebrated last night with a staff dinner at PF Chang's!!


Enjoy!

Coach Poole


Hello Falcon Faithful,
July recruiting is finally over! I will have to say some of my favorite days of the year (excluding holidays of course) are the first day of fall, the first day of practice, the whole month of March with "March Madness" and August 1, when the July Evaluation period is over. Don't get me wrong, I love watching games and evaluating players, but travelling so much in a condensed period just wears me out. I put close to 5,000 miles on my car this July.
Yet the July recruting period has taken me to several cities, that I typically may not have seen. I have been to some big cities like Portland, Orlando, and Dallas and smaller cities like Monroe, LA, Shreveport LA, Colorado Springs, CO and Murfeesboro, TN. It is hard for me to believe, but this was my 16th summer recruiting in July: 8 summers recruiting for Davidson College and 8 summers recruiting for BGSU.
After that many summers, I have seen a lot of things that always make you laugh. Here are a few memorable stories for you. (Due to NCAA rules, I can not talk about recruits so stories will have to do for now) Once I was in Atlanta walking out of the gym with some coaches, and as we were all saying goodbye, this one particular coach from a highly academic school in the ACC got into her car. As soon as she got in, I noticed she was having trouble starting her car. Another coach came up to her and offered her assistance, but they were both perplexed. Then another assistant coach came up and she was able to solve the problem. She said, "I know what the problem is…you are trying to start my car, your car is over there." Everyone started laughing and realized at the same time, that could have been anyone of us!
In addition to possibly losing your car, bodily harm is another hazard coaches face in the gym. It never fails that some coach will sustain a freak injury while recruiting. Last summer, an assistant coach in our conference was watching a game in the front row and a player dove for a loose ball headed out of bounds. This right dove right into the coach, and her ACL brace went right into his shin. He had a 4 inch long gash that required stitches, and later that week he needed a shot to fight an infection from his laceration. I saw him in the first week of July and gave him some advice…"sit in the second row this summer." Another coach was hit in the forehead by a heavy, faulty (highly debatable) metal door and received a bloodied, golf ball size bump, but that coach toughed it out and still made the game! That is a sign of a hard headed coach, I mean, hard nosed coach! (I can be bribed to reveal the name of that particular coach, here is one clue…he lives in the west side of BG)
Last but not least, another coach from our conference walked into a gym with a 32 ounce Mountain Dew and a brand new, white recruiting shirt. To make a long story short, the shirt was a supercute lime green after the first possesion of the game when the ball hit the cup and the Mountain Dew hit the shirt! Needless to say, July is always an adventure.
Seriously, the real reasons I look forward to August 1st is that I know everyone from our staff has made it back safely to BG and I get to see the team again!
We have had a lot of positive feedback about the blog site and make sure to send that feedback to Brandi since she is the one who has put the most time and effort into this site! Please don't send it to me because I won't be here to receive it since I am going on VACATION!!! :) I am visiting my family in Kentucky then headed to South Carolina. It should be a lot of fun!
That is it for now from me and as always, Roll Along!
Jennifer Roos

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