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D-1 and Blue Chips Only? What About the Rest? Players and Schools at Every Level Benefit from Recruiting Portal
By Todd Hveem, Houston Chronicle Correspondent; Edited by Neil Stratton
It only takes one glance at their respective recruiting classes to see why FBS heavyweights like Alabama, Florida, Texas, LSU and Oklahoma are fighting for the national championship every year.
In February, websites go crazy analyzing which teams had the best recruiting class. They often are listed in different order, but when all is said and done, the same few teams seem to dominate the rankings every year. But what about the teams listed outside the top 10? How do they remain competitive without the top recruits? And what about the FCS, Division II, Division III or NAIA schools? How are they supposed to find enough athletes to compete for their respective national championships?
In today’s world, it’s called online recruiting. And when it comes to online recruiting, Doogie Company has a clear track record of success.
“What we have found in three years of doing this is that the top recruits really don’t need us,” co-owner John Owen said. “We need them more than they need us, but what we have also found is that there is a whole second tier of kids out there who could get a scholarship who get overlooked.
“They are good enough to play at the Division II or III level, but if they are not (FBS material), coaches don’t spend time on them. They would benefit the most from our system.”
The Doogie Company designs Web-based profiles, including highlight and game films, on high school football, volleyball and basketball players. Owen said there are more than 500 recruiters subscribing to the service. Of the 500, 350+ are football recruiters, including some from Florida, Alabama and LSU.
“We currently don’t have the pool of (FBS) athletes we would like to have, but we hope to change that,” Owen said. “But for the (FBS) schools, this is a different avenue. They can use our service to decide if they want to recruit a kid or not.”
A good example is a program like Southern Methodist University, which due to lofty admission requirements and a lack of recent success doesn’t always get first pick like perennially Top-10 programs do. The Mustangs, who went from 1-11 in 2008 to 8-5 with a Hawaii Bowl victory in 2009, must rely on every resource possible.
“The thing that’s hardest to find out is, when Rivals or someone has a camp for high school athletes, it’s easy to get the written information, like the heights and weights and their speed and so forth, but you can’t ever get to see who can play,” said Tam Hollingshead, who heads high school relations at SMU. “We can’t go watch those camps, but we have to see the film somehow.”
Still, the smaller schools are the ones who probably benefit the most from the service, co-owner Doug McGown said.
“A lot of schools and coaches don’t have a lot of money to recruit,” McGown said. “This way, they can see the kids without having to travel. They love that. The NAIA, Division II and Division III schools love this. The big studs don’t need any exposure. Everybody knows that. But we are here for them, too.”
Doogie Company -- which regularly works with players from one of the top volleyball clubs in Houston, Xtreme Volleyball (www.xtremevolleyball.org), has a “90-100 percent success rate” with doogiePage Player Profiles for volleyball players, McGown said.
“I don’t know if it is our system or somebody has seen them play in a tournament,” admitted McGown, “but something is working, and, if they watch them play, they can always come back and look at them again in the portal.”
Greg D’Etcheverry, who is the offensive line coach at Dekaney, said he has been putting together doogiePage Player Profiles for the past two years.
“The top 10 schools might not benefit from this service as much, but a lot of other schools would benefit from this service,” D’Etcheverry said. “The way I tell our kids is that a lot of schools don’t have the budgets to come out and recruit anymore. This makes it convenient for those coaches to look at our kids from wherever they are in the world.”
