(College Dodgeball has seen some solid growth the past few years. Here are some dodgeballrecruiting tips and tricks collegiate handball might want to borrow from)
With the start of the Fall Semester approaching collegiate handball clubs are gearing up for what is arguably the most important time of the year for their club: Fall recruiting
Why is it the “most important” time of the year? Well, that’s because for many clubs successful recruiting at the start of the school year might well be the difference between their club’s survival or joining the Collegiate Handball Graveyard.
Kind of a grim way to look at it… but, it may well be true because there is no better time to recruit athletes to join your club. Thousands of Freshman are arriving on campus and hundreds of them are athletes looking for a club to join. Some of them are handball players and life long fans of the sport… They just don’t know it yet.
Anecdotally, a good portion of the collegiate clubs that have disappeared did so because the athletes that started the program failed to keep the momentum going with new recruits coming in behind them. And, when they graduated the program had its cupboard depleted and just couldn’t keep going.
Always Be Closing (ABC)
Team Handball has so much going for it. (It’s fun to play. It’s an opportunity to meet people from all over the world. It’s even an Olympic sport with real future national team prospects for the most elite players.) But, it’s also important to remember that it’s a niche sport that’s not universally known. Collegiate handball clubs can’t just sit back and wait for prospective athletes to find them. And, they can’t even afford to go through the motions with a couple of folks sitting at a club fair table hoping someone will be curious and talk to them.
No. No. No! It’s actually necessary to be enthousiastic selling and actively talking to people. Fear of a Freshman rejecting your pitch? Please… that should be of no consideration whatsoever. It’s a numbers game and the more people you talk to the better. And, the end goal should be to close the sell. To get that new recruit to show up to a practice where the odds are fairly decent that new recruit will become a life long handball fan.
Recruiting 101 Tip and Tricks, Courtesy of Dodgeball
But, while enthousiasm is important and can go a long way towards closing the deal it’s also important to recruit smartly. Ohio St Head Coach, JD Orr, recently shared a Dodgeball podcast that included a Recruiting 101 segment.
Side note: Yes, we can add dodgeball to the list of sports that have been blowing right by handball in terms of collegiate development. At least it’s not a sport derived from Harry Potter.
There are a lot of good tips and tricks that are discussed and here’s the link to the podcast queued up to the recruiting segment.
And, here is a compiled list of the tips and tricks from the podcast:
- College Club Fair Tips
- Interactive Engagement: Dodgeball offered cash bounties for new recruits who could catch low balls from their fastest throwers.
- Have a team banner hanging from the bottom of your table
- Tri-Fold Display with info on team
- Wear team jerseys
- It doesn’t hurt to have your top players attend (Athletes… can best sell to athletes)
- Have giveaways (wristbands, stickers) with your team name on it
- Have a small handout (doesn’t need to be a full page) to give to people
- Club name, QR Code for Groupme, Time/Location of first practice
- Use a laptop to gather contact information (name, email, phone #) instead of paper as it avoids deciphering anyone’s handwriting
- Ask new recruits to follow the club IG page
- Instagram (IG) Tips
- “IG Method”: How to use IG to cast a wide net that’s still pretty targeted towards more likely recruits
- Note: Use your club’s IG page (not your personal IG page)
- Find the incoming Freshman IG page for your college (for this year it’s Class of 2030 pages) High School pages for recent graduates (i.e. Class of 2026) are another option, but you will have to search for posts related to what college they are attending
- Review incoming student posts for potential recruits. Sometimes posts will mention sports played in High School.
- Follow potential recruits on IG. If they follow back start a DM conversation with them
- If they don’t follow back wait a few days and comment on one of their posts; perhaps a post that is sports related or a recent post
- Unfollow, then follow back trick. Apparently, this takes advantage of the “new follower” alerts that can trigger more awareness. So, if your initial follow was sometime ago unfollowing first and then following will get more attention
- “IG Method”: How to use IG to cast a wide net that’s still pretty targeted towards more likely recruits
- Club Communication
- Both email and phone are important. At the start of the school year everyone’s busy and they might not see an email or text. Contacting via multiple methods helps get the word out.
- Some clubs are moving from Groupme to Discord
- E-Board is another communication tool
- If there is a large number of initial recruits consider splitting them into smaller groups and assigning a group to different team members
- Prior and after the first few practices there should be multiple communication check ins
- Initial Engagement and Practice Tips
- Fully engage newcomers at the first couple of practices; As the season progresses shift the focus towards veterans and the broader team
- Make friends/learn names
- Plan social engagement/team bonding outside of practice early on. Make it clear that a college club is different from a high school sports team
- 1st Competition
- Schedule a simple competition early in the season
- Ideally nearby without a full weekend commitment
- 1st Travel Tournament
- Overnight road trips are bonding experiences; athletes that attend often become more committed to the club
- Throughout the Year Recruiting
- Team members should always be approaching potential athletes
- Turn new Freshman members into instant recruiters as they know other Freshman who might be likely to join
- Team members should approach incoming Freshman they knew from their high school
- Sell aspects of handball that are different from other club sports
- Not as expensive as some club sports like hockey and baseball
- Club handball is serious, but less of a time commitment than other sports
- Handball is an Olympic sport and there is more potential for eventual national team consideration
- Playing handball is likely to more interaction with athletes from all over the world