In order to make sure that Keene State College athletic teams continue to grow and compete, recruiting is a key factor which provides new skills and personalities for a team. New athletes bring more to KSC teams and to the college itself.
Photo Illustration by Sebastien Mehegan
Kyle Shadeck, a sophomore and member of the KSC men’s swim and dive team, said it is important to ensure that athletic teams have secure athletes who are skilled in the sport, as well as to fill open positions with young talent that will be around for several years.
Shadeck added that recruiting is important for KSC so that all of our programs keep up with the strong tradition of athletic success. “It’s important for the college to bring in new athletes so that the programs can continue at the same or better rate of success,” Shadeck said.
KSC athletes and teams like to help in the recruiting process, Shadeck said. He added that the swim and dive team reaches out to potential recruits over social media to help answer any questions or talk about student life. They help in any way possible from a relevant and relatable perspective. They also host recruits for overnight visits and bring them to classes, practices and social gatherings to really allow recruits to see what it’s like to be a student-athlete at KSC.
Some recruiting can be especially successful. Shadeck said there are positives and negatives to having more people on a team.
Shadeck said having more athletes on a team can be positive because then the team has more depth, which makes the team stronger, in addition to having more people to talk to and become friends with.
On the other hand, one negative thing that can come from having more athletes is it becomes competitive among the teammates to fill up certain positions, so unfortunately some athletes will end up having less play-time than others, Shadeck said.
Associate Head Coach and Pitching Coach for KSC men’s baseball team Martin Testo helps with the recruiting process.
“Finding individuals who are good athletes and have good athletic qualities that can potentially bring something great to the team is something to always looks for,” Testo said. He added, “We reach out to a lot of people during the year and look at a lot of athletes that we hope to make an addition to the team.”
Recruiting takes a lot of time, effort and focus. Each coach and recruiter has to have background information on an athlete’s statistics and performance level within games, which can require a lot of traveling.
“It’s a lot of work, but very much worth it because, at the end of the day, we’re bringing in players that want to compete and represent that jersey,” Testo said.
Hien Thach, a sophomore on the KSC women’s basketball team, said recruiting is a very important aspect of bringing in new players. “We didn’t have those numbers last season which ended up really hurting our team. But, so far, coach is doing really well with the recruiting process. We’ve had a couple of recruits up [to visit],” Thach said.
Thach hopes to see more first-years this coming season in order to set a foundation and build-up the base of the basketball team.
Recruiting is especially important for the women’s basketball team because they lost so many players to injuries or inadequate grades, Thach said.
“Having fresh players to teach and work with is always great. Recruiting is really helpful in that way, so we hope to see more girls visit and show interest in our program,” Thach said.
The current semester is flying by, but each KSC athletic team trusts in the recruiting process to bring in fresh athletes who will continue the KSC legacy.
Caroline Perry can be contacted at cperry@kscequinox.com