Pacific Head Football Coach Keith Buckley sits at his desk in front of his recruiting boards. Buckley hopes to bring in 50 new students this fall.
Pacific's Football Staff Running Hard To Recruit
The response by recruits to Pacific's new football team has been quite positive as the two-man coaching staff works hard to keep students interested in the process
FOREST GROVE – Outside of a couple of bookshelves and a newly added couch and table, the only sort of décor in Keith Buckley’s empty office are two large dry erase boards.
On the boards are lists of names grouped by positions: quarterbacks, offensive line, defensive line, running back/wide receivers, specialists and so on. Each name is coded for where they are at in the recruiting process. A large green “ADMIT” for those accepted to Pacific. “IP” for applications in process. A red zero means that Buckley is still tracking down an e-mail address.
The boards are the only décor in the head coach’s office and will always be the most important. The names are the future of Pacific Football.
The over 200 names on the white boards are the results of an intense recruiting effort by Buckley and assistant coach Mike McCabe, who are well on their way to filling out the roster for Pacific’s first football team in 18 years. While the challenge is certainly great, both coaches have been floored with how well the new team has been received by players and coaches alike.
“The reception to the program and the program’s return in the local areas and Hawaii has been great,” Buckley said. “There are a lot of people who are excited about Pacific getting back and a lot of people who may have ties to other schools that are just happy that there is another opportunity for kids to play football.”
The opportunity to play right away has proven attractive to prospective athletes. With a new program, there are no upperclassmen to compete against. Everyone has a chance to play immediately and has the chance to become an immediate starter.
That fact has become the top selling point for Pacific Football. “There’s no other team on the west coast that can say that other than us, because it’s the absolute truth,” Buckley said. “Now there might be a lot of people coming in at any particular position initially, but no one has a leg up in competing to start.”
While NCAA regulations prohibit Buckley from addressing specific athletes, he says that he has seen interest from top quality players. Athletes from Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii, Alaska and Wyoming are on the white board, including some names that would pique the interest of the most casual high school gridiron fan.
Despite the fact that the season doesn’t begin for another eight months, the time to get those students to commit to Pacific is now. Buckley is confident that the newness factor will keep Pacific fresh in their minds. “The opportunity to start something new is very appealing,” Buckley said. “And the school and the academics that go with it make Pacific a pretty attractive package.”
LOOKING EVERYWHERE
The recruiting effort has meant making contact with a lot of coaches and players in a lot of places. Buckley started right away after his July hiring, sending a mailing to every high school coach in seven western states, including Alaska and Hawaii. The mailing to nearly 3,000 schools has yielded contacts from over 600 prospective players.
That means as many visits to as many games at every level of high school football. Buckley and McCabe went to every Oregon high school championship game, from the large 6A title to the small 1A eight-man game in Hillsboro. Both coaches considered anyone on the field a potential recruit.
“We can’t be too specific,” McCabe said. “We can’t say that we just need a tackle. We need people and we need players.”
While both coaches say the early recruiting for the program has been successful, there is only so much they can do to keep up with the interest. Outside of visiting local high schools and Buckley’s two visits to Hawaii, a traditional recruiting ground for Pacific, much of the contact has been through phone calls and e-mails. There’s only so much two people can do.
Buckley admits that having only two people in the office has forced him to adapt how he would like to recruit. “It’s less face-to-face or lengthy phone calls,” Buckley said. “Those kids of things are less frequent than they will be when we have a full staff. Right now we’re trying to keep as many kids alive in the recruiting process as possible through e-mail.”
The effort is expected to intensify in January with the hiring of the Boxers’ full-time offensive and defensive coordinators. Within a week of their hire, Buckley expects the two to be on the road and expanding the territory in which the Boxers can make face-to-face visits as players start to narrow their focus in the college search process.
“There is not time to waste,” Buckley said. “December and January are critical months in recruiting. We will cram two months of work into one month in January. Those guys will not spend a lot of time in the office.”
Until then, Buckley is grateful for the work of McCabe, his first hire back in September. The former Forest Grove High School head coach’s contacts in the community and ability to talk up the school has allowed Buckley to focus his efforts on Hawaii and the Sacramento Valley, where Buckley has established contacts.
“Mike’s done a great job of reconnecting with coaches he knows,” Buckley said, “and as an alum of Pacific he is able to be a sounding board for me on what we have to do in the local areas.”
For McCabe, his understanding of the recruiting process from the high school coaching side of things has proved valuable. He understands how hungry high school seniors can be about playing at the next level and believes he can steer them toward a realistic look of where their football career can go.
“Realistically, any school in the area is going to have a marginal number of Division I players,” said McCabe, who saw one of his former players at Forest Grove, Mitch Meeuwsen, go on to star at Oregon State. “Jesuit might have two. A place like Banks might not have any for a number of years. The Division II and NAIA options are not that big, so the Division III options are what a lot of kids are able to muster up. The Division III option is really big locally.”
Like Buckley, McCabe has been surprised with how well the upcoming Pacific program has been received. “To me, that’s one of the big perks is that the kids are so genuinely excited to see you and excited that Pacific is instituting football,” McCabe said. “They’re very excited, very appropriate and very articulate.”
BRINGING THEM IN
While the idea of Pacific football has certainly attractive interest, the next challenge for Buckley and his staff will be to get those prospective players to act on their interest.
The recruiting landscape for a NCAA Division III program is much different than any level of collegiate athletics. Division III programs cannot offer athletic scholarships, leaving players in search of academic scholarships and financial aid to fund their collegiate experience. Additionally, Division III schools have no binding letter of intent. That means Buckley won’t know for sure who is coming out until they arrive for practice on Aug. 15.
Despite that, Buckley is not worried about meeting his goal of 50 players for the fall. “The nice part about the type of kid you recruit at this level is that, by and large, when they give you their word they stick to their word,” Buckley said. “There will always be kids who don’t show up and kids who surprisingly will show. But I am not panicking yet.”
With no letter of intent, McCabe finds himself becoming excited when sees athletes he has spoken with apply to the University. The challenge he has faced, however, is getting those seniors to even think about college after finishing up the high school football season.
“As I go around to schools, I will ask how many kids have applied places, and there’s not many,” McCabe said. “Many aren’t even thinking about college. What they’re thinking about is that the high school season has ended and they’re chilling now.”
Time is of the essence when it comes to having students commit. Pacific’s preferred admission deadline is February 15, giving students a narrow window to decide whether or not to apply.
With that in mind, McCabe says that he is pumped up whenever another one of his contacts applies to Pacific. It brings him and Buckley one step closer to making the team a reality.
“I get excited when I see that they’re applying,” McCabe said. “Being naïve and new to it, I think its cool to see the applications come in.”
Posted by Blake Timm (timmbr@pacificu.edu) on Dec 17, 2009 at 8:45 AM
