Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #48: Gill1918 presents Clayton O'Callaghan "House Settlement"

Transcript

#48: Gill1918 presents Clayton O'Callaghan "House Settlement" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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coaches, for coaches powered by Gill Athletics.
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Now let's get into today's topic.
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Hello everyone, my name is Clayton O'Callaghan.
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I'm a track and field and cross country coach at the University
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of New Orleans. That's a small mid major D1
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institution that's part of the Southland Conference.
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Wanted to do a topic that I don't think is necessarily
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covered enough and that is the recruiting process for people.
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So this podcast is going to be kind of focused on primarily for
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high school coaches. If you have any parents or any
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high school athletes that are interested in understanding a
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little bit more of how the recruiting process works in
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general. And then to also talk about how
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the recruiting process has been affected due to the recent house
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settlements. So try to do a broad overview
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and hopefully you can answer some questions for you along the
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way. So first, I want to establish
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the recruiting timeline for track and field and cross
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country prospective student athletes.
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We as college coaches, particularly at the Vision One
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level, we are not allowed to begin communicating with
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athletes until after June 1st of them going into their junior
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year. So right now, class of 2027,
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we're able to start communicating with them.
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Obviously Class 2026, we're able to communicate with that being
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said, so if you're a coach or a parent of an athlete that's
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really interested, you know, and they're incoming freshmen or
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sophomores and they're reaching out or, or you're reaching out
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to us, I love that. But also understand that you may
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not get an answer. And most likely the answer that
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you're going to receive is, hey, we have to wait until June 1st
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going into your junior year to begin conversations.
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So if you send out emails and you're not necessarily getting a
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response, it's not that a coach is ignoring you, it's more that
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they are trying to follow the guidelines.
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Now, if you're a high school coach and you have an athlete or
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a group of athletes that have expressed interest in competing
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collegiately or that you see, hey, there's, they definitely
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have a chance to, to do this. What I would recommend starting
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to do with them is sit them down and walk them through creating
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the NCAA eligibility account. And to do that, it's very
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simple. Get on the Internet, go to NCAA
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eligibility Center search and you can register and create your
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account. What that account does, you'll
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essentially go in, fill out a questionnaire.
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The student will get their transcripts submitted by their
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school's counseling office. Any of their test scores,
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ACTSAT, anything like that will also get submitted there.
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Once they create this account, they will receive an ID number.
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Tell them, make sure that they keep that someplace handy as
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they're going through the recruiting process.
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Universities will ask for that ID number and it really just
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helps everything run a lot smoother.
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It's kind of becomes a one stop shop where a program's able to
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go through the recruits profile, make sure everything is good on
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the academic side and able to go forward from there.
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The best thing about this account is it is free to create.
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So even if you have some student athletes that aren't sure if
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they want to compete or are still on the fence, have them
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create the account. It it's free it, it's better to
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have it then be scrambling at the last minute to go ahead and
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create. And then as they're going
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through the recruiting process and they're ready to start doing
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official visit scholarship offers, all of that fun stuff,
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then they can go ahead and pay the $100 activation fee.
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But like I said, it's free to create to set up that account.
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And I would highly recommend for any students that you see that
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potentially would want to continue competing past their
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high school days, like help them with creating that account.
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If you as a coach are going to help any of your athletes going
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through the recruiting process, I would make sure to emphasize
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to them that just because your recruiting window opens June 1st
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going into junior year, that does not mean that programs are
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immediately going to be calling you.
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Especially now with the house settlement and as things are
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getting adjusted, I think recruiting is going to run a
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little bit slower in terms of just getting the process started
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as everyone is trying to figure out exactly what is the move
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going forward. And even on top of that, a lot
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of programs use a cross country and beginning of track season of
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a prospect junior year to kind of do their own self evaluation
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of the prospect. And then they'll begin reaching
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out towards the end of outdoor or during the summer time going
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into that prospects senior year. So again, I would just reiterate
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that too. If you have any athletes that
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are worried that they're not getting anyone to reach out to
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them, hey, it's fine, you're good.
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Just keep doing your thing. This is just kind of how the
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process is is going to work for the time being.
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As I've mentioned before, the house settlement that was just
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passed is definitely changing the landscape of college
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athletics and obviously track and field in in those ways.
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So just a a brief overview of what the house settlement is.
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Universities are now able to share revenue with athletes up
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to about 20% of the department's revenue or I think the hard cap
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for this year's is 20 million. Majority of those funds are
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going to be going to football and men's and women's
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basketball. Unfortunately, not a lot of
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revenue sharing seems to be going towards the track side of
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things. Also included in the house
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settlement was increased roster sizes and scholarships allotted
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per per team. Track and field can now have a
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roster limit of 45 athletes per gender.
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In cross country, can now have 17 athletes per gender on their
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roster. Obviously if you are a cross
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country athlete that also is going to participate in track,
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then you will count on on both rosters.
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But so now there's a hard limit on there.
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Now that is the NCAA rule. Conferences have since then put
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in further rules to kind of level the playing field within
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the conference. Most notably, the SEC has
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imposed a 35 man roster limit to all men's track and field
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programs and a ten man roster limit to all of their cross
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country programs as well. And with the house settlement,
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you can have up to the same number of scholarships as your
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roster limit. So if your roster limit is 45 on
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the women's side, theoretically you could have 45 scholarships
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on your women's roster. But like I said, there's a
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conferences are doing are kind of setting their own parameters
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to keep things. Some conferences are keeping
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that the scholarship limits have to be the same as they were
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before the house settlement was agreed on, which the previous
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numbers were 12.6 scholarships for the men and 18 scholarships
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for the women. So why am I saying all this?
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There's a lot of moving pieces and programs are still trying to
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figure out what their roster size and how that scholarship
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breakdown is going to look. I've had friends and colleagues
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that have talked to throughout the summer and constantly
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changing, you know, one thing, one day they're told one thing,
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next day, you know, they had to make an adjustment and things
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like that. Which is why, again, I said, if
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you particularly have any juniors and they're not getting
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a ton of communication or anything right now, tell them
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not not to worry. Again, there's a lot of moving
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pieces and programs are are trying to get everything
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finalized as they go forward in this new landscape for the NCAA.
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As a coach, I would say, you know, now probably more than
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ever, make sure that your athletes understand that there
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are multiple routes that they can go if competing collegiately
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is their dream. Obviously majority of athletes
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want to compete at a large school and, and things like
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that. But the reality is with these
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roster limits, you know, those are spots that there's not as
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many spots available now. So, but there are some really
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good programs and competitions, competition levels at the D1 mid
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major level, D2D3, NAI, etcetera.
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So I would definitely make sure to reiterate that to any of my
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athletes that are looking to compete collegiately.
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You know, hey, let's also keep an eye on this one thing that
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whenever I bring recruits in personally, I provide them with
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kind of a breakdown of what it took within our conference the
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last couple years to score in in different events.
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And a lot of times athletes are are really surprised at the
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marks that are being put down at a mid major conference.
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So make sure they just kind of help them realize that, hey,
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it's not it doesn't have to just be a big school.
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There are some really good levels of competition and you
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can go have success here, you know, at at various levels.
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It doesn't have to just be at at the Power 4 level.
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Again, that's another thing that I talk about with recruits
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whenever they come on visits, you know, at a smaller program,
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you know you're going to, I'm going to make be able to get you
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a lot more opportunities then maybe some of the larger
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programs to compete and develop and and get better.
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And you never know what that can lead to down the road for you.
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So I again, I would just re make sure to reiterate to them
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throughout the whole process that there are multiple avenues
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that they could go if if competing in college athletics
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is really something that they're interested in and want to do.
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So a quick recap. Like I said, the world is, is
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constantly changing, especially now in college athletics as
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everyone is getting adapted to these new rules and, and this
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life post house settlement. Biggest thing.
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I, I would again make sure that reiterating patients, you know,
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as, as programs are, are trying to figure things out and really
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kind of get stuff going. I would expect that by October,
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you know, everyone kind of will will know what's what's their
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plan going for, what's the direction that their program
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needs to go in terms of moving forward.
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So have a little bit of patience.
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Setting up the the eligibility center, I think is going to be
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is always crucial. But you know, if you have an
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athlete and you're able to help them get that process set up
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that once recruiting really starts picking up that kind of
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can put them ahead of the game, that can really help them out.
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And it looks, I mean, as a college coach myself, I think
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having an athlete that has all that stuff that that's a big
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check box check mark for me just shows that they're on top of
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their stuff. They understand the process and
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what's going on from there. But yeah, I just reiterate to
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them, be patient, ask questions about what's the the plan for
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the program in, in terms of roster size and and things like
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that going forward. Because at the end of the day, I
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think we all want our athletes to go to the best place for them
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to have success, not just on the on the track, but also
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academically making sure that they are set up to have success.
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I hope this answers any questions that that you guys may
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have. If you have other questions,
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please feel free to reach out. You can find me on Instagram or
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Twitter at Coach under score OC. Again, that's Coach under score
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OC. Happy to answer any questions
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that you may have about the roster limits or or the
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recruiting process in general. But until then, you know, enjoy
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the rest of your summer. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
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Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Guild 1918
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Project series. It's really my mission, my
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passion to bring you massive amounts of value and I hope this
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