July 05, 2012

July Recruiting

A common question our staff fields is, “What do you do all summer?”  Wow…that’s a loaded question! 

 

Here is a partial answer...

 

Camps have wrapped up for the summer, and we are in preparing for “July”.  What exactly does that mean you might ask?  It means college basketball coaches (both men’s and women’s) will spend 20 or so days (of the 31) in gyms across the country, evaluating young talent who hopefully will play in the BJC in coming seasons.  Collectively we will spend more nights in hotels, than in our own homes.  We will accrue enough frequent flier miles to redeem a round trip plane ticket (which we will use in May for vacation).  We will find ourselves in small, non-air conditioned gyms, excited with the growth and development we see in a young prospect.  Our backsides will be sore from sitting in bleachers or folding chairs in ultra-air conditioned gyms in Florida and wondering why on earth it is 110 outside and 55 inside!  We will be in different color rental cars in each of our cities, which only causes a slight pause each evening when we exit the gym and wonder which car the key in our hand will start.  We will rely heavily on GSP’s, have numerous concession stand meals, and we will not hesitate to use the panic button on our key fobs to help decipher which rental car has our luggage in it.

The Penn State staff is departing this afternoon eager to support our newest Lady Lion commitments as they play their last summer with their AAU teams.  In the next 26 days, Coach Quese, Kia, Fred and I will evaluate talent in 13 states, and see teams from all 50 states in the union!  We will be on red-eye flights from Vegas to Orlando.  We will enjoy the Cheesecake Factory, PF Chang’s, Sonic and In and Out Burger.  We will get in traffic jams, miss flight connections, and be annoyed with poor officiating I’m sure.  But at the end of the day, we are sporting our Penn State Blue and White with pride, and excited to find the next Maggie’s, Alex’s and Nikki’s!