Pieces to the puzzle
For many of the coaches at Appalachian State University, recruiting comes down to doing something that many would consider childish; putting together a puzzle.
While head coaches like Scott Satterfield (football), Jim Fox (men’s basketball), and Meghan Dawson (women’s field hockey), understand that to win they need talented players, often they choose to recruit a player based off of personality and fit within the program over a top tier athlete.
“For us here at Appalachian State it has always been about fit,” said Satterfield on national signing day earlier this month. “We have to find the right kind of person that wants to come here and be a part of championships, because culture directly leads to winning.”
Freshman Clifton Duck, who tied for third on the team in tackles (43), makes one here in the Camellia Bowl on December 17th 2016.
The App State football team is coming of their first Sun Belt conference championship that included a second straight Camellia Bowl victory. Satterfield, who first coached with the Mountaineer coaching staff in 1998 and later accepted the head coaching job in 2013, knows the type of culture the team desires.
Fit, personality and culture is something that the App State football team has mastered to craft a championship reputation, but getting there is not easy.
The Appalachian basketball team exemplifies that. They are currently 3-13 in the Sun Belt and 8-19 overall. This is Fox’s third year as head coach and he is just beginning to from the culture that he would like to construct.
“We need to recruit guys that fit what we do and have versatility, toughness and want to be great and play better,” said Fox. “Someone who is said to be good, but can’t do the things that work well for our style of play, will not be useful to us.”
Craig Hilton, one of three juniors for App State men's basketball, goes up for a layup against Davidson on November 12 2016.
While their record does not do them justice, Fox’s team and the culture he is building, is not far off. Of their 13 conference losses, 7 of them have been defeats by 10 points or less.
Their roster includes only one senior and three juniors. This is the first season that Fox has coached only his recruits.
Emarius Logan seen here driving to the basket against Davidson, is averaging 7.2 points per game this season.
Like the basketball team, App State women’s hockey is also amid a period of gaining traction. In their latest season this past fall, they finished with a 3-16 record. The team will be going into a new conference next season and hope to continue to build on Dawson’s culture building process as they recruit more players beginning this summer.
“We defiantly look for talent, but we also look for good people,” said Dawson. “People that are going to be good teammates that have the potential to keep developing their talent and that they have a good core.”
Recruiting is not an easy thing to do when trying to build at program. It takes a while for a coach to become established in their surroundings to truly craft a team culture around their personality. Recruiting to fit players into places they can succeed and teaching them their roles on the team can be more important than signing all the talented athletes and figuring it out later.
“Recruiting is like a puzzle,” said Fox about the techniques of recruiting. “You are trying to find pieces that fit. Imagine doing a puzzle and if you try and stick a piece where it doesn’t fit, no matter how nice that piece looks, it still doesn’t fit. If it or a player, doesn’t fit then he messes up your team, the chemistry and everything else your trying to do.”
All photos taken by Braxton Critcher
