What is true for you...

Recruiting athletes to play for a college program is an art that few have mastered, and what successful coaches learn is that no matter how hard they recruit a player, most often the deciding factor for that athlete is what influences him.

In the case of Appalachian State’s football team, head coach Scott Satterfield has built a winning program in the Mountains of Boone North Carolina.

The Mountaineers are coming off their first ever conference title as a part of the Division I Sun Belt conference. Last season also included a second straight bowl win in December in which Satterfield’s team defeated Toledo in the Camellia Bowl.

Scott Satterfield celebrating as he accepts the Camellia Bowl championship Trophy last December.

But for a program the caliber of App State’s, recruiting never stops.

“We recruit year round,” said Satterfield last week. “Obviously people only see the fruits of our labor once a year on signing day, but it is a constant process.”

This year’s recruiting class saw 18 athletes sign on February 1st. But getting to that point in the recruiting process hinged on the influences of each individual player.

“Of course it helps that our program has been successful the past couple of years,” said Satterfield. “But each and every player that we recruit has a different set of determining factors. Each player has a different influential factor that draws him to our school. For some it is the atmosphere of Boone, for some it is because we offered more money than someone else, and for others it could be that they know someone on the team.”

An athlete’s decision making goes so much deeper than what it appears to from the outside looking in. Some athletes, like Satterfield mentioned, choose App State because of the monetary factor. It can work the other way around too. Just because the Mountaineer’s are a successful team does not mean they can convince every player they recruit to play for them.

App State can work hard to bring in a player, but if that player is influenced by a factor they cannot deny like money, family, fit or distance from home then the athlete moves on.

It is the same for any student coming out of high school. All the factors are the same. Just like a student would choose a school that offers more scholarship money or is closer to home, and an athlete does that same thing. The determining factors seldom change because the student is an athlete.

Darrynton Evans, who was listed as the worst recruit of the 2016 recruiting class for the Mountaineers, ran back a kickoff for a touchdown in the 2016 Camellia Bowl.

“The thing about Boone is that it felt like home when I visited,” said Jermaine McDaniel Jr., who signed with App State on February 1st and is on campus as an early enrollee freshman. “It felt like I could be acclimated quicker, and that I could spend four to five years here and call it a second home.”

McDaniel, who is listed as a defensive end for the Mountaineer’s, turned down offers from Georgia Tech, Coastal Carolina, Yale and Harvard to attend App State because he fit in. For McDaniel, fitting in and being comfortable at a school while player football is important, and that influenced him to sign last month.

The other early enrollee of this year class, D’Andre Hicks, also turned down other schools to play for Appalachian, but what influenced him was different from McDaniel.

“I just love it,” said Hicks. “I love the people here too, it was just a great fit. I love the coaches on staff and they like to win so that always helps.”

While McDaniel certainly wants to help App State win, winning was not as big a factor for him. But for Hicks, while having a good fit and good coaches was nice, having a chance to win also influenced his decision.

A person’s past experiences, likes and dislikes along with a multitude of other variables can influence their decision in all aspects of life. Choice of a college, for academics only or for athletics only, depends on what that individual holds as important. What is true for one athlete may not be true for the next.

All photos taken by Braxton Critcher