Master of Education in Applied Human Development Graduate Projects

Caleb Scott

Abstract

Recruiting in college athletics is a critical duty for coaches in every sport. Recruiting athletes requires time, money, and personnel and is difficult for collegiate athletics at every level. When it comes to recruiting, Magnusen, Kim, Perrewe and Ferris (2014) separate recruiting factors into three categories: external, academic and athletic program factors. Those categories house numerous other subcategories that attempt to explain how intricate of a process recruiting is and how important the process is when it comes to the success of an athletics program. This case study of Ohio Northern University (ONU), a small Division III school in northwest Ohio, develops a better understanding of the challenges ONU and other Division III schools may face on a daily basis when attempting to recruit athletes. In this case study, fifteen head coaches and full-time assistant coaches at ONU completed an in-depth questionnaire that focused on recruiting at the university. The questionnaire concentrated on common recruiting themes such as funding, facilities, staff, and scholarships. The results showed that the location of the school was problematic for coaches at ONU in the recruiting process. It was also noted that recruiting efforts in-season were much more difficult due to a lack of time and staffing, which can be linked to underfunding. While research (Schneider and Messenger, 2012) supports the notion that facilities are low on the list of factors for a recruit in choosing a school, ONU coaches indicated that facilities are an important recruiting tool they utilize. All of the common themes (i.e. time, personnel, facilities, etc.) of the recruiting questionnaire responses can be linked to underfunding and can be addressed if the National Collegiate Athletic Association focused more of its time and energy on Division III athletics.

Advisor

Dr. Ray Schneider

Second Reader

Dr. Amanda Koba

Semester

Spring

Year

2018

Degree

M.Ed.

Program

Sport Administration

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