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Sports

Patch Series: High School Football Coach Works to Get Stars Recruited

Follow Eisenhower football coach Bob Lantzy as he works to get his football stars recruited.

It comes around at the beginning of each February, as regular as Groundhog Day but far more critical to high school football players and college coaches. Signing Day–the initial Wednesday of the month–marks the first time prospects can make it “official,” as they put pens to paper and sign a binding agreement with their new college teams.

Getting there has changed a lot over the years. No one knows better than Bob Lantzy, a veteran of 40 years of coaching football at .

Earlier in his career, almost everything was handled through the mail–recruiting letters sent from college coaches right up to the signed national letters of intent returned by their future players who were ready to move on from high school to the next level.

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Now, though, interest is far greater, largely because of the Internet.

Recruiting services will analyze a major prospect’s every move, every visit, every verbal commitment and every time he changes his mind on that commitment, right up to the day he finally signs.

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Local newspapers devote page after page in following college coaches as they build a recruiting class that usually includes 20-25 players annually. ESPNU devoted 10 straight hours of signing coverage on Wednesday alone, checking in with schools around the country as they held press conferences to announce the group of players who faxed in signed paperwork earlier in the day.

“It’s all about making money. There’s more pressure. Recruiting is very national today,” Lantzy said. “Coaches are competing for kids all over the country now in football.

“It’s really a long and drawn-out process. When it’s finally taken care of and a player signs, it’s a great relief to them.”

Eisenhower has been a regular stop for college football recruiters, based on the success the Eagles have had over the years. Lantzy laughs, though, when explaining that a team’s success does not always translate into scholarship offers each season.

Ike was 7-4 two years ago and had five players ink letters of intent, two of them–defensive end Joe Wirth (Central Michigan) and kicking specialist Mason Krysinski (Miami of Ohio)–with Division I programs. This fall, the team improved to 10-2 on the field, but might have only a couple players sign with Division II or III universities to play football. And the best of the bunch, all-county safety Brandon Bartneck, is sifting through academic offers at Michigan, Harvard and Princeton, and only plans to try out for the basketball team if he plays college sports at all.

Quite simply, some of the Eagles’ best players were sophomores or juniors.

You might think that having its coaching staff watch high school games each week solidifies a college’s recruiting plans. But that’s not necessarily the case, Lantzy noted. Colleges really do their talent evaluating, and make scholarship offers, at summer camps, well before a high school season begins. Most Division I programs now host these camps, offering skills instruction to high school players–but also evaluating those players as college prospects at the same time.

“They’re run very much like the pro (NFL) combines. They’re showing you how to play your position, but they’re testing you and trying you out,” Lantzy said. “It’s up to the kids to go to these camps and show how good you are. They used to be three- or four-day camps, but now they’re just one day.

“You have to look and see what schools you’re really interested in and see which (camps) you want to go to. You have to pay your own way and hope they like you. It’s not complicated. If you’re a frontline Division I player you’ll get your offers there.”

Or else, the year-round recruiting game simply keeps going.

Patch.com will follow Lantzy and some of his underclass players throughout the process as the Eagles coaches send out game films to college coaches in hopes of attracting interest, welcome the recruiters during evaluation visits to the schools, help their players decide on which summer camps to attend … all before the team’s first official practice next August.

If you have an amazing high school sports recruitment story you want to tell, e-mail the author of this article, Mark Engel.

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