High Schools Starting to Emulate College Recruiting Model

As he sat with the phone pressed to his ear, Bill McGregor could only shake his head. One of the Washington area's most respected high school football coaches, McGregor has guided DeMatha to 17 league titles and seven No. 1 finishes in The Washington Post's rankings during his 26 years at the school and annually sends a dozen or so players to college with athletic scholarships.

McGregor has witnessed football evolve from a seasonal sport into a year-round activity, with the spotlight shining brighter than ever on top prospects.

But on this day last spring, McGregor was incredulous as an eighth-grader -- mimicking the ever-popular declarations by high school athletes making their college selections -- announced that he was "committing" to play football for McGregor's school.

"What are you committing to?" McGregor replied, retelling the story and chuckling at the thought that a middle schooler considered his future plans so noteworthy.

Such proclamations once were laughable, but recruiting by high school coaches more and more resembles what college coaches do in their quest to find and attract top players. High school coaches scout youth league games, establish relationships with coaches of younger teams and try to persuade prospective players to visit their schools.

And just like with college coaches, the recruiting stakes for high school coaches are heightening, as many private schools pump more money into their athletic programs and create full-time non-teaching positions for some coaches. While private high schools add athletic emphasis to attract students, their coaches are putting more time into recruiting younger players.

"Absolutely, it's getting much more competitive, there's a lot of good programs in this area," said Montrose Christian boys' basketball coach Stu Vetter, who annually fields one of the region's elite teams. "I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but definitely there is more of an emphasis at the high school level. You'll see a lot of high schools being very similar to college programs with the recruiting and everything that goes into a college program. It's happening."

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Public school athletic coaches have simple rules to follow in recruiting potential players: Nearly all state high school athletic associations ban such conduct.

Private school coaches, however, have few limits. Locally, the Interstate Athletic Conference requires that potential players initiate contact with a high school coach, not vice versa, before any dialogue can begin. The Washington Catholic Athletic Conference prohibits coaches from visiting prospective players' houses or from providing any gifts or gear to recruits, though McGregor scoffed at that rule, noting that a middle school athlete recently came to a DeMatha game decked out in a sweatshirt, hat and other apparel from a rival WCAC school.

Most private school leagues also stipulate that their members cannot provide athletic scholarships and that all financial aid must be need-based. This, too, is a point of contention for many coaches, nearly all of whom say privately that their school follows this rule but others do not.

And private schools that do not belong to a league generally operate without restrictions.