In Search of . . . Talent : When 49er Staff Recruits, It’s a Game Played for Keeps

Cal State Long Beach is looking for good football players. The search is performed thoroughly by Coach Mike Sheppard and his assistants and with as much energy as they spend trying to win games in the fall.

“It’s the same kind of good, positive tension you want during the football season,” Sheppard said. “I want our guys (assistants) to be on edge, I want them to worry the whole time whether they’re going to get a guy or not because when you’re concerned about it you’re going to work hard.”

The effort that will bring freshmen football players to the campus this September started last May when Sheppard and his staff chose the players (then high school juniors) they would pursue. Months of keeping in touch with the players followed. Films of their previous performances were scrutinized. In the fall, the university’s assistant coaches went to high school games to evaluate the players firsthand. Then, starting in December, the coaches went into the schools and homes trying to persuade the players and their parents that Cal State Long Beach is building a big-time football program that can attract the quality players that the better-known schools of the Pac-10 Conference want.

Evaluation is crucial, and sometimes you can’t be sure you have judged a player correctly until next fall or the fall after when the Saturday scoreboard tells the story.

Feb. 12 is the day players can sign national letters of intent, the day most coaching staffs officially find out how successful its recruiting has been.

Here is how Cal State Long Beach recruits:

The Pitch

Sheppard’s pitch is low-key. He tells a recruit there are three factors he should consider in choosing a university: first, academics; second, football; and third, social development.

He tries to convince them that Cal State Long Beach can fit their needs in all three areas.

“We talk about emphasizing the balance of those three,” Sheppard said. “It’s important that one doesn’t overtake the others.

“If a guy is spending too much time in football, he’s not getting enough time to study or really grow in a social situation. If he’s spending too much time socializing, he probably isn’t doing a good enough job in football or academics. If he’s spending too much time in academics, he may be driving himself crazy in the classroom by not balancing his life elsewhere.”

The Player Pool

The 49ers have 30 scholarships to offer, and this year, Sheppard said, 10 probably will go to junior-college players and 20 to high school players.

“We bring in (actively recruit) three possible players at a position for each scholarship, so we could bring in 90 players,” Sheppard said. “But generally its quite a bit fewer because you may bring in your first choice at wide receiver and he says this is where he wants to go, so you believe it (the commitment) and drop the other guys on your list.”

Sheppard has been committed to recruiting top players in the Long Beach area. Few out-of-state players consider Long Beach. On last season’s roster, 85 of 90 players were from California.

What Players Ask

The main thing a player wants to know, said Sheppard, is “ ‘How do I fit in to your depth chart, how soon am I going to play?’ ”

A high school quarterback, for example, might be swayed to attend Long Beach if he was told that he will start as a sophomore.

When he was recruited in 1985, Michael Roberts, a freshman running back from Poly High School, wanted to know how soon he would play. Although Sheppard made no promises to him, Roberts said he was impressed with the coach’s straightforwardness. “He said I’d have a good chance competing with the other guys,” said Roberts, who saw considerable playing time last season.

Players also inquire about academics and, particularly, the support of academics--tutoring programs.

“And they always want to know about the weight room,” said Sheppard. “A guy wants to see how you’re going to develop him and how physically he’s going to reach his potential.”

The 49ers have a new weight room scheduled to open early next month.

Senior quarterback Doug Gaynor said prospective players ask current players how they like the coaches. And, he said, “They want to know if it’s a lot of fun and what there is to do in Long Beach.”

Gaynor also said they ask about the 49ers’ trip last fall to Honolulu to play the University of Hawaii and what it was like to play against UCLA.

What Parents Ask

Parents are concerned about academics, where their son is going to live, what he’s going to eat and what the scholarship covers or what expenses it doesn’t cover, Sheppard said.

“I believe they want to know that their son is going to be taken care of and looked after,” he said.

Alice Roberts of Long Beach, mother of Michael Roberts, said: “I asked about academics because I didn’t want football to come first. I also asked about doctors in case he got hurt.”

Starting a Relationship

The recruiting season starts in May. Colleges then can go out and look at players who will be high school seniors in the fall, evaluate film of their performances and check academic transcripts.

“In May, when you establish that a kid is somebody you’re interested in and might be able to play, you’re likely to start a relationship with him,” Sheppard said. “You talk to him (by phone) and over the summer you might send him an academic brochure or a schedule of our games.

“As you go into the (school) year, the position coach will go out and watch him play. You will continue to call him probably every two weeks.

“The key thing is trying to get to see him play because it’s important to him to know you’re at his game.”

Nurturing Relationship

On Dec. 1, under National Collegiate Athletic Assn. rules, a college coach can finally meet a prospect either at his school or home. “That first week you go see all the guys (you’re interested in) and present your program to them in a nutshell,” Sheppard said. “Then you let them think about it, and call them back to see if they’re interested in visiting you.”

Some players decide in May where they want to go after they are first contacted by a college. But most don’t decide until after their visits to campuses, most of which are made in January and February. A student is allowed to visit five schools. He is allowed to see a coach or a person from that school three times on the student’s campus and three times at home.

The Home Visit

Sheppard says he can tell a lot about a player during a home visit.

“You can continue to evaluate whether you want him in your program by watching what kind of manners he has around his parents,” Sheppard said. “If a kid shows his parents a great deal of respect and he’s not looking strange at the way they answer things or jumps in and tries to answer for them, I think that tells you something about his character.”

Sheppard puts a high value on good character.

Home visits can be trying on parents when there are a lot of coaches.

“There were so many guys here, it was beginning to get on my nerves,” said Alice Roberts, whose son was also recruited by Arizona State, Oregon, Utah and Washington. “My son would make an appointment and they (coaches) show up without me knowing anything about it. Then I’d have to rush dinner.”

Michael Roberts said: “Every day there would be calls. I used to not want to come home.”

The Campus Visit

In Sheppard’s opinion, the campus visit is the single most important factor.

“A kid needs to feel comfortable when he comes to your place,” Sheppard said. “He doesn’t need to say the food was great, the dorms looked good, the campus was pretty, or he saw some co-eds or the weight room looks nice. What he needs to do is say, ‘Wow, this is where I feel good.’

“So we really we have to let them get to know us and our players so when they leave they feel there are people here interested in their future and that we love it here.”

The visit goes like this:

The position coach picks up the player at his home on a Friday and brings him to a conference room that has a nice view of the campus. There, the recruits (usually from six to 15) meet the coaches, their hostesses (49er cheerleaders) and hear Athletic Director John Kasser discuss the football program.

This is followed by a campus tour and a lunch meeting with academic advisers. Later, there is a booster reception, at which former players tell why they chose Cal State Long Beach, and then a dinner at which Sheppard, who doesn’t believe that it’s negative to acknowledge that players have visited bigger-name football schools, tells the recruits:

“You’re all talking about great visits you’ve made (to other campuses), but the thing you have in common is you chose Long Beach State to visit. A lot of you guys are going to be seeing each other next year.”

The idea, Sheppard said, is to get the players to start identifying with Cal State Long Beach and one another. Naturally, the players are comparing visits and telling how great it was at the more well-known schools such as Arizona State or Oklahoma.

“The thing that is impressive about that is we haven’t always had people with those kinds of visits visit Long Beach State,” Sheppard said, “so thats what I tell them, that we’re recruiting better players here because we want to get better.”

After dinner, the hosts (current players) take the recruits to a party, a movie or out to dance.

The players made a big impact on Michael Roberts. “They were really cool to me on my trip,” Roberts said. “They told me about the offense, and I felt I would really fit in with it.”

The next day consists of physical examinations, boat rides and meetings with coaches.

How to Succeed

“To be a great recruiter you have to be a great evaluator,” Sheppard said. “You have to be able to see the guy everyone else has missed and be right. You have to see the 6-3, 205-pound outside linebacker who will grow and be good but looks too thin for USC or UCLA.

“Then you have to be persuasive and sincere. I think people more than anything else look for sincerity. They want you to feel about your place and be able to communicate that.”

Sheppard came across that way to Audrey Hunt, mother of freshman running back Ricco Wilson. “He was honest,” she said.

And sometimes Sheppard finds you succeed just because of your location.

“I’m closer to home,” Roberts figured. “If I need money, I can get it from the house.”

The Signing

The position coach goes into the home on or after the signing date and signs the player to a national letter of intent.

Sheppard said he usually knows weeks before the signing date if a player is going to sign, so, unlike at the big football colleges where there is intense competition to sign the very top players, there is not much tension on that morning.

But at times, Sheppard said, he has thought he had a player committed, that Long Beach seems the best place for him to meet all of his needs, and then he decides to go someplace else.

“Then you feel the same way you do when you lose a close game,” Sheppard said.