starting as an assistant: the Mike Schaplowsky story

[sportsfanmike]

A little background about me, I've been coaching for 10 years now. I started as a middle school coach, did that for 1 year, then coached high school JV for 4 years, coached high school varsity 3 years, and coached at a community college for 2 years, where my main job was recruiting. Now, there were no official recruiting rankings, I've been told that unofficially, my 2 recruiting classes were among the best in the nation. They must have been good, because the head coach at Wichita State University, Michael Sanchez, called me up and wanted my services. I have signed a 2 year contract to be the recruiting coordinator at WSU! I'm excited, yet nervous at the same time.

I will be writing this dynasty report from the eyes of a recruiter. It won't be as detailed with game by game reports. It could be boring, because most of the reports will be about recruiting. I'll still give out our schedule and I will give game results, but until I get a head coaching gig, my dynasty reporting will be more based on my recruiting efforts and results.

Anyhow, here is a little bit more info about me.

Mike Schaplowsky
Age: 31
Contract: 2 years/$44,000 a year
Ambition: Very High (no doubt I want to have my own team someday.)
Offense: 30
Defense: 30
Recruiting: 60
Scouting: 15
Player Development: 15
Reputation: 10

Hopefully this doesn't get too boring for you guys, as it will be a new experience.

[sportsfanmike]

I guess I should have read up on this more. I thought I actually got to have a big hand in recruiting. buying reports, travelling, etc etc, but I guess all I get to do is set the call and watch list and look at game film. this could get boring real quick. I don't even get to do the meat of the recruiting.

[sportsfanmike]

Well I guess it's time to get to it. Here's what we have.. 2 scholarships to fill and we're losing 3 big men. I don't quite get the math there, but I'm going to look for a PF or C. My head coach, Mr. Sanchez, might think differently, but I'm working on my call list as we speak.

Since we're using mostly motion offense and man to man defense, obviously the first thought is to find big men that can move, offensively and defensively. So let's see what we got.

PF Shawn Jackson from Caney, KS is the #1 man on my watch list. Coach Sanchez added him to the call list. He's the only one on our watch list that has real interest in us. I'm about to start scouring the rest of the nation to see if anybody has an interest in coming to Wichita State.

[sportsfanmike]

Week of July 11th, 2011

C Bernard Howell is the best player we are going after, rated 8th in the nation. He told Coach Sanchez he has very little interest in coming here, but I've asked coach to keep him on our list for now.

Come to think of it, hardly any of the recruits on our list have interest in coming here. I think I'm setting the bar too high. A prestige 38 team shouldn't get top 100 recruits.

One that we do have a chance at is C Andrew Freeman, ranked 216th in the nation. He has us 4th on his list right now.

Andrew could be our steal, because I checked the list of players that do want to come to our school, and for the most part it is bad. I added C Kevin Egans to both our watch and call list.

[sportsfanmike]

Week of July 18th, 2011

Kevin Egans has us 2nd on his list of schools. We've got a chance with him, but it's certainly not what I would consider a quality recruit.

Week of July 25th, 2011

I watched game film of Kevin Egans. He's not as bad as the ratings say he is. He could be a nice pickup after all.

Week of July 31st, 2011

Kevin Egans and Tobe Burke made visits last week. They both liked the campus.

Week of Aug. 7th, 2011

Coach Sanchez has added PG David Dorsett to the watch list. This is a curious move. We need big men next year. When I asked him about the move, this was his response. "We have 2 point guards on our roster, and both are juniors. If we can recruit a point guard this year, then he can start to learn the offense, because he could very well be running the team as a sophomore. Yes we need big men, but it would also be important to look at a point guard." OK coach, I guess I understand. Dorsett stays on the list, and I'm going to add him to the call list as well.

[sportsfanmike]

No big news for recruiting until the weekend of August 28th, when Andrew Freeman dissed us by taking us off his list of top 10 schools. I told coach Sanchez if he wants to diss us, we need to inform him that we don't want him anymore, and to focus on players that do want to be here.

On the other side of things, Kevin Egans has made us his number 1 choice.

David Dorsett also has us #1 on his list.

[sportsfanmike]

Again,

I am scrapping this assistant coach dynasty because quite frankly, it's not enjoyable to me. I figured I'd have a big hand in recruiting and be able to try it. So, I'm going to do an actual head coach dynasty, but haven't decided to do promotion/relegation, or just regular with conference movement. I do like the promotion/relegation, but it would take some work. I'll probably try it though, just because I didn't give the first one a chance. Bear with me guys, I will find a dynasty project I enjoy sooner or later. Trial by error seems to have eliminated Division 2 challenge and assistant coach mode. I do believe just being a D1 head coach is the way to go

[PointGuard]

Well, at least you're giving things a try. I'm not surprised that the asst route didn't work out but was sorry to see your D2 attempt not be able to work out.

Oh well, they say the 3rd times the charm.

[Jabez54]

[font="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="3"][color="DarkRed"]I'm sorry, too ... It was an interesting route to do ... Which is why, I agreed with PG: "[color="DarkGreen"]Oh well, they say the 3rd times the charm.[/color]" ... AND he's right... married a wonderful Lass, I have been blessed:cool: ...[/color][/SIZE][/font]