By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com
This year, coaches are having to find new ways to recruit during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coaches across the country are having to use unconventional methods of talking to potential student-athletics since they can’t go out and physically recruit. Ole Miss coaches, like others, are using FaceTime and Zoom.
Last week, head UM basketball coaches Kermit Davis and Yolett McPhee-McCuin discussed with the media about how they have been using the technology of Zoom to showcase their program and university to recruits.
For coach Davis, recruiting has changed over time and he’s been able to adapt.
“(I remember) back in 1986 going to a high school game and calling on a payphone to call a recruit, and you could only call his house,” Davis said. “It is unbelievable how it has changed. I can’t imagine navigating now back in 1985. You could hardly do it.”
Prior to COVID-19, Coach Yo was getting ready to ramp it up on the recruiting trail.
“I like virtual recruiting. You can focus on your plan for the kid and your plan for them,” McPhee-McCuin said. “It allows you to go in-depth, and they are locked in and focused. They know that they are not going to be able to come on campus.”
McPhee-McCuin said, “on a virtual recruiting meeting we will do the same thing we would if they were on campus with a business meeting to explain the philosophy of the program.”
Davis noted the cost-efficiency of virtual recruiting.
“We have everybody signing and making decisions (over Zoom),” Davis said. “Think about the money we saved in all sports in the last month or two in football and basketball.”
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