With different sports seasons kicking into action for the year, teams are working hard to grow their numbers by recruiting in a number of different ways to gain interest from the student body. From social media to word of mouth, every team has its own way of finding new players for the coming seasons.
Junior volleyball Captain Celia Slattengren said it’s important for new recruits to work hard to improve their skill, and anyone can join regardless of skill level. She said Park does a great job at letting every student try different things in the athletic program.
“Most people can build skill if they’re athletic and it’s the people who work hard to get better that are important when recruiting,” Slattengren said. “Our school is really good about allowing everyone to try anything, at least in athletics, which is super important for the volleyball program, to let people of all skill levels and ages join.”
According to girls flag football coach Kayla Ross, she facilitated most of the recruitment as the coach until players began to get interested. She said word of mouth was the main tool used to recruit for the Flag Football team.
“Word of mouth is our biggest form of recruitment since last year was our first year. It was a struggle to spread the word that (flag football) was happening, so I did a lot of the recruitment,” Ross said. “I stood in the lunchroom and tracked down kids in the halls and spread the word to recruit, but once you get the girls interested, then they start spreading the word.”
Senior synchronized swimming captain Lexa Rischall said the main recruitment strategies she uses are recruiting through social media, advertising with fliers and talking to possible recruits.
“We recruit by posting on Instagram, and we have fliers we give out at lunch at the middle school and put up in the hallways at the high school. Mostly, we get (recruits) just by talking to people and going around and telling them to join synchro,” Rischall said.
According to Slattengren, she looks for teamwork and positivity in a new recruit because those attributes are so important to the sport of volleyball.
“Being a good teammate is one of the most important things (I look for). Seeing if a new recruit is a positive person and can work well with others, especially because volleyball is such a team sport, is so important,” Slattengren said.
Ross said one of the struggles with recruiting players was players having conflicting commitments with other spring sports. She said it can be difficult to find new players when flag football is so new to Park.
“I have athletes who play another spring sport (along with flag football), and maybe it’s too much to do both. I have a lot that do both, but I lose people too who play another spring sport,” Ross said. “Because (flag football) is so new, people are a little scared to take the leap of faith to try something new, or they have a priority to another sport first.”
Rischall said new players are encouraged to attend captain’s practice to get to know the other teammates. She said many times, new recruits will have a friend who already participates in synchronized swimming and encourages them to join.
“If they haven’t been to our first practice, we try to encourage them to come to our captain’s practices to meet everybody and to get introduced to the team,” Rischall said. “A lot of times, someone will already have a friend on the team and that friend will remind them when registration is coming up to encourage them to join.”
