There is always so much happening at the high school National Invitational Tournament (NIT) that too much time elapses and certain observations are no longer useful. So the following is more like a public to-do list that I need to develop … to be updated …
COLLEGE RECRUITERS
As expected, the number and diversity of college recruiters has increased. Reps from Alderson Broaddus (Laura Miller), Army West Point (Bill LeClerc), Bowdoin College (MaryBeth Mathews), Brown (Kathy Flores), Harvard, Life, LIU Post, Queens University of Charlotte, Quinnipiac (Becky Carlson), Sacred Heart (Michelle Reed) and certainly more were all present.
During one sideline conversation, two coaches talked about the player recruitment packets they receive at NITs. Info like year, whether a player is already committed somewhere, jersey number, etc., are obviously useful, but they pointed to Danville coach Bob Stephen for maintaining a system that is much more valuable in terms of getting to the essence of a player and whether they’d make a good addition to a collegiate program. Stephen ranks each player, 1-5, in categories that speak to the emotional, intellectual and team-oriented aspects of a player. For example, field maturity is one category: When a player knocks the ball on, does she recover or wallow? I’ll pursue this issue further, but it was really interesting listening to what these coaches were noting, and it didn’t have much to do with stats.
10-TEAM BRACKET
It happened in 2016 and was a disaster, and now it’s happened again in 2018 and two teams are playing each other twice as a result. Yes, it can be a crap shoot with teams registering and pulling out, and signing up late. But let’s cap the high school club division at eight and have a wait list.
VENUE
So far, no complaints about the venue, although I suspect parking might be one Saturday when all teams are active. It’s nice having a fence and sturdy separation between fans/parents and the game.
NO WOMEN
It took a day, but I noticed there were no female volunteers at the event. Several of MTSU men’s rugby players were running touch and filling in where needed, but evidently the women’s team had been suspended (for alcohol, according to the touch judge).
KICKING GAME
Not sure where I might slot this into the reportage but the kicking game was noticeably lacking this tournament. Catholic Memorial’s Allison Koenig, South Bay’s Puni Skipps and DSHA Jackie Jarosz worked it best, but I was surprised not to see much kick and chase.