After hiring former Ravens football star Thomas Timlin as manager of football operations Sept. 14, the Carleton Ravens football team is now looking to hire a head coach to lead the Ravens for their inaugural season in 2013.
Carleton and Old Crows Football Inc. have decided to hire an exterior search firm from Toronto to help with the process. The Bedford Group, based in Toronto, will handle all the applications and act as consultants during the hiring process.
“Russ Buckland, (the managing partner of the Bedford Group), is an Old Crow [alumnus],” said Jennifer Brenning, Carleton’s director of recreation and athletics. “Through our discussions about the program and reviving the program, he offered his services to assist us in finding a coach.”
“The reason we decided to go with this approach is we felt it would be a little different than what is traditionally done in [Canadian Interuniversity Sport] football,” added Kevin McKerrow, president of Old Crows Football Inc. “As opposed to simply posting the position and seeing who’s interested, it’ll let us be a little more active in the process and actually recruit candidates, individuals who may not have even realized that Carleton would be a great fit for them.”
The search will be made with a specific set of competencies in mind.
Brenning said a discussion was held with some members of the Carleton community, with the goal of setting guidelines for what the team wanted in a coach.
“We came up with about nine core competencies, around leadership, having the right attitude, value-based,” Brenning said. “The ability to work within a university environment was quite important.”
Brenning said the team is expecting “between 40 and 60” applicants, but McKerrow seemed to believe the number of legitimate candidates may be slightly lower.
“We believe that, realistically, there’s probably not more than 25 individuals or thereabouts across the country that really have the experience and profile that would make them a good fit for the organization,” McKerrow said.
The deadline for applications is Nov. 28, and the decision is expected to be made shortly thereafter.
“We’re hoping to have a head coach in place by January 2012,” Brenning said.
When the coach is announced in the new year, he will certainly “have his work cut out for him,” McKerrow said.
“We have a lot of work to do around facilities, and we’re looking for the head coach to have input on the final design, the details,” he said.
“The next step for the head coach is really recruiting for the program and fielding a team. That coach will be very busy,” added Brenning.
“My guess is that the coach will be recruiting actively right from the get-go.”
