For the men and women who coach Carleton’s varsity teams, recruiting might be their most essential task.
Each team in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) is competing to do the same thing: put together the best team.
Steve Sumarah, head coach of the Carleton Ravens football program, might be the only coach at Carleton who has to fill as many as 85 spots at one time. Nonetheless, it’s an indisputable fact that even one recruit can turn the tide for any varsity team.
The recruits
Recruiting, according to Sumarah, is about doing your homework, getting known, and getting out there.
Sumarah said he looks all across the country for potential athletes to play for him and spends his time talking to trainers, watching kids work out, and trying to meet high school coaches. Athletes coming out of high school are his main focus.
“Carleton now has to be what’s foremost on their minds,” he said.
Marty Johnston, head coach of the men’s hockey team, said he has no involvement at the high school level.
Instead, his focus is on the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). Twelve athletes on this year’s men’s hockey roster previously played in the OHL.
“We’re lucky enough that we have scouts across the Eastern part of Canada that give us a good indication of what’s going on.”
Johnston also recruits from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and the Western Hockey League (WHL).
But Ravens women’s basketball coach Taffe Charles said he likes to stay close to home and believes it’s important to pick up talent from around the Ottawa area if the talent is there. Four of Charles’ players this season are from Ottawa, with the rest scattered about Ontario.
The walk-ons
Although a less common approach, and often only used to fill one or two vacant roster spots, Carleton athletes can “walk on” to their respective varsity teams through open tryouts.
In her first year, second-year Carleton student Alex McIntyre, who plays defence on the women’s soccer team, was one of seven players to make the team after open tryouts. The next year, the women’s soccer team again added eight players who had “walked on,” McIntyre said.
Both Charles and Johnston said they’ve filled roster spots through open tryouts, and Sumarah agreed the calibre of athletes that come out to an open tryout can surprise you.
“Guys can be found,” he said.
Farm systems
Various varsity teams at Carleton have an affiliation with a junior level program of some sort.
Johnston said the idea behind this is for young players to maximize their hockey potential.
“The idea would be that they get a little more seasoning, they get a little older and then they have an opportunity to make our program,” he said.
Carleton basketball coach Dave Smart understands the importance of developing young athletes. In 1985, he established the Ottawa Guardsmen, an under-18 basketball program that plays teams throughout the United States and Canada.
Tyson Hinz, the 2011 CIS player of the year, started playing for the Guardsmen when he was in grade nine.
“That was really the start of serious basketball for me,” he said.
Along with Hinz, fellow Ravens Justin Shaver, Gavin Resch, and Kyle Smendziuk were all recruited by Smart following a stint with the Guardsmen.
Above all, these coaches agree while it’s important to find the best players in recruiting, what’s more important is finding the right ones.
“The reality is you want the right guy,” Sumarah said. “You want that guy who’s going to be a team guy, [who] realizes that it’s not about him, it’s about the program, it’s about community, it’s about education. Do you always get those guys? No.”
