COMMUNITY
I
RECRUITMENT A WORK IN PROGRESS by Erik Dominguez
26
ROSTRUM | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022
don’t know if it was ignorance or arrogance. Still, something made me confront all six-footplus former Arizona State University football player, coach, educator, and then principal of Desert Vista High School during my first week of teaching. “Dr. Joe, let’s talk,” I commanded him. “Okay...” he replied with appropriate apprehension. “Listen, I need you to help me change something on this campus, and I need it to happen right away. We need to change the language because, as you know, language matters. We are not the speech and debate club. We are the speech and debate team.” He paused. I could sense a slight annoyance at having to deal with THIS conversation first thing in the morning; certainly, there were bigger priorities in a school of 3,000+ students. He simply told me in his melodic and friendly (but firm) voice: “I understand. But you need to understand that might take time. We haven’t had a culture of a team on speech and debate. I know you are here to change that. Remember to be patient with the process.”
Patience is not something I had in my first year of teaching and coaching; it was one of my greatest strengths and weaknesses as a coach. In the coming months, this team mindset grew our roster from eight to nearly 58. The next year we pushed 100. The following year, our opening meetings had to be hosted in the auditorium, and we established processes of auditions and cuts because, truth be told, we were maxed out on our roster.
Recruiting is both a science and an art. There are various strategies, including articles (and yes, even one I have written in the past, available at tinyurl.com/4uksb3te) that give you tangible tools and steps to bring people on to the team. This article aims to explain the mindsets that bring students—the right type of students—through your doors with little to no effort. Yes, you absolutely should follow many of the previously stated strategies. But these mindsets create a culture of learning and growing that bring active and motivated competitors to your roster.