Summer Project(s) with Henry M. Walker

Automation of the Athletic Recruiting Process

Prior to 2004, all athletic recruiting involved an extensive manual process:

potential candidates sent letters of inquiry
if/when candidates responded with a post card, data on candidates entered manually into range of spreadsheets and paper forms
coaches maintained notebooks on potential recruits
coaches made contacts through letters, telephone calls, e-mail, with all records maintained in paper
coaches coordinated on-campus visits

First iterations started by Greg Huebner '04
Work initially with Coaches Tim Hollibaugh (baseball) and Greg Wallace (football)
Web interface to internal database
Two main interfaces:
- recruit
- coaches

System deployed, with links from home pages of several sports
- Database: my-sql
- Programming language: php
- about 1 dozen scripts developed
System follows college Web standards
Initial interactions identified with Office of Admission, Office of Public Relations and ITS
Coaches have basic capabilities:
- identify and track potential recruits
- develop, print, track individualized letters (in paper form)
- develop, send e-mail messages
- perform basic tracking of telephone conversations (coaches' logs)
- perform basic referrals to Office of Admission

All work done using rapid prototyping

constant interactions with coaches regarding needs, features, capabilities, interfaces
weekly releases of next versions

Some desired new features already identified

tracking campus visits
expanded tracking of recruits (e.g., weekly updates on new candidates or on revisions of records of existing candidates)
expanded capabilities for more sports
identification of weekly/daily "to-do" lists
expand/administer/identify important admission deadlines and on-campus sport activities

2-4 students
152 or 153 essential background
mix of experience (1st year, sophomores, juniors)
database and php experience NOT required, but larger team possible if at least a couple know some of this
interest and willingness to work with (many) coaches on application and interfaces, as well as with me on technical issues
willingness to work regularly with several college offices and work within college Web standards
willingness to propose/brainstorm alternatives and use feedback to move in alternative directions

created February 1, 2005
last revised February 1, 2005