To maximum the budget, I decided to take the 'red eye' departing Calgary at 12:40am on Saturday and arrive in TO around 6:45am. From there, a quick shuttle ride to the hotel to brush my teeth and then I was off to the fields as the matches started at 8am. This day happened to be the hottest day of the weekend, and watching soccer from 8am to 8pm can drain you. After a busy Saturday of watching some first round matches, I headed back to my hotel for some R & R to do it all over again Sunday and Monday.
The weekend was received well. I went with the purpose of looking at some of the Ontario and surround teams for possible future selection as we transition to CIS starting in 2012. I was amazed at the number of coaches in attendance; especially from the US. And here is where I get to the title of this posting - What's in a Name? Well....branding. These big school from the US came with a budget and you could tell, they have been to a few of these weekends already. Some sent their assistant coaches, and you could see they weren't as experienced but still had all the gear.
The parents heads were constantly on a swivel looking for coaches. And when they talked to you, they didn't look you in the eye, rather, they looked straight at your jacket or shirt to see what school you were representing and looked to offer you a profile sheet of their daughter or team roster.
From my perspective, I was able to identify some potential prospects for the class of 2012, 2013 and 2014. Too often, we just focus on the soccer and when it comes to recruiting or selecting a school - it's much more than that.
Here are some keys that should MRU be your school of choice, we can offer you:
- a Canadian education degree (don't take this for granted when you start to look for a job)
- lower tuition costs
- a smaller financial burden after graduation (live at home, eat what's in the fridge, work part-time and gain work experience while you study)
- small class sizes at MRU (are you serious about your studies)
- get a job in your field after graduation in the Alberta market
- play 5 years in the CIS as compared to NCAA (4 year maximum)
- and yes, we do have scholarships too.
