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Supreme Being
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Last Login: Yesterday @ 5:54:23 PM
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| apparently, not very interested. (?)
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A simple courtesy can make or break recruiting effort
By LARRY PETERSON
How fine is the line in college recruiting, in whether you land that prized recruit or not?
It can be as simple as one unreturned e-mail.
At least that’s the case with Drake University’s soccer team when it came to Creston all-stater Kevin Irr.
Playing off-season soccer year-round, even for indoor clubs in the winter, Irr once harbored dreams of NCAA Division I soccer. But, Graceland University, no slouch either, with an NAIA national championship in 2006, came courting early, and consistently.
In other words, he was treated right by the Yellowjackets, a team that older brothers Steven and Greg previously played for. The family grew fond of former coach Ivan Joseph, now director of athletics at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Joseph donated his time to help the Creston team that was coached by Bob Irr at the time.
Still, Drake is coming off a record-setting campaign in which the Bulldogs advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. Drake came within one win of reaching the 2009 College Cup, the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament last fall.
The Bulldogs posted the school’s first-ever Missouri Valley Conference tournament title and achieved the highest ranking in school history (No. 8).
In other words, it’s a big-time program.
“Two weeks ago I went up to Cownie Field in Des Moines and we (Des Moines Menace club) scrimmaged against Drake,” Irr told me during his interview for CHS Outstanding Male Athlete. “Drake’s coach came up to me, but I had e-mailed him in the past and he never e-mailed me back.”
Irr returned the brush-off, so to speak, by sticking to his conviction to join the program in Lamoni rejuvenated by Joseph. He had also briefly considered Division I Valparaiso in Indiana.
One of Joseph’s former players, Guillermo Sanchez, is the head coach now at Graceland. Sanchez was a captain for the Yellowjackets’ first NAIA national tournament team in 2005. Joseph went on to coach two more national tournament teams, including the championship in 2006.
The Yellowjackets were 10-6-2 last year. The squad includes midfielder Brady Blankenship of Glenwood, a former opponent of Irr’s.
"The commonest of the common schools of Iowa outrank in public estimation your university." - William Tecumseh Sherman (LSU) to friends in Baton Rouge. |
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