Thinking about recruiting territories for the coaches ....

[ghostOfHomer777]

Bell - He'll do it all since he's the recruiting coordinator.

O'Keefe - Conn, Mass, and probably down into Pennsylvania.
Parker - Michigan and parts of Ohio (maybe some Indiana too)
B. Ferentz - Chicago-area, parts of Ohio, parts of Indiana (I think)
Morgan - Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota
Woods - Parts of Texas (especially DFW area) and Atlanta (previously he did KC area - I think he'll move from that territory)
Wallace - Illinois and ???
Polasek - Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota (and wherever else Bell asks him to go)
Copeland - Kansas City area and Florida (and wherever else Bell asks him to go)

The Unknown = who will pick up our "Atlantic" recruiting of New Jersey and Maryland? Given the relationships that the staff have been cultivating I doubt that we'll drop those regions - but who will now cover them? Maybe Wallace will take over those areas more? Maybe one of the new guys?

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

Bell - He'll do it all since he's the recruiting coordinator.

O'Keefe - Conn, Mass, and probably down into Pennsylvania.
Parker - Michigan and parts of Ohio (maybe some Indiana too)
B. Ferentz - Chicago-area, parts of Ohio, parts of Indiana (I think)
Morgan - Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota
Woods - Parts of Texas (especially DFW area) and Atlanta (previously he did KC area - I think he'll move from that territory)
Wallace - Illinois and ???
Polasek - Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota (and wherever else Bell asks him to go)
Copeland - Kansas City area and Florida (and wherever else Bell asks him to go)

The Unknown = who will pick up our "Atlantic" recruiting of New Jersey and Maryland? Given the relationships that the staff have been cultivating I doubt that we'll drop those regions - but who will now cover them? Maybe Wallace will take over those areas more? Maybe one of the new guys?

Ferentz more recently spoke about recruiting ... and spoke about the possibility of expanding or even CONTRACTING Iowa's recruiting region. Part of the logic being to make sure that wherever we recruit ... we simply do a better job of doing it.

Given that thought, I'm increasingly starting to think that Ferentz is going to redouble the efforts of the staff to really go through the Midwest with a fine-toothed comb. I think that with Copeland, they may expand where they look in Florida. However, apart from maintaining communications with their coaching contacts in New Jersey and Maryland ... they may not actively hit those areas quite as hard.

 

[David1979]

Bell - He'll do it all since he's the recruiting coordinator.

O'Keefe - Conn, Mass, and probably down into Pennsylvania.
Parker - Michigan and parts of Ohio (maybe some Indiana too)
B. Ferentz - Chicago-area, parts of Ohio, parts of Indiana (I think)
Morgan - Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota
Woods - Parts of Texas (especially DFW area) and Atlanta (previously he did KC area - I think he'll move from that territory)
Wallace - Illinois and ???
Polasek - Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota (and wherever else Bell asks him to go)
Copeland - Kansas City area and Florida (and wherever else Bell asks him to go)

The Unknown = who will pick up our "Atlantic" recruiting of New Jersey and Maryland? Given the relationships that the staff have been cultivating I doubt that we'll drop those regions - but who will now cover them? Maybe Wallace will take over those areas more? Maybe one of the new guys?

OKeefe will be recruiting NJ.

 

[David1979]

Bell - He'll do it all since he's the recruiting coordinator.

O'Keefe - Conn, Mass, and probably down into Pennsylvania.
Parker - Michigan and parts of Ohio (maybe some Indiana too)
B. Ferentz - Chicago-area, parts of Ohio, parts of Indiana (I think)
Morgan - Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota
Woods - Parts of Texas (especially DFW area) and Atlanta (previously he did KC area - I think he'll move from that territory)
Wallace - Illinois and ???
Polasek - Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota (and wherever else Bell asks him to go)
Copeland - Kansas City area and Florida (and wherever else Bell asks him to go)

The Unknown = who will pick up our "Atlantic" recruiting of New Jersey and Maryland? Given the relationships that the staff have been cultivating I doubt that we'll drop those regions - but who will now cover them? Maybe Wallace will take over those areas more? Maybe one of the new guys?

I don't think North Dakota is going to be a recruiting territory.

 

[ichawk24]

I thought Wallace did a lot in Georgia/SE, given his history there.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

I don't think North Dakota is going to be a recruiting territory.

I doubt it will be a regular territory (where we spend a ton of time pounding the pavement) ... however, I'm sure that Polasek will follow up on recommendations from recruiting contacts he trusts. If those follow-ups take him to North Dakota ... then so be it.

After all, Kelvin Bell doesn't regularly recruit Mississippi for us ... but in his spare time, while visiting his mom, he found out about Brandon Smith. Irrespective of how Smith ends up developing on the field - he's a high-character kid who stuck with the Hawks ... even while we were facing the Tex-odus. That speaks volumes to me.

Anyhow, I anticipate that we'll definitely see Polasek focus more on Minnesota and Wisconsin ... among other grounds that are in our standard footprint. Since it sounds like he has some experience in Chicago and Florida ... we'll probably have him continue to cultivate his contacts there (and possibly expand upon them).

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

OKeefe will be recruiting NJ.

Makes sense ... thanks.

 

[David1979]

I doubt it will be a regular territory (where we spend a ton of time pounding the pavement) ... however, I'm sure that Polasek will follow up on recommendations from recruiting contacts he trusts. If those follow-ups take him to North Dakota ... then so be it.

After all, Kelvin Bell doesn't regularly recruit Mississippi for us ... but in his spare time, while visiting his mom, he found out about Brandon Smith. Irrespective of how Smith ends up developing on the field - he's a high-character kid who stuck with the Hawks ... even while we were facing the Tex-odus. That speaks volumes to me.

Anyhow, I anticipate that we'll definitely see Polasek focus more on Minnesota and Wisconsin ... among other grounds that are in our standard footprint. Since it sounds like he has some experience in Chicago and Florida ... we'll probably have him continue to cultivate his contacts there (and possibly expand upon them).

Yeah, Polasek has confirmed he will be recruiting Wisconsin and Minnesota.

 

[whatsup13579er]

We can't afford to have Woods leave St. Louis given the immense amount of talent there the next couple of years. You can add Copeland there but I wouldn't take away Woods. Way too much talent and we need to be there.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

We can't afford to have Woods leave St. Louis given the immense amount of talent there the next couple of years. You can add Copeland there but I wouldn't take away Woods. Way too much talent and we need to be there.

Agreed ... but given all the talent in St. Louis ... we really haven't been all that successful there as of late. We benefitted from Epenesa because we're lucky that he is a legacy recruit. However, we've really be whiffing a lot in that area ... and that's even with Illinois and Missouri being relatively "down." Our recruiting there really needs to get turned around.

What doesn't help is that we just lost Mitchell and Parker ... both are St. Louis area preps. Furthermore, if the rumor mill is accurate ... it's not clear if Slater will stick around either. Consequently, it's hard to land guys from the area if they're not seeing guys they're familiar with who are having some success. We're getting a bit far removed from Kirksey, McNutt, and Clayborn.

 

[robchawk]

Agreed ... but given all the talent in St. Louis ... we really haven't been all that successful there as of late. We benefitted from Epenesa because we're lucky that he is a legacy recruit. However, we've really be whiffing a lot in that area ... and that's even with Illinois and Missouri being relatively "down." Our recruiting there really needs to get turned around.

What doesn't help is that we just lost Mitchell and Parker ... both are St. Louis area preps. Furthermore, if the rumor mill is accurate ... it's not clear if Slater will stick around either. Consequently, it's hard to land guys from the area if they're not seeing guys they're familiar with who are having some success. We're getting a bit far removed from Kirksey, McNutt, and Clayborn.

since Johnson left we have struggled in St Louis and at this time Woods is not the answer, hopefully he will prove me wrong but if the future is like the past.......we really need someone strong there especially with the highway completed now....

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

since Johnson left we have struggled in St Louis and at this time Woods is not the answer, hopefully he will prove me wrong but if the future is like the past.......we really need someone strong there especially with the highway completed now....

Agreed - you're right, we certainly seemed to have more luck there with Johnson. Is Ferentz or Bell trying to have Woods cover St Louis?

As I was reminded by DogerHawki (in a different thread) .... O'Keefe has connections in Ohio and Pennsylvania. So he might cover some of those regions too.

 

[Bjornjarnleggr]

Love to get a couple of those DTs out of dirtybirdville , Missouri has a loaded 2018 class .

 

[David1979]

Looks like Wallace is recruiting Florida and Georgia.

 

[robchawk]

Agreed - you're right, we certainly seemed to have more luck there with Johnson. Is Ferentz or Bell trying to have Woods cover St Louis?

As I was reminded by DogerHawki (in a different thread) .... O'Keefe has connections in Ohio and Pennsylvania. So he might cover some of those regions too.

I don't know if he is in st louis or not but someone up above mentioned he was...

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

Looks like Wallace is recruiting Florida and Georgia.

Wallace has also done some recruiting in Wisconsin (and Minnesota too). I wonder if Wallace and Polasek will be doing complementary double-duty on our more populous neighbors.

Similarly, Copeland and Woods may help us to double cover Kansas and Missouri.

To paraphrase a sentiment of Kirk ... too bad we cannot clone Morgan.

 

[DutchyFunStar]

My only concern is that we don't seem to have anyone with a natural connection to TX.

 

[ichawk24]

We had guys with a natural connection to TX, and it was a massive failure.