I saw the zero-to-hero thread and thought it would be fun for everyone to post the story of the first player you ever recruited.

My first recruit ever was Ron Graham, at Delaware Valley in Rupp (season #1).  I had no idea what I was doing (many of us didn't at that time!) and blew my whole budget trying to sign unsuccessfully to sign the top-rated DI PG, who was about ten miles from my campus.  With about $200 left, I offered a scholarship to Graham, a decent-but-not-great PF... and then I had to promise him a starting position to get him to sign, because I couldn't afford anything else.

Thanks to heavy playing time right off the bat (I had two or three walk-ons because of my blown recruiting budget), he ended up being a terrific player.  To this day, through 48 seasons, he is #8 in scoring, #6 in rebounds, #5 in blocks, #12 in steals, and #6 in FT% in school history.

Good old Ron Graham. 

My first class ever was at Earlham in Allen.. My first recruit was SG Ian Lee... I started 5 frosh that year and I believe he is pretty high in all time scoring in Allen, top 10 I think, but I don't know how to look at that as I left that job as I don't like the 1 a day worlds... oh and my last season there was the senior year of my 1st class, they made the final 4

My first team in HD was Coe in the second season of Naismith. I was a crossover from simBaseball so I was familiar with the WIS interface but it was still a totally different experience. I had 7 open spots and recruited 4 Freshmen and 3 Juniors. The team went 11-17 that season but the four freshmen made their mark in the all-time records. Amazingly, the first player I ever recruited, SG Luke Morris, is still #1 in Points scored and #1 in Minutes played. Luke is also #7 in Rebounds. Center Richard Vargas is #1 in Rebounds, #1 in Blocks, #7 in Steals and #5 in Minutes played. The third freshman from that class was PG Ray Dancy who is #14 in Points scored, and ranks in the Top 15 in 3-point% and FT%. The final member of that class, PF Douglas Love, is #14 in Blocks. Not bad considering Naismith is now in season 48. I only coached that team one season because there were no open spots the next season and I wanted to recruit again. It's funny how that seems so very long ago yet HD still seems new and exciting to me.

My first team was West Connecticut State in Allen. I only had one opening. I read the FAQ and saw how important things like passing and ballhandling were in the motion offense. I went out and signed a guard with pa/bh that was well above average for DIII ... who also happened to have a 1 speed.

Let's just say he never quite made All-Conference.

(His name was Michael ... last name started with an M as well, I believe. Can't remember right now ... but wherever he is, I'm sure he's excelling ... and doing so very slowly.)

David Mayer at Earlham(Naismith season 7) is the only player I can remember from my first 3 person class. I only coached there for  2 seasons. The next coach that took over gave him massive distro and he ended up being DIII player of the year as a senior. He is still the leading scorer at Earlham.

I don't remember the name of my first player but I do remember the team. I thought that, if I only ran a slowdown offense, that speed wasn't important. I had 6 players on that roster with speeds of '1'.  Recruting was EASY! No battles; no problems

My starting PG was  a '1' in both ATH and SPEED, but was 84 in DEF. He just stood around and waited for his man to dribble over to him so he could guard him

Posted by alblack56 on 11/19/2010 9:54:00 PM (view original):
I don't remember the name of my first player but I do remember the team. I thought that, if I only ran a slowdown offense, that speed wasn't important. I had 6 players on that roster with speeds of '1'.  Recruting was EASY! No battles; no problems

My starting PG was  a '1' in both ATH and SPEED, but was 84 in DEF. He just stood around and waited for his man to dribble over to him so he could guard him

Al, I'm surprised you and I didn't get into any recruiting brawls over incredibly slow guards.

The guy I signed was so slow ... that we invited him for a campus visit, but by the time he arrived, the semester was already over.

The first player I recruited, a few seasons ago in Knight at Milwaukee Engineering, was Ted Jorge.  I went after him because he had the highest overall rating and had not even scouted him.  Fortunately for me, he had some good potentials and he ended up setting the all-time school record for points by over 300

My first class was Coe, Season 12, Allen.  I still remember waiting up until 3 AM to get a team, as I had just found this "What if sports" thing...

One was a bust (Rick Wilson)
One wasn't bad, (Z. Ambroso) but the man I remembered by name was Charles Segers.  I redshirted him, and this was back in the day before potential, so he finished his redshirt year (all I have captured) with REB of 39 and LP of 24, but somehow ended up on Coe's all time lists at 12th in REB, 1st in steals (as a PF!), 15th in points, and 3rd in FG%.

Although I only coached them 3 years, I still remember two of the three fondly.  Thanks for a trip down memory lane!

I don't remember which individual was first, but I am kind of unique it seems in the sense that my very first class is quite arguably the best class I have ever recruited, at least in terms of their production.  4 of the 5 players rank in the record books in at least 2 categories, 3 in at least 3 categories, and 2 in at least 4 categories. Part of that is due to the fact that the team was horrible when I took over and these guys got to play a ton right off the bat.  Unfortunately none of them could defend (guess it was a lot of all or nothing D with the steals they racked up) and they never ended up making it to the NT.

SG-Thomas Rossmiller-#1 Pts (by almost 400), #2 Steals, #13 3pt%
SG-Michael Roth-#3 Pts, #14 Assts, #1 Steals, #1 ft%
PF-John Simon-#9 Pts, #11 Rebs, #14 Blocks, #10 fg%
SF-Rodney Zaller-#13 Reb, #5 Steals
SF-James Hartigan-this guy sucked. 

Posted by alblack56 on 11/19/2010 9:54:00 PM (view original):
I don't remember the name of my first player but I do remember the team. I thought that, if I only ran a slowdown offense, that speed wasn't important. I had 6 players on that roster with speeds of '1'.  Recruting was EASY! No battles; no problems

My starting PG was  a '1' in both ATH and SPEED, but was 84 in DEF. He just stood around and waited for his man to dribble over to him so he could guard him

That's classic, Al.  It's funny looking back at how little we knew.  I remember the first season when it said I needed to schedule games for next year.  I thought the budget was for travel too so I scheduled 2 games in a row in Georgia thinking it would be cheaper that way.  What an idiot.

first recruit i had was on another tag, he is also a top 10 scorer in div 3 in IBA. he goes by the name of Nathanial Foster, u should check him out

Posted by johnfoppe on 11/19/2010 11:33:00 PM (view original):

Posted by alblack56 on 11/19/2010 9:54:00 PM (view original):
I don't remember the name of my first player but I do remember the team. I thought that, if I only ran a slowdown offense, that speed wasn't important. I had 6 players on that roster with speeds of '1'.  Recruting was EASY! No battles; no problems

My starting PG was  a '1' in both ATH and SPEED, but was 84 in DEF. He just stood around and waited for his man to dribble over to him so he could guard him

That's classic, Al.  It's funny looking back at how little we knew.  I remember the first season when it said I needed to schedule games for next year.  I thought the budget was for travel too so I scheduled 2 games in a row in Georgia thinking it would be cheaper that way.  What an idiot.

I love the budget story. I'm still chuckling!

In season 6 of Knight at Muhlenberg I offered a power forward by the name of Carl Schmidt 25 minutes and a start and used almost all of my money to sign him. He couldn't play more than 23 minutes that first year because he kept getting in foul trouble but he didn't complain and after four years was the school's all-time leading scorer and rebounder.