(04-28-2021 08:25 PM)grOWLer Wrote: Why not just send a message to the appropriate coach and say, "So-and-so at such-and-such high school ran a 10.3 100 meters last week at the District Meet. He/she is a junior/senior. You may not be aware of this, but his father/mother is a Rice graduate and scholar/athlete."
It may not get a response, but Rice coaches are busy and may not know that some athlete's father/mother attended Rice or was a scholar/athlete. The father/mother may have graduated before the coach came to the school and/or the coach may not recognize the family relationship.
If we do this, we may actually be solving the problem instead of griping about it.
Really? This is what you've gotten from this?? I see people trying to solve the problem, getting griped at by people who think this is the best we can do/should expect.
Let me give a recap...
We have an alumni parent(s) of a recruitable athlete who ALSO was a high school coach who had sent us a few athletes... and he has reached out to those coaches to TELL them the sort of things you mention here, and they've gotten NO response..... Not a, HEY former player.. great to hear from you.. we'd love to see you at a practice... but literally dead silence.
It has been suggested that there may be 'rules' around this. I think it clear that rules don't stop someone on the staff (even if not a coach) from being courteous, perhaps even noting the rule... but even so....
This was never about that... and anyone paying attention would know that, because its been said a dozen times. What this was about was missing a connection. A half dozen or so examples of kids who are the children of alumni who are CURRENTLY being 'highly competitive' in at least two sports... and suggestions about 'how to make sure we are connecting with kids like these' have been put forward.
The only GRIPING from 'this' side has been to state the very clear fact that we are missing an opportunity. That we have a chance to finally take ADVANTAGE of our small size.. AND ALSO the sense of 'brotherhood' that frequently comes from a connection to other athletes, and a distancing (that seems to be INCREASING) from SOME students on our campus.
Rice does a great job of keeping track of people who might be donors to the program. Rice does a poor job of keeping track of people who might be highly influential in directing kids who might help a coach extend his scholarship numbers by walking on... or in a BEST case, that it might help a coach get a recruit that he otherwise would have no shot to get. Implicit in that is the simple fact that even if none of these kids are even as good as those kids already on our roster who don't frequently see the field... They may be FRIENDS with kids who could be, who would see the closer connections that Rice players have versus other schools... IF we actually had that. In this specific example, I know that ONE parent is a teacher... who has influence over kids every day. I don't know what the other parent does, but I think the odds are pretty good that a) their kids are decent students and b) that based on what teachers earn, they may benefit from 'The Rice Investment'... and because they CHOSE to be teachers, they embody the very sense of 'paying it forward' that we are talking about.
And are those ideas met with the sort of acceptance you seem to imply would be appropriate here?
No.
Instead it is met with '
maybe your kid just isn't good enough' which not only is dismissive, but completely misses the point... and '
the coaches are too busy to be polite'... ignoring that it doesn't have to be a coach to do most of this. It COULD be the R Association doing most of the work.... or even a group of invested alumni... but it DOES require SOME buy-in by coaches, otherwise they defeat the purpose. There may (likely are) other institutional barriers that need to be worked on that the coaches may need help with.... from people like those on this forum.
and now a more direct
'quit complaining and just do a few of the things you've already done'??
I'm a big believer in team building. I don't expect nor even require that my 'leader' be competent in every area over which he has control. I expect and require that he be conversant enough in those areas to know where his personal deficiencies are, and to bring people in who HAVE those skills.
If a coach buys into this idea but doesn't have the time himself, I TOTALLY get and respect that. Someone else needs to bring these (essentially free) resources to him. If a coach doesn't buy into these ideas, that's a different story.
I mean seriously... at its core, what we're talking about is creating lifelong and multi-generational connections to people who proudly represented Rice... quite literally living and wearing that brand for 4+ years.... almost all of whom were specific beneficiaries of the endowment... for the benefit of the University, as well as our alumni. That is at its core, the MISSION of alumni relations and one of the purposes of HOSTING athletic events.
Griping? Not remotely. AT WORST what you're seeing is that some of us are more tired than others at beating their heads against a brick wall.