College Coaches checking players Facebook sites to evaluate character!

[Soccerhead]

Thought this would be of interest to the board.

College Coaches checking players Facebook sites to evaluate character!

NCSA: What do you look for when evaluating potential recruits?

Coach Taylor: Academics, Character and Ability are the three main categories needing to be evaluated.

Academics - based on the sliding scale, (Core GPA/Test score). Fifth semester grades are huge. It allows you to work with a great prospect if there’s a potential issue. If you get a chance to see fourth semester on top prospects it will give you even more of a chance to advise the counselors, high school coaches and student-athlete if possible. Don’t let the recruit hide his transcript.

Character - more difficult but start with the head coach at the high school then talk to as many people involved with the prospect as possible, include position coach, counselors, trainers, club/AAU coach, check out their facebook site, etc. Colleges are doing more and more background checks on prospects.

Ability –your benchmarks will vary across different sports but for me it was all about athleticism. If I knew I was targeting an athlete then I could fit him/her into our different schemes depending on how their position specific skill sets developed.


www.soccerhead.tv

[Unregistered]

I know my kid's facebook passwords so I periodically check them and their "friends" out. I *constantly* see pictures of kids holding beer cans, playing beer pong, making can pyramids, kids in cars holding beer cans. Many of them are high school varsity athletes. It's completely idiotic - these kids think slightly blurring their busch lite cans makes it all better. My wife went to talk at the high school where the speaker said all the connections in teenager's brains haven't formed yet so they tend to do things that adults can't for the life of them figure out.

[Unregistered]

I know my kid's facebook passwords so I periodically check them and their "friends" out. I *constantly* see pictures of kids holding beer cans, playing beer pong, making can pyramids, kids in cars holding beer cans. Many of them are high school varsity athletes. It's completely idiotic - these kids think slightly blurring their busch lite cans makes it all better. My wife went to talk at the high school where the speaker said all the connections in teenager's brains haven't formed yet so they tend to do things that adults can't for the life of them figure out.

Very true. Some parents would be blown away if they saw what their kids have on facebook....blatant alcohol pictures and references, sometimes some drug references, and some unbelievable language. The nucleus of many a varsity high school soccer team could be shut down with some timely disclosures, not to mention potentially ruining one's recruitment.

[Cujo]

Very true. Some parents would be blown away if they saw what their kids have on facebook....blatant alcohol pictures and references, sometimes some drug references, and some unbelievable language. The nucleus of many a varsity high school soccer team could be shut down with some timely disclosures, not to mention potentially ruining one's recruitment.

Yup they are just like their parents - only younger.

If coaches think that using facebook as a measure of character is worthwhile I think that is pretty shortsighted. Just because someone is more discreet doesn't mean they have nothing to hide.

This idea that someone should suffer long term consequences and a ruined college opportunity because they have a beer can in their hand is ridiculous.

[Unregistered]

Yup they are just like their parents - only younger.

You have this bizarre thing about the parents - you really should get some therapy.

[Unregistered]

You have this bizarre thing about the parents - you really should get some therapy.

No, Cujo doesn't need therapy, although he may tell us he had 10 years of analysis just because. Cujo actually might be the guy in the beer commercial...THE MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD. Cujo is a renaissance man....multi-sport guy, multiple musical instruments, politics guru, sage on youth sports, with specialities in parent issues, ages of African kids, etc., probably even knows where to get the best barbecue in NC, TX, and Kansas City.

[Unregistered]

Very true. Some parents would be blown away if they saw what their kids have on facebook....blatant alcohol pictures and references, sometimes some drug references, and some unbelievable language. The nucleus of many a varsity high school soccer team could be shut down with some timely disclosures, not to mention potentially ruining one's recruitment.

Parents are stupid if they don't "friend" there kids on Facebook and keep an eye on things.

[Unregistered]

No, Cujo doesn't need therapy, although he may tell us he had 10 years of analysis just because. Cujo actually might be the guy in the beer commercial...THE MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD. Cujo is a renaissance man....multi-sport guy, multiple musical instruments, politics guru, sage on youth sports, with specialities in parent issues, ages of African kids, etc., probably even knows where to get the best barbecue in NC, TX, and Kansas City.

"I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis."

Favorite lines......

"He can speak French in Russian"

"He wouldn't be afraid to show his feminine side...if he had one"

http://www.dosequisguy.com/

[Unregistered]

Yup they are just like their parents - only younger.

If coaches think that using facebook as a measure of character is worthwhile I think that is pretty shortsighted. Just because someone is more discreet doesn't mean they have nothing to hide.

This idea that someone should suffer long term consequences and a ruined college opportunity because they have a beer can in their hand is ridiculous.

The "logic" escapes me. If a coach sees something damning on facebook he should drop the player from consideration. The mere fact that those without something damining on their pages may be equally bad is irrelevant.

[bouba diop]

"I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis."

Favorite lines......

"He can speak French in Russian"

"He wouldn't be afraid to show his feminine side...if he had one"

http://www.dosequisguy.com/

He once had an awkward moment just to see what it was like

[Unregistered]

The "logic" escapes me. If a coach sees something damning on facebook he should drop the player from consideration. The mere fact that those without something damining on their pages may be equally bad is irrelevant.

I remember the first time a realized that my dad had also once been a teenager and also engaged in many of the types wild behaviors that I did. It made me understand that his life growing uo wasn't much different than mine. Fact is that there were more similarities than differences between my dad's teenage years in the late 50s and mine in the early 80s. That is not the same for my kids. We had a degree of privacy and insulation that they will never understand. It allowed us to make mistakes and possibly learn from those mistakes with few "public" repercussions. Almost all discipline was strictly in-house, whether that house be your family home or the school. Even petty crimes were normally handled informally. To be arrested and charged meant that you were either really unlucky (got the wrong cop on the wrong night) or had already developed a reputation with the local police to deserve sterner justice. But even the the publicity would be limited to a blurb in the local police log and some talk around the town square. Our children are products of the internet, cell phone and cable TV exposions. This web page is a great example of the benefits and draw backs to these "advancements" in communication. But we must try to remember that they are still young - and often really stupid. And as Cujo rightly points out, so were we. Adolescents should not normally be held to the same standards as adults. We know that very well and all understand why. Just a generation ago, it was far easier to allow teens the room to grow and develop the ability to make adult decisions - and eventually to be held accountable as adults. But, because our children live in a world were their every action is subject to possible public scrutiny, that room to grow is pretty restricted. Its easy to be the hard a** and argue for zero tolerance when it comes to certain behaviors. However, almost every objective study has shown that one-strike policies are counter-productive and unlikely to act as a legitimate deterrent to these undesirable risky behaviors. Why? Most often because the kids are typically incapable of making the type of reasoned "cost/ benefit" analysis that would give the deterrent any value. Their brains have yet to develop the consistent ability to consider the long term consequences when faced with the option to get some short gratification. That doesn't mean that we should let everything go or that punishment is futile, but those punishments need to be geared to actually deter unwanted behavior and foster good decision making. Too often the tough approach says more about the adults wanting to proove something to themselves than the possibility of helping the teenager. So it may feel good to argue that student/ athletes should be held strictly accountable for stuff that appears on Facebook or a Twitter account - but does that work? Certainly a school has a right to place restrictions on those athletes (and recruits) in which they are making a serious financial investment, but to assume that you can determine someone's "character" solely from a review of their Facebook account is ridiculous. Perhaps some reasoned leniency, education and a second-chance may be more appropriate. How a kid handles that second-chance will say far more about his/her character than the original infraction.

[Unregistered]

He once had an awkward moment just to see what it was like

Yep, that's the one I couldn't remember. A classic.

What's the best video clip? Coming out of the twins' bedroom on the train is pretty good.

[Unregistered]

I remember the first time a realized that my dad had also once been a teenager and also engaged in many of the types wild behaviors that I did. It made me understand that his life growing uo wasn't much different than mine. Fact is that there were more similarities than differences between my dad's teenage years in the late 50s and mine in the early 80s. That is not the same for my kids. We had a degree of privacy and insulation that they will never understand. It allowed us to make mistakes and possibly learn from those mistakes with few "public" repercussions. Almost all discipline was strictly in-house, whether that house be your family home or the school. Even petty crimes were normally handled informally. To be arrested and charged meant that you were either really unlucky (got the wrong cop on the wrong night) or had already developed a reputation with the local police to deserve sterner justice. But even the the publicity would be limited to a blurb in the local police log and some talk around the town square. Our children are products of the internet, cell phone and cable TV exposions. This web page is a great example of the benefits and draw backs to these "advancements" in communication. But we must try to remember that they are still young - and often really stupid. And as Cujo rightly points out, so were we. Adolescents should not normally be held to the same standards as adults. We know that very well and all understand why. Just a generation ago, it was far easier to allow teens the room to grow and develop the ability to make adult decisions - and eventually to be held accountable as adults. But, because our children live in a world were their every action is subject to possible public scrutiny, that room to grow is pretty restricted. Its easy to be the hard a** and argue for zero tolerance when it comes to certain behaviors. However, almost every objective study has shown that one-strike policies are counter-productive and unlikely to act as a legitimate deterrent to these undesirable risky behaviors. Why? Most often because the kids are typically incapable of making the type of reasoned "cost/ benefit" analysis that would give the deterrent any value. Their brains have yet to develop the consistent ability to consider the long term consequences when faced with the option to get some short gratification. That doesn't mean that we should let everything go or that punishment is futile, but those punishments need to be geared to actually deter unwanted behavior and foster good decision making. Too often the tough approach says more about the adults wanting to proove something to themselves than the possibility of helping the teenager. So it may feel good to argue that student/ athletes should be held strictly accountable for stuff that appears on Facebook or a Twitter account - but does that work? Certainly a school has a right to place restrictions on those athletes (and recruits) in which they are making a serious financial investment, but to assume that you can determine someone's "character" solely from a review of their Facebook account is ridiculous. Perhaps some reasoned leniency, education and a second-chance may be more appropriate. How a kid handles that second-chance will say far more about his/her character than the original infraction.

Good post, and I agree with in large part, especially when talking about one-time, impulsive acts or mistakes. The problem with Facebook is that actual patterns of behavior, or the perception of such, can appear evident. When a kid has multiple pictures of drinking, over time, and perhaps written admissions basically flaunting what they are doing, and perhaps regular vulgarities as well, I think we're talking about something else. Then it's not just a one-time behavior that perhaps should be excused but rather an indication of a kid's judgment....judgment in engaging in the actual behavior AND judgment in posting such material repeatedly in such a public place. Another way of looking at it is.....when is a warning sign a warning sign, and when is is just a mistake in an otherwise good kid? That can be a tough call, and I know a number of parents who always assume and/or defend that the latter is the case when they really are in denial and everyone else around knows that their kid is deeper down a murky road than they think.

[Unregistered]

Don't kid yourselves too much. Older teenagers are still doing what they have always done. The chat during warmups isn't much different than back in the dark ages when most of us crazy, middle age posters were the same age; sex, drugs and Rolling Rock.

[Unregistered]

So...................................how does a coach of a prospective student check the studen's FB page without having access to it via an accepted friend request?