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Signing day the end of one task, the start of another

2/9/2008

By CONOR NICHOLL

Hays Daily News

For the Fort Hays State University football program, the 22 players inked on Wednesday's National Signing Day were the result of thousands of hours of film study, weeks traveling, summer camps, constant evaluation and relationships with high school coaches and families.

The process also involves offering scholarships to dozens of athletes from different states, including Oklahoma, Kansas, Arizona and Iowa. Fort Hays also offered scholarships to several area standouts, including Smith Center quarterback Joe Windscheffel and running back Braden Wilson, but no area players signed with Fort Hays on Signing Day.

For head coach Kevin Verdugo and his staff, the process first involves eliciting names of players that could play for the Tigers. The Tigers receive recommendations from high school coaches and information from recruiting Web sites. Coaches and players also mail in tapes that the staff watches.

The Tigers watch tape all season long, but in November and December, after the regular season is finished, it starts in earnest.

"There is a ton of tape that comes in and we spend weekends, days, all throughout the day looking at tape," Verdugo said Thursday afternoon. "If we get a tape we look at it."

Fort Hays, like all programs, builds a recruiting board with every position. All of the coaches have certain areas of the country they recruit.

"We will start for example, say watching quarterbacks and every coach will pull out every quarterback that they have," Verdugo said. "Everyone that has been out there we see film, we put it in and we watch it one by one."

If the player passes a film test that includes assessments in size, strength, speed, blocking, arm strength and other skills, they are put on the recruiting board. If they aren't as talented, they are put into a pile.

"After everybody's been watched and made the board, then we will go through and we assign ranks to them, 1 through whatever, 1 being the guy that we would like to sign the most to being this is as far down as we will go," Verdugo said.

Verdugo said the Tigers had six quarterbacks on their list this season (some other positions, such as lineman, have longer lists). Fort Hays signed one quarterback, Mike Garrison, a transfer from junior college national champion Butler County Community College.

"After six, there was a very notable marked difference between six and who would have been seventh or whatever and so we decided at that time to cut it off," Verdugo said. "It was such a discrepancy after the sixth guy, then we didn't really want to go there."

In December, Fort Hays starts to cull their list. Division I schools start this process much earlier. They pick and choose the players they want and then it trickles down to the I-AA schools such as Missouri State and Northern Colorado.

"We can compete with some of those (I-AA) folks every now and then," Verdugo said. "For the most part, if a I-AA school wants a kid, they are usually going to get them."

The Tigers start their house visits in early December. The assistant coaches will do home visits and see kids and then in January, the players that have been offered scholarships have a home visit from Verdugo.

In the last three weeks of January, Verdugo travels throughout the country.

This January, he went to several areas, including Tucson and Phoenix Ariz.; Colorado, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Smith Center, Dodge City, Liberal, and Wichita.

The Fort Hays staff has certain areas of the country they recruit strongly because of relationships with coaches or a strong, untapped talent base.

All of the coaches have ties to Kansas and that helped the Tigers sign 10 of their 22 players from the Sunflower State.

"I think there is still that perception that we don't recruit kids in Kansas, but that is not reality," Verdugo said.

In comparison, Emporia State University, a Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association team, signed 14 players from Oklahoma and six from Kansas.

Fort Hays has also made in-roads in Oklahoma and Arizona.

Few MIAA schools even sign players in Arizona, but the state offers plenty of Div. II talent that isn't picked up by western schools.

Fort Hays signed five Oklahoma players and four from Arizona.

"Oklahoma is really a place where we have gone out and forged some roads on our own," Verdugo said. "Arizona is a new area for us to go down to try and get in."

Fort Hays tries to take as many in-state players as the talent allows. However, if an out-of-state player is superior to a Kansas athlete, the Tigers will pursue the out-of-state player. Several MIAA teams, including Truman State and Northwest Missouri State, have found success the last two seasons with several out-of-state players at multiple, key positions.

"If the better player is in-state, we are obviously going to take the in-state better player, if an in-state player and an out-of-state player are equal and we watch the film and it's a dead heat, we will take the in-state player," Verdugo said. "If the out-of-state player is hands down better than the in-state player, then we will go with the out-of-state kid."

There were a few in-state, area players that Fort Hays offered scholarships. Instead, those players decided to sign with other schools, including Kensington's Ethan Kuhlmann (University of Nebraska-Kearney).

"We recruited Kuhlmann extremely hard," Verdugo said. "Thought he would have fit in and been a nice player for us."

Windscheffel signed with Pittsburg State, and Wilson -- both all-area players who made several all-state teams -- signed with Kansas State as a gray shirt.

With Wilson, Smith Center's lead running back who rushed for over 1,800 yards this past fall, the Tigers recruited him for several months before Kansas State signed him.

"Braden is a heck of a football player and a great kid,' Verdugo said.

"I know the guy that recruited him at K-State. I worked with him. He asked me what I thought of him and I said he would do a great job for you."

With Windscheffel, Smith Center's quarterback and a defensive back, Fort Hays recruited him as a safety -- the same position he signed for with the Gorillas.

Verdugo said he didn't receive Windscheffel's name as a potential recruit from Smith Center head coach Roger Barta. Rather it was brought to Fort Hays, according to Verdugo, "by other people."

"Joe's name was not given to us until extremely late," Verdugo said. "I know it was given out to Pitt a little bit earlier. I think they might have had a little longer shot at him as far as opportunity to recruit him.

"We recruited him extremely hard and thought we had a great chance to get him here," Verdugo added. "... I know he didn't attend there because a scholarship offer was bigger. He attended there for personal choice."

However, while Windscheffel went elsewhere, 22 players still signed with the Tigers, culminating one Signing Day -- and starting the process for another.

Sports Reporter Conor Nicholl can be reached at (785) 628-1081 Ext. 127 or at

cnicholl@dailynews.net.

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