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This is the second in a multi-part series to be published this summer exploring different aspects and perspectives of the college recruiting process for Wisconsin's high school football players. We will talk to and look at the process from a number of sources, including the University of Wisconsin, out of state Division 1 schools, Division 2, Division 3 WIAC schools, in-state private D3 schools, as well as speak to the athletes themselves. The purpose of this series is to explore and explain what can be a complicated and at times confusing process while also educating athletes, coaches, parents, and fans about ways to improve the chances of earning college scholarships or interest, what needs to be done to compete in college, and what things to expect along the way.

Previous Recruiting Wisconsin features:
Division 2 - Winona State

Division 3, Private School - St. Norbert College (De Pere, WI)

St. Norbert College is located in De Pere, Wisconsin, only a few minutes away from the city of Green Bay. It is a private Catholic liberal arts college with about 2,000 students. The Green Knights compete in NCAA Division III and the Midwest Conference. In 2010 St. Norbert went 7-2 in conference to claim its 13th league title and ninth in Head Coach Jim Purtill's 12 seasons.

Following is a Question and Answer segment with Coach Purtill about the St. Norbert program, it's philosophies about recruiting Wisconsin players, and what athletes can do to increase their exposure for potential college opportunities.

WSN:  What sorts of qualities or traits (both physical and mental) do you look for in recruits at St. Norbert?

Coach Purtill:  Our first criteria when selecting prospects to become actual recruits is their ACADEMICS.   The average freshmen at SNC is a 3.5 GPA with a 25 ACT score.  Without the grades, the student will not be accepted, nor will he receive the better financial aid packages.   As a coach, I have no part in the admissions or financial aid areas – those are the rules in Division III and SNC will uphold the rules.

Once a student meets the academic criteria, we then examine the athletic potential of the student-athlete.  Can he potentially be a successful player in a championship program?

The third phase of the evaluation phase is the character of the young man.  We typically won’t be able to evaluate this until we actually start conversations, and/or meet, with the recruit.  We target great character people, who have a passion to succeed in life, who also understand the importance of the TEAM concept.

WSN:  What is your process for identifying potential recruits initially? (recruiting services, media, HS coach contacts, etc.)

Coach Purtill:  We essentially target a 3 to 4 hour radius from our college, Wisconsin being our #1 target. The other areas include the upper northeast region of Illinois, the Catholic/Private schools around Chicago, and the Upper Peninsula, Michigan.   The majority of our information comes from high school coaches.   We are old fashion that way – we want a good relationship with the high school coaches.  We TRUST the high school coaches to want to do what is best for their student-athletes, especially with regards to the right college where their former players can find success.    

On a secondary note, we do review the recruiting services that make sense for us.  We are also open to kids from outside areas who contact us with a legitimate interest in SNC.  

WSN:  How big are your initial contact lists? What is your process for getting them down to a manageable number of potential recruits?

Coach Purtill:  The initial contact list can be as big as the number of players that each coach recommends.  From a 4 hour radius of our campus there is in excess of 600 high schools, which could generate a recommended list of anywhere from 4,000 to 7,000 names.   We don’t recruit all of those kids.  We don’t mass recruit.  We are very selective on who we target to engage in conversations with and actually recruit – all based on the criteria above.   Even saying that, our initial core target list is typically around 800-1000 kids from the Midwest.

As the process unfolds, the list shrinks quickly.  The reasons are many; who is taking scholarships,  who is interested in college football, who is going to play another sport in college, who is not going to play any sports in college, etc.   Ultimately we will visit to our campus around 200 top recruits, and then focus on them to get our freshmen class.

WSN:  Looking at Wisconsin prospects in general, why do they fit well with what you are trying to do at St. Norbert?

Coach Purtill:  SNC is a school that attracts high quality, family-oriented students – good students who want to be successful.  We are a Norbertine Catholic institution, the only Norbertine College in the world.  Wisconsin as a state, and the Wisconsin families, stands for above same qualities.  Our students are normal kids with high dreams, and they have the academic potential to achieve those dreams.   It’s a great setting for young people to have a high quality student-athletic experience.

Add to that the proximity of Green Bay, the GB Packers, and the other fine attractions of the area – SNC has alot to offer.

WSN:  How much does the fact that there are no Division II schools (and just one Division I school) in Wisconsin work to your advantage?

Coach Purtill:  It’s a great advantage for all of  the Division III schools, that is why Division III athletics in general in among the best in the country.  Our job is to get our fair shares of athletes in order to “compete in the neighborhood”.   As you know, there are many great football programs in Wisconsin – traditional powers, national championship pedigrees, tremendous athletes.   It is an honor for SNC to be nationally recognized as a strong football program.  

WSN:  Do you feel if there was additional scholarship colleges in Wisconsin that the perception of state high school players would be higher? In other words, would more D1 recruiters and recruiting services spend more time in Wisconsin if there were more in-state scholarship opportunities?

Coach Purtill:  No,  just the opposite.  Due to the lack of competing football scholarship schools, it makes it enticing for outside the state schools to come “raid” our local talent.   The college search can be very exciting at the beginning of the process.  Kids can get excited about the potential of going to school far away.  In the end however, most kids want to stay relatively close to home – back to that 2-3 hours radius.  If there were a significant number of in-state scholarship schools to compete against, you would see fewer kids selecting far away scholarship schools.  It would be harder for out of state scholarship schools to succeed.

WSN:  Is it difficult recruiting to St. Norbert's and the Midwest Conference with the WIAC schools also in state and generally considered one of the best DIII conferences in the country?

Coach Purtill:  The WIAC is an outstanding conference; their records of success stand on their own merits.  However,  SNC athletics has done very well for a “poor little catholic school trying to get by”.  SNC hockey has won 2 of the last 4 national championships and have dominated their league over the last 15 years, a league made up primarily of WIAC schools.  Our men’s and women’s basketball teams have done extremely well the last two years; winning league titles, advancing to the NCAA tournament, and have a combine winning record against the WIAC.  SNC Track has produced numerous individual national champions in both the men and women’s teams over the last 12 years.

Our program has also been successful over the years; winning our league 9/12 years, with numerous appearances in the national play-offs.  As a matter of fact, SNC football is 107–14 against all private colleges in the country since 1999 and 46-2 against all private schools in Wisconsin during the same time frame.  We have several victories against nationally ranked opponents.  And from an historical perspective, St. Norbert College football is a national leader among all Division III colleges in producing NFL talent over the decades – SNC has produced 35 players who have either been signed or drafted by the NFL.
 
The biggest obstacle that we face is the perception issue, or a misunderstanding of what SNC is all about.  The student-athletes of the state don’t truly understand the great opportunities that our school offers, the beauty of the school and facilities, the community aspect of the campus, the great academics, the quality teaching staff, and an administrative support that truly cares for the overall welfare of the student – and is actively doing something to improve the daily experience for the entire SNC community.

Sometimes family’s get nervous about the cost of a private education.  They don’t realize the fact that there are solid financial aid packages available to the good academic students.  Many of our aid packages can reduce the overall cost of a student’s college education to very reasonable levels, oftentimes equal to or lower than that of the state schools.   

SNC is not a “rich kid” school.  I coached at Cornell University in the Ivy League for five years – I know what a “rich kid” school looks like.  As a matter of fact,  a couple of years ago a survey revealed that the average income of the family that sent their son/daughter to UW-Madison had a higher income level than the average family of the SNC students – the “rich kids” go to Madison more frequently than to SNC.

Once a student-athlete decides to take a serious look at our school; applies, gets the financial aid package, talks to the people, go through an official football visit, etc, - we compete very well for the high quality kids.  And we are only getting better thanks to the addition of $60-80 million dollars of new facilities on campus over the last few years; including our new $13 million football stadium/practice facility.

WSN:  Have you noticed any changes in recent years in how many players stay in state at DIII schools versus go out of state to a DII or DI-FCS program? If you have seen any changes, what do you feel the reasons are for them?

Coach Purtill:  I have not noticed many changes over the 12 years that I have been the head coach at SNC.  Depending on the need of the scholarship schools, and the availability of scholarship money from year to year,  there are ebbs and flows to the process but overall it stays pretty much the same.  Oftentimes times it boils down to money.  If a scholarship school is going to offer substantial money to a recruit, they are probably going to take it.

WSN:  What are ways that players that are interested in playing at the Division III level can increase their exposure or chances of getting college interest?

Coach Purtill:  Number one; ask their high schools coaches to get information out to the local colleges  After all, in the end it’s all about trying to help kids.  A high percentage of the high schools coaches do a great job, but there are some that don’t seem to think this is a responsibility that they should care about.   I realize that their job is very time consuming, and they have family obligations, but this is still part of the deal.  

Second;  I would say to kids to keep your options open.  We all dreamed of Division I at one time or another, either as a players or coach.  But the reality of it is that Small College football in Wisconsin is a great level of football, and it is still COLLEGE FOOTBALL.  Most players, and many coaches, are amazed at the talent level that we have here at St. Norbert College once they take the time to watch one of our practices.

It’s always disheartening to see so many talented kids try to walk-on in Division One, or take a marginal D2 Scholarship, and then it doesn’t work out for them.  It’s a big wide world out there, there are so many kids that have the potential to enjoy a wonderful career that get lost in the process.

WSN:  What is your general philosophy or plan in recruiting the state of Wisconsin?

Coach Purtill:  Wisconsin is and always will be our bread and butter.  As I wrote earlier, we have about a three to four hour radius that we target as our home base.   When you look for talented kids, character kids, kids from good families who care about the right things – Wisconsin is a terrific place to recruit.  Our plan is to actively recruit every solid student-athlete who fits the SNC profile.  To do that we have to contact every high school coach within our targeted area to establish that relationship with the coaches and to get the appropriate information in order to target the right kids.

In our situation we request the following information;  name, address, phone, position, height, weight, 40 time, GPA, ACT scores.   Our rationale behind this request is very simple;  “Who are your best players?  Players that can help us win championships and compete at the national level.  Can they be accepted at SNC, succeed at SNC, and graduate from SNC?  And how do I contact them?”  We can’t win championships with average D3 talent.  We need the elite, scholarship level players to compete nationally.  A player has to be really good and very determined to play for us.

WSN:  What are some of the benefits of recruiting in the state of Wisconsin? Any challenges?

Coach Purtill:  I think I answered the question of benefits of recruiting Wisconsin in the answers above.   Our biggest challenges in being effective in recruiting are:

-Midwest Conference Rules:  Our league doesn’t permit us to go off-campus to recruit.  We cannot travel to the high school to talk to the coach or to the players.  It’s harder to develop relationships that way

-Staffing:  At SNC, we only have two full-time coaches.  I get great help from our part-time staff, but it is still challenging to run the entire program and do a great job with recruiting.

-High Schools Coaches:   Please help us with the information gathering phase.   We are all very busy with our lives, but it is about helping kids have great experiences.

-Perception:   St. Norbert College is a major player in the D3 athletic world.  The coaches, recruits and families who will take the time to visit us realize that this is true.

In the end, it all about getting the job done.  No complaints, just hard work by a lot of good people.