IN SUMMER, TEXAS BRAHMAS PLAY THE RECRUITING GAME
David Thomas 7/15/10
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS -- It's the off-season, but Texas Brahmas coach Dan Wildfong and assistant coach Ron Vogel are busily working on bringing another Central Hockey League championship to the Texas Brahmas.
The Brahmas don't take the ice for their first game for three months, but the work that Wildfong and Vogel are doing right now could determine whether the Brahmas will lift the Ray Miron President's Cup for the second time in three seasons.
They are recruiting players to fill the 2010-11 roster.
This is mid-level professional hockey, not the NHL. The three most important elements in building a championship-caliber team just might be deep hockey connections, a strong sales pitch and a good cellphone plan.
"You look to build your team throughout the summer," Vogel said, "and that's all recruiting."
Wildfong and Vogel invited us into their small office at the NYTEX Sports Centre to observe the various aspects of the minor-league hockey recruiting process.
Working the phones
Vogel charges his cellphone battery every night before he goes to bed. By the time he returns home from work the next day, the battery is almost drained.
He and Wildfong can't estimate how much time they spend on the phone each day, but it would have to be enough to make even Judy the Time-Life Operator of old commercial fame weary.
And Wildfong and Vogel don't even get to use a headset as Judy did.
"We just hammer the phones all day," Wildfong said.
Wildfong said it typically takes about 10 to 15 calls to determine whether a potential player has what the Brahmas are looking for: a good attitude, a strong work ethic, the skills to play in the CHL and a style that fits the Brahmas' emphasis on defense and aggressiveness.
Wildfong flipped to a couple of pages in his notebook that listed phone calls he made during one recent day. He had been in contact with 23 players that day. That's not the total number of phone calls he made, just the players he talked to. And some of those he talked to multiple times.
Sight unseen
Wildfong estimates that 90 percent of players signed come in unseen by the coaches.
"If we're lucky," he said, "we can see a guy in one game on television."
College coaches, former teammates, former coaches, scouts, the players' parents -- anyone who might know something about the player is worth a phone call.
"It's tough," Vogel said. "But you build those relationships with other coaches in other leagues, past players we've played with and other players we're recruiting. You get names out there."
Still, the unknown is a major element of minor-league hockey recruiting.
"You just don't know what you're getting all the time with some of these recruits," Vogel said. "It is tough. But it's also an enjoyment when you do land some players."
Wildfong had a treat the day we visited -- the chance to see a potential player on ice. Wildfong had received a call from the player's stepfather, who said the player was in San Antonio and wanted to work out for the Brahmas.
"It's great, because I don't ever get a chance to do this," Wildfong said. "This is really rare."
High-tech 'scouting'
Unable to put eyeballs on the large majority of recruits, one of the Brahmas coaches' most valuable scouting tools is one used by many hockey fans -- hockeydb.com, a database of players' statistics from various levels of professional and amateur hockey.
Wildfong can answer a phone call from a recruit or his agent and within a few keystrokes have the player's complete career statistics in front of him to help evaluate the player during the conversation.
The big boards
Wildfong and Vogel share a cramped office off the training room in the NYTEX Sports Centre. Behind Wildfong's desk is a dry-erase board with three groups of names written in orange -- forwards, defensemen and goaltenders.
Each name is a prospective player, and each has a phone number to its right. There are at least 60 names on the board.
"That's the short list," Wildfong said. Then he pulled out a notebook with, he estimated, at least 150 more names.
To Wildfong's left, Vogel's desk faces the side wall. Above his desk is another whiteboard. That's the one the recruits hope to see their names on, because that is where the coaches list players signed for the upcoming season.
There are 15 names in black there at the moment, and that list will grow to 26 by the time training camp opens Oct. 1 and the process of determining the 19-man roster begins.
The little black book Wildfong jots notes from his phone calls in a small black book. It's an attention to detail that he hopes gives him an advantage when recruiting against other coaches.
He is especially intentional in setting up specific times to follow up with prospective players, with an entry such as "Call Justin at 1 p.m."
"A lot of coaches don't maybe do this,' he said, "but we like to set some structure so it's not just, 'Oh, I'll call you whenever.'"
The night shift
With minor-league players commonly working summer jobs, getting in touch with them often falls outside of the 9-to-5 office routine. Dinner, movie, favorite TV show -- all have the potential to be interrupted by a phone call.
"All day you try to get a hold of them, then at night you finally get eight calls back," Wildfong said.
Reality check
One obstacle coaches face can be a player's aspirations, especially if those aspirations are misguided.
"It's a grind at our level to recruit, because everyone wants to think they can go to the NHL," Wildfong said.
If a player can't go to the NHL, he'll want to play in the American Hockey League, which is the NHL's primary development league. Then there's the East Coast Hockey League, which bills itself as the "Premier AA league" although minor-league hockey has no distinct levels like baseball.
Some players' aspirations are out of line with their talent.
"I understand these guys have a dream, and you can't hammer the dream and say, 'Hey, you don't have a chance.'" Wildfong said. "We have that a lot of times.
"We build relationships with guys we recruit and they go to the American League or go to the East Coast League, and they end up calling us and come back to us just because we have that relationship going with them. That's what our job's about -- building relationships and selling our program."
Pumped up
Wildfong and Vogel work closely together in recruiting -- both in office space and in responsibilities. Each knows exactly what the other is working on, and knows well the work required to land a player that could help win the Brahmas' second league championship.
What happens when one of the coaches has one of those phone calls during which he lands one of those players?
"A quick turn of the chair and a fist pump," Vogel said. "It's great."
