Building a Program the Right Way
Recruiting is the lifeblood of any athletics program, and South Carolina track and field head coach Tim Hall has built the Gamecocks to compete with the nation’s best thanks to targeted efforts to bring in outstanding freshmen as well as veteran athletes through the transfer portal in a variety of disciplines. The combined thirty newcomers and transfers on the men’s and women’s teams have earned thirty-two top 10 program marks this indoor season, including five program records.
“My philosophy in recruiting in the portal is that we have to stay with the dynamics of the SEC,” said Hall, who is in his third year leading the Gamecocks. “We call it a diamond league. We always have to keep that in mind when recruiting. The dynamics shift every year in terms of what is the dominant discipline, and we center our recruiting process around putting pieces in place or recruiting high level pieces to fill those gaps within the conference. It’s an ongoing process. We just have to remain cognizant of what the conference is doing, and how it shifts every two or three years in terms of the disciplines that are dominant. We look at the best high school kids and the best kids in the portal who we feel can make an immediate impact within the program and meet the need of keeping us balanced across all disciplines.
“We’re always looking at how the championships avail themselves. After each championship, we look at disciplines where we can gain more points, and we fit our recruiting process in that mold.”
The Gamecocks have eight true freshmen and five transfers on the men’s team and 11 freshmen and six transfers on the women’s team. Hall noted that you have to build with young and veteran competitors.
“We’ve had to rely on the philosophy of the program, which is meeting kids where they are,” Hall said. “Helping the parents understand we are going to treat them as individuals first to extract whatever performance we desire from them. It’s more about helping families and kids who aspire to succeed, not only at the SEC level, but the NCAA level. We want to assure them that we have a product here to get them where they desire to be.”
“You interview the kid, and you interview the parent. That’s very important to me. If they can’t conduct themselves the right way or respect their parents, we as coaches don’t have a shot.”
Sports such as track and field may not enjoy the same spoils in revenue sharing and NIL compared to sports such as football, so there are additional challenges in recruiting, but traditional approaches still work.
“I prefer it that way,” Hall said. “We acquire kids that want to be at South Carolina for the right reasons; not just chasing money.
“Marquee institutions have a history of doing well in track and field. Normally kids want to gravitate to those institutions. We try to get the kids and their parents to campus. Show them what we have to offer, and surprisingly, they are surprised. We have things in place in how we develop kids and cultivate talent. We sell what we do here and the history of what we’ve done. Once they get to Columbia and see what we’re about and what we’ve accomplished in a short period of time, we are able to land and become competitive with those marquee institutions withing track and field.”
Fortunately for the Gamecocks, the program hasn’t had a lot of “misses” in recruiting.
“We try to vet it out as best we can when we’re dealing with student-athletes. That’s why we invite the parents. That’s where you get the true essence. You interview the kid, and you interview the parent. That’s very important to me. If they can’t conduct themselves the right way or respect their parents, we as coaches don’t have a shot. We take all of that into consideration in the recruiting process. I’ve been a part of all those meetings to be able to say yay or nay to the character of all those kids who come in here and those that come here for the right reasons.
“It’s all about relationships. When I sit down with the kids and the parents in the recruiting process, I tell them that we’re going to meet them where they are spiritually, mentally, and physically. Communication is very important. I tell them all the time, if you’re not communicating, I can’t help you. You want to avoid allowing them to get to the point where they think about leaving. That’s why we always have open lines of communication. It’s a real open door policy. It’s not just hyperbole. That’s how we’ve been able to keep our roster.”
Senior sprinter Alexis Brown, sophomore pole vaulter Jathiyah Muhammad, senior thrower Logan Montgomery, and junior distance runner Jaouad Khchina are among the transfers who have made an immediate impact.
“They’ve come in and stepped up to the challenge and done everything we’ve asked them to do in terms of progressing and reaching and exceeding their personal records,” Hall said. “We were spot on with the character assessment. We already knew the athletic prowess was there, so it was just a matter of getting them to the campus and getting them on to what we do. This is the result of it. It goes back to the recruiting process of recruiting character and not just talent. I’ve been coaching for over 30 years, so I know I have the acumen to develop talent. I just can’t always do that with character.”
It has been a quick three years, but Hall is happy with where the program is and where it is headed.
“I think we’re in a very good space with the men and women,” Hall said. “We’ll continue to develop the bloodline, which is recruiting. I’m very pleased with the staff I have working with me. In year three, we have a chance to do something special. We’ve already accomplished some things. Hoisting that national championship trophy has been the charge since September. The kids are ready to go after that charge that we presented to them.”
(Pictured below: Alexis Brown)
