Hutchins Draws on Extensive Recruiting Experience to Keep Softball Program a Success
11/5/2020 11:30:00 AM | Softball
By Brad Rudner
Ask any coach. The lifeblood of their program has been -- and always will be -- recruiting.
Carol Hutchins is in her 37th year as head coach of the University of Michigan softball team. No coach in the sport has won more games -- 1,631, to be exact. Under her watch, the Wolverines have won 21 Big Ten championships and have been to the Women's College World Series 12 times, winning the national championship in 2005. They have been a perennial power for decades.
But Hutchins has been around long enough to know that success does not come overnight. However, it is not an accident. When it comes to recruiting prospective student-athletes, Hutchins knows that the University of Michigan is a place that sells itself.
"We have this fantastic opportunity," Hutchins said. "Michigan is a top-10 institution that's both world-renown academically and has a championship-level softball program in a climate that's less than conducive to the sport. A lot of kids ask themselves, 'Do I go to a great school or a school with a great softball program?' Here you get both."
"We've had enormous success because kids are drawn to what we are. I'm not selling it to them. We want players who want Michigan."
Recruiting is one of the seven pillars of the Champions Fund, an investment of unprecedented support in the most meaningful areas for student-athletes at the University of Michigan. The other six pillars are athletic counseling, nutrition, career preparation and leadership development, international travel, strength and conditioning, and athletic medicine.
Hutchins believes recruiting is an art, not a science. For a coach, building a network of trusted allies can lead to fruitful results. Hutchins recalls Michigan baseball head coach Erik Bakich sending her an email essentially saying, 'Hey, there's this kid who might interest you. You should take a look.'
That recruit committed to Michigan earlier this fall.
Even family can play a part. In 2002, Hutchins' father, Bob, first recognized Jennifer Olds, then a student at Lansing Community College. Bob noticed how good Olds was at bashing home runs. She ended up transferring to Michigan and played a key role on the team's 2004 Women's College World Series squad.
Like with anything, it is all about who you know.
"A lot of it is word-of-mouth, then it's up to us to investigate," she said. "As we start doing background checks, we may identify someone on the field and say, 'Wow, they're a great player. We want to learn more about them.' We talk to everyone they're connected with -- travel ball coach, high school coach, guidance counselor."
"We had kids who were on our list, but then we talk to someone close to them and they drop down. Maybe we find that their work ethic wouldn't fit. We're certainly drawn to kids who show strong leadership within their age group and are team players. It's a process on both sides."
As a sport, the interest in softball has exploded over the last 25 years, particularly in travel ball. Hutchins says this rapid expansion is fueled by television exposure.
Back In 1996, the city of Atlanta hosted the Olympic Games and had softball as part of the Olympic schedule for the first time. NBC carried the gold-medal game, a 3-1 win by the U.S. over China.
Over the years, softball has become one of the most-watched college sports. In 2019, the Wolverines were on television a whopping 14 times -- seven on Big Ten Network, six on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU and one on FS1. That year, ESPN, which has the broadcasting rights to the Women's College World Series, averaged over one million viewers on its network for the 15-game tournament, including an average of 1,574,000 viewers for the two-game championship series between UCLA and Oklahoma.
"The more you're on TV, the more recruits can identify with your brand," Hutchins said. "The sport has never been more widely distributed than it is now. In the 1980s and 1990s, it wouldn't be unusual to see us park in southern California and do a lot of our recruiting there. Now, there isn't a corner of the country where you can't go find World Series-caliber kids."
Recruiting can be painstaking and time-consuming with equal shares of elation and heartbreak. You win some, you lose some.
It is also too complex of a job for one person. For Michigan softball, associate head coach Bonnie Tholl serves as recruiting coordinator, a role that is largely responsible for initiating the recruiting process and scheduling events (official visits, for example).
Hutchins is quick to point out that simply because Tholl is the recruiting coordinator, it does not mean she is responsible for identifying every prospective student-athlete. If any one of Hutchins, Tholl or assistant coach Jennifer Brundage finds a potential fit, they want one of the other two to do their own evaluation. Two sets of eyes are better than one.
At the end of the day, recruiting is a bidding war. Softball is an equivalency sport, meaning a limited number of scholarships are available per program. How those are divvied up is left to the coaches.
"It's a giant jigsaw puzzle," said Hutchins. "Sometimes, the kids you recruit to play a position don't end up playing there or don't play as much as you might think. You want to get the best kids you can, but only once you put them on the field in the fall will you start to see what you really have."
"On the first day they walk in the door here, they hear the same words -- that only 20 women in the world get to wear a block M and play Michigan softball. Any decision I make is with the team first. Lots of times, kids are drawn to someone who promises they'll get to play. We don't promise anything except a great education and the experience of a lifetime. We want people who are committed to being a part of something bigger than themselves. That's not for everyone."
Unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down and in many ways altered the recruiting process. The NCAA put in place a dead period through the end of the calendar year, which prohibits prospective student-athletes from visiting schools either officially or unofficially. Coaches can still communicate, but they cannot go out on the road to evaluate prospects, not that there are many opportunities for that right now.
If anything, the pandemic has forced coaches to adapt.
"At the beginning, there was a lot of panic in the travel ball world. Kids were worried about how they were going to be seen," Hutchins said. "Coaches are good at what they do. It presents a great challenge, obviously, but they'll find a way to recruit."
Someday, Hutchins and Co. will hit the road again. When that day comes, they will be ready, and thanks to the resources that Michigan provides, chances are they will continue thriving.
"The only way you compete nationally is to fundamentally compete at the highest level," Hutchins said. "One area of our budget where we've always had the lateral ability to do what's necessary is in recruiting. Michigan funds us at the highest level scholarship-wise and has always had the best interests of our program in mind. Our administration understands that success starts with recruiting and the people you get within the program. It takes time, effort and money. It's among the most important things we do."
The Champions Challenge is a fundraising campaign that aims to reinforce critical support areas for student-athletes at the University of Michigan, including counseling, career and leadership development, nutrition, athletic medicine, strength and conditioning, and recruiting. More than 20 percent of the Michigan Athletics annual operating budget comes from private philanthropic donations.
With rising costs and the significant financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Champions Challenge campaign comes at a time when the sustainability of these programs is very much at risk. Without the support of our generous donors, Michigan Athletics would not be able to comprehensively support our more than 900 student-athletes.
To learn more about the Champions Challenge, visit MGoBlue.com/challenge.
