Ben Freakley has about every reason in the world to relax a bit this weekend, simply kick back and revel in a job well done.
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Jacob Mullner, right, with the U-16 Augusta Arsenal Blue team is knocked off the ball by Aaron Greene with the U-16 Lake Norman Soccer Club Red team Saturday during their game at the Augusta Arsenal Soccer Shootout at Fort Gordon.
Chris Thelen/Staff
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On Wednesday, the Erskine College men's soccer coach nailed down his first ever recruiting class, signing an almost unheard of number of players - 13 - to enroll at the school in Due West, S.C., this fall.
So where did he head to celebrate? Skiing in the Rockies? Caribbean cruise?
Try a breezy plot of turf in the middle of a military base.
Freakley came Saturday to the Augusta Arsenal Spring Shootout at Fort Gordon's Barton Field to scout potential recruits for the class of 2006.
These are players he isn't even allowed to speak with by phone until July 1, per NCAA rule, but he's already charting their every move.
Forget days off. Forget putting your feet up. That's just time lost in an attempt to improve your program, Freakley said.
"If you're serious about your program and building a competitive program, then your recruiting is never done," said Freakley, whose team went 3-6-1 in his first season, earning its first conference tournament bid since 1998.
"I signed 13 on Wednesday, I set up two visits on Thursday and I had a kid come in on a visit on Friday."
That brought him to Saturday, when he came to Augusta to scout a few juniors that have caught his eye and ear in what he calls "Phase One of identifying players."
He said, inevitably, he'll come to a club tournament like the Shootout with a player or two in mind, only to find his notepad filled with others that he liked by day's end. It's recruitment by association.
"You go in to see a kid and you see two, three, four more that you like," Freakley said. "Happens all the time."
And it happens with greater frequency at tournaments, with a number of games played, as opposed to a single high school game. The more games, the more players, the more prospects, he said.
"Club soccer tournaments are one of the best ways for players who have ambitions to play in college to get noticed," Freakley said. "They maximize a college coach's time. If there's 50 teams in one age group playing, then that allows us to catch a lot of games."
Deciding which tournaments to scout can be tricky, he said, especially on a tight budget.
He said those decisions are often made by - believe it or not - parents and the prospects themselves.
They do this by, in essence, recruiting a coach - sending him tapes, resumes, contact information, tournament schedules.
"They're just as much a part of it as I am," Freakley said.
"That's something I tell all younger players. E-mail coaches, call coaches, do what you have to do."
That part of the process is something Joe Clark said he learns more about, seemingly, by the day.
"You have to recruit the coaches and find a way to get your son or daughter in front of them as many times as you can," he said.
Clark's son, Jarred, is a junior at Greenbrier and a defender for the Arsenal's under-19 team.
"There's so much to it," Joe Clark said. "I had no idea."
Freakley does. That's why he's here.
Reach Travis Haney at (706) 823-3304 or travis.haney@augustachronicle.com.
