MCC Football looks to recruiting for turnaround
James Mello
The Mesa Thunderbird football program is looking to bounce back from a disappointing 1-9 2010 season. A huge part of this rebuilding process for the T-Birds will be the players Mesa recruits to help bring back the sucess achieved in the 2007 season, when the Thunderbird’s finished second in conference and went on to win the Valley of the Sun Bowl. “Recruiting is the key to everything we do,” Recruiting Coordinator and Running Backs coach Tony McClain says. “From what a player can do for us on the field, to what he can provide to this program academically.”
With so many players playing football at the high school and college level it might seem like a daunting task to actually sort through them all to find the right players to fit your school. “Coach Daugherty and I go out and watch at least two high school games from around the valley every Friday during the season,” says McClain. “Getting out there and getting in a players face and building that relationship with a player is key for us in recruiting.”
“When we meet with a recruit we tell them our philosophy is family, school, football,” says McClain. If the athlete is unable to sort their priorities in that order, then McClain will tell them Mesa is probably not the school for them.
After a large part of the coaching staff was reassembled with only four weeks before last season started, there has been a lot of pressure on McClain to get the team moving in the right direction. “Getting out there and recruiting key players is going to make a huge difference,” says McClain. “I`m not going to make any predictions, but we should have a winning season.”
Key signees to the Mesa Football team so far are Justin Sieczkowski and Eric Odonkor. Sieczkowski is an ASU transfer quarterback who hopes to help turn around the lack of success offensively last season. Odonkor is a Safety from Division 1 Georgia state, a player that can add much needed depth to the safety position.
“Half the time recruiting is bringing guys in,” says Coach McClain.” “The other half is getting kids out to where they want to be.” 10 out of the 18 sophomores from last year’s team are going to be playing football at a higher level next season.
“To see a player grow and progress coming through our program is almost indescribable, its emotional and I have no problem saying I`ve shed tears seeing a player go through our program and move on, because they almost become like another one of your kids,” said McClain. “When Jake Solomon committed to Northern Colorado he sent me the text message, “We did it” his mom was crying his dad was emotional, and it felt good for everyone involved.
