Westminster College Football: Recruiting the best from the rest

In the college athletic recruiting world, schools at the NCAA Division I level have extensive tactics for recruiting blue chip athletes. They have the ways and means to visit and contact each athlete individually, conduct extensive recruiting events for these athletes, and obtain the best players in the country. But what about the talented players who may not be big, tall, or fast enough to get to that level? Are they excluded because they’re not NCAA Division I material? What about the young student athlete with a stellar grade point average who is his high school’s talented quarterback? That is where recruiting at the Division III level comes in to play. Recruiting high school football players at Westminster is crucial to the football program. Players must have ambition both on and off the field. They must be willing to play for the love of the game, since no athletic scholarships are given at the Division III level, as well as handle a full course load of work during the season. Players must be excited to compete for their school and have the talent to back it up. These players must be intrigued to attend Westminster by being exposed to the team, best plays, and overall atmosphere. A well crafted, edited, and produced recruitment video can showcase all these aspects of a college and its football program.
Through my Capstone project I plan on capturing all the elements that make Westminster football so enticing, in addition to selecting the best plays to show perspective student/athletes. This project, titled Westminster College Football: Recruiting the best from the rest, will be a complete recruiting tool with background music, such as the Westminster fight song, and brief interviews with the coaching staff and current players. This product will be a change from a normal recruiting video, which sometimes may only have a compilation of the best plays from that season. By showing eye catching graphics, interviews, cut away shots of the band and crowd at a game, but keeping the focus on the best plays from each game, the video will keep perspective recruits interested during the visit by the Westminster coaching staff. The coaching staff will be able to view my project as it progresses to suggest any changes or additions they would like to see included. I want to produce this video to their expectations and make sure they are completely involved in the entire production.
I will produce every aspect of this product for the Westminster football program. I believe this is an extremely interesting project, especially for someone like me who enjoys football and all of its aspects. I am working on a week to week basis, editing the weekly highlights to select the best plays and implementing graphics that fit with the video. My final product will be shown on Monday, November 24, 2008 in the Sebastian Mueller Theatre on the campus of Westminster College. I will show my final product and explain my journey through producing the project. It is my hope that the final product will please the Westminster coaching staff and that it will be a valuable tool as they embark upon recruiting the next Titan football players.