| A multitude of studies have examined key factors influencing college or university selection by student-athletes. Much less attention, however, has been given to the roles of athletic recruiters and how their qualities and characteristics impact recruiting outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to examine the impact of recruiter (head coach) characteristics on recruiting effectiveness (total quality of recruits signed) in the context of NCAA Division I women's soccer. Recruiter characteristics included in this study were political skill, the Big Five personality dimensions (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness), behavioral integrity, and two performance reputation characteristics (i.e., head coach career record and final team NCAA rank). Over 130 (N = 131) head women's soccer coaches participated in this study. The direct effect of these nine predictor variables on the outcome of total quality of recruits signed (recruiting effectiveness) was assessed using multiple regression analysis. It was determined from the results that six of the nine recruiter characteristics (i.e., political skill, agreeableness, neuroticism, behavioral integrity, career record, and NCAA rank) had a significant impact on recruiting effectiveness. |
