Blog: Tales from the Road – War Board Memories of Yore
By Bo Kerin
During a recent visit to a Sun Belt Conference school, I had the opportunity to observe Melanie Carter Cabezas, ACS Athletics Director of Client Relations, assist the football staff with the implementation of the ACS InControl Recruiting Coordinator module. In the process of observing Melanie configure viewing preferences and cell phone settings for each individual coach, I noticed the “War Board” feature she was demonstrating. During the mid-1990s, I served as an undergraduate student assistant in the University of Tennessee football office and I am very familiar with a recruiting “War Board.” During the peak of the recruiting season, coaches would provide student assistants with changes and updates to the “War Board,” and we would go into the staff meeting room between gatherings and move the tiles around to reflect the changes. The magnetic tiles included name, height, weight and a ranking and were organized by position on a very large dry-erase board.
Fifteen years later, I’m now witnessing the latest version of the “War Board” on a computer screen. Now, all it takes to shift prospects around is using a mouse to click and drag the “tile” into its desired location. In addition, the coaches have the ability to select specific information to be displayed on each “tile.” As a result, the defensive line coach has the ability to organize his prospects and include information pertinent to his position. The head coach and the recruiting coordinator have the ability to access this information collectively, which allows for more efficient recruiting organization and operations. Definitely a much improved process from the days of magnets and dry-erase boards.