“How would you like to come play volleyball for the University of Oregon?” As recently as six years ago, asking that to a top recruit would have been more likely to provoke laughter than anything else. The Ducks, after all, were coming off a dismal 2004-2005 Pacific-10 Conference season during which they went 1-17.
Things changed when Jim Moore took over the program in January of 2005. The head coach, currently in his fifth year with the team, has proven to be a gifted talent evaluator and rapidly morphed the Ducks into perennial contenders.
Of course, the transformation did not come without a bit of luck. Even before Moore officially took over as head coach, he already had a prized recruit signed on for his first season. Katie Swoboda, a talented libero who graduated in 2009, wanted to play for the Ducks and quickly accepted Oregon’s offer near the end of the 2004-2005 season.
“(Assistant coach Stacy Metro and I) knew about Katie actually before we got the job,” Moore said. “I felt strongly that Katie would change the way we played defense.”
With Swoboda already signed, Moore jumped head-first into the recruiting process in February. During a trip around the world that would plant the seeds for many future recruits, Moore stopped first in Las Vegas. There, he watched Sonja Newcombe and Neticia Enesi (then-juniors in high school) play for the first time.
Eventually, he ended up in Serbia, where he met a gifted middle blocker named Mira Djuric. Moore was impressed with Djuric, who went on to choose Oregon over the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Djuric and Swoboda would be Moore’s first recruits, and helped pave the way for many more to come. Of course, taking a no-name program and making it one of the best in the nation is no picnic. Moore’s first season was bumpy, and not even Swoboda or Djuric could do much to prevent a second straight 1-17 Pac-10 season.
Still, the seeds of change had been planted, and the gears really began to shift in the 2006-2007 season. Newcombe, Enesi, setter Nevena Djordjevic and libero Amanda Westrick arrived, and their presence paid dividends.
Enesi had crossed Oregon off her list until she met Moore, who convinced her to commit during her junior year.
“He was just known to build programs,” Enesi said. “Oregon was not one of my choices with the previous coach, and I kind of skipped over them. After getting to know Jim a little bit more, I got more interest in the school and in Jim. They just seemed to be doing a really good job.”
The Ducks improved to 7-11 in the Pac-10 that year, and finished with a 17-12 record overall. Newcombe earned a spot on the Pac-10 all-freshman team, while honorable mentions were given to both Enesi and Djordjevic. The team returned to the NCAA tournament, and Moore was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year.
The rest is history, as Oregon is now consistently ranked among the top programs in the nation. Of course, finding players like Newcombe, Enesi, Djordjevic, and Swoboda is much harder than it might sound. In evaluating potential recruits, Moore concentrates predominantly on mental attributes.
“The key is that you have a chip on your shoulder,” Moore said. “Instead of feeling bad about Stanford not offering you a scholarship, you’re going to prove that you’re good enough.”
Figuring out the mindset of players is never easy, particularly when they are just sophomores or juniors in high school.
“There’s a lot of things that change between your junior year in high school and when you finish as a senior in college,” Moore said. “We all look back on how we evolved in that period of time, it’s just huge.”
To make things even more difficult, the University is not the easiest place to sell. When most kids think of good places to go to school, Eugene is not necessarily first on their list.
“They want to go to a city, they want to go where it’s warm, and athletes want to go where they’re going to play,” Moore said. “When you walk in and you’re going up against juniors and seniors, (you’re) probably not going to play. We’re not in a metropolitan area, and most people think it’s cold here all the time.”
That is not to say that the University lacks selling points. While recruiting, Moore often brings up Oregon’s state-of-the-art buildings and facilities.
“The facilities are really nice,” freshman libero Haley Jacob said. “That played a good role in (me) coming here.”
Moore has worked hard to guarantee the success of the program, both now and in the future. Indeed, he and his staff just finished signing next year’s freshmen class, and already have recruits lined up for the 2012 season. Now, it’s no joke to be recruited by the University. It is an honor.
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On the trail
Daily Emerald
November 17, 2009
Shawn Hatjes
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