Organization Overview

The New Hampshire Tomahawks is an lacrosse club with teams from third grade through the elite high school level.

The main goal for the Tomahawks is the showcase and development of their student-athletes for college lacrosse. For the Tomahawks, this means getting people in the right place, the right fit, for college lacrosse – not just about a Division I experience, but the best fit for the particular athlete.

The NH Tomahawks is recognized as one of the top lacrosse clubs in the United States and Canada. The club was selected to be part of the National Scholastic Club Lacrosse Association (NSCLA) which promotes the highest level of scholastic club lacrosse competition.

To do this, the Tomahawks provide its families with expertise from coaches with extensive playing and coaching backgrounds, and utilize the club’s strong contacts and reputation to put its players in the best positions to succeed.

This paper will look into how the Tomahawks use the SportsRecruits platform to provide real, tangible value to their student-athletes and families.

Looking for Technology to Manage Recruiting

The NH Tomahawks is recognized as one of the top lacrosse clubs in the United States and Canada. The club was selected to be part of the National Scholastic Club Lacrosse Association (NSCLA) which promotes the highest level of scholastic club lacrosse competition among well-organized clubs.

With the importance of recruiting to the club experience, they were eager to elevate the way they assisted their players in finding the right collegiate fit by putting the right systems in place.

“We are happy with SportsRecruits. We like it, and it works well with the Tomahawks.”
-Judy Cameron, Assistant Director, NH Tomahawks

The Tomahawks were spending a lot of time on administrative tasks and redundant work, which took away from time spent assisting their student-athletes. Coaches and club staff were devoting hours a day copying/pasting emails and manually trying to keep tabs on the recruiting efforts of their families.

“We started with SportsRecruits about two years ago on a trial program just for the summer, and then we re-upped in the fall for a year,” said Judy Cameron, the NH Tomahawks Assistant Director. “It has worked great for the kids that are on there. They love it.”

Like many club sports organizations, the Tomahawks had almost no data about how their student-athletes were performing in the recruiting process. They were reliant only on individual meetings where accountability on the player’s side was limited, while transparency on the organization’s side was almost non-existent.

Enter the SportsRecruits platform.

SportsRecruits Integrated Solution

The Tomahawks started with SportsRecruits when the leaders realized a technology platform would be essential for providing the best, most consistent experience possible for its players and families.

With the club’s reputation and experience, they simply needed a way to handle the differing needs of their student-athletes, for those teams whose players are receiving lots of college exposure to those needing a bit of a boost.

“We have to go with the two-pronged approach, because we have so many high school kids, and not everyone is going to be a DI player,” said Cameron. “In those cases we have to go in the other direction letting college coaches know about the player’s interest. So we have to go in both directions. That is kind of how we operate.”

Reputation of Excellence: The Tomahawks have an excellent track record and is known for having quality players, NH Tomahawks has a following of coaches which means extra attention for our players and optimal recruiting opportunities at tournaments.

With the assistance the platform provides, they were drawn to how SportsRecruits integrates seamlessly within their existing infrastructure, making the transition almost seamless to using the platform’s tools.

Customizing the Tools for Success

With so many teams, the Tomahawks enjoy using the suite of tools on the SportsRecruits platform to begin the recruiting conversations for his families. One such tool is the ability to see which college coaches are viewing a player’s profile and video, as well as how the ability to easily recommend schools for the player.

“The kids like when they send out message that they can see who actually viewed their video,” said Cameron. “It’s more of an indication whether there is interest or not. It can provide some reassurance.”

With the process in motion, the Tomahawks are able to let his families and student-athletes know a coach has looked at their information, and can tag a school for a player if they already had not done so. This alerts the family that it is time to contact the college coach while simultaneously allowing him to reach out to the coach on behalf of the player. All of this is done in a few clicks right from the platform.

“One thing we really like about SR is how you can tag and favorite things, said Cameron. “We really like that. It is a way to keep track of it. If a college coach calls us and says he is interested in a kid or these kids, instead of tracking it on a spreadsheet or something, he can go in and tag schools for the players.”

The ability to have the entire club’s activity in one place and to track and utilize data to assist families are two of the biggest reasons The Tomahawks enjoy using the SportsRecruits platform. In this way, the team has a system in place to provide a consistent experience to members interested in playing at the next level.

“One thing we really like about SR is how you can tag and favorite things, said Cameron. “We really like that. It is a way to keep track of it. If a college coach calls us and says he is interested in a kid or these kids, instead of tracking it on a spreadsheet or something, he can go in and tag schools for the players.”
-Judy Cameron, NH Tomahawks

SportsRecruits provides a way for the Tomahawks to provide tangible recruiting assistance to its families while at the same time being able to hold player’s accountable for their own progress.

“The ease of being able to search a college or university and have the coaches pop right up makes the email process so easy,” said Cameron.

At a Glance

What they needed

A centralized hub to deal with the differing recruiting needs of their student-athletes.

Streamline the recruiting assistance provided by the club.

Data and analytics to point players in the right direction as they attack the recruiting process.

What they did

Implemented the SportsRecruits platform into their club in 2013.

Entrenched a consistent club-wide system to handle the recruiting process.

What they are saying

“We are happy with the service. We like it, and it works well with the Tomahawks.”

-Judy Cameron
Assistant Director, NH Tomahawks

“It makes it easy to have all the coaches email available, a profile the coaches can see, and the ability to know if they viewed it or not. It helps reduce the workload needed, and it does help the way we feel about the process.”

-Steve Krasinski
Parent, NH Tomahawks