Organization Overview

The WNY Whalers Field Hockey Club was founded in 2011, mainly serving the Western New York and Buffalo areas.

The Whalers aim to provide comprehensive support to the student-athlete that will improve their field hockey skill level and knowledge. They do so by fostering a positive environment of sportsmanship and integrity while simultaneously developing aspiring collegiate student-athletes.

Founded in 2011 in Williamsville, NY, the WNY Whalers Field Hockey Club’s foremost objective is to provide comprehensive support to the student-athlete.

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

Looking to Streamline Recruiting

The WNY Whalers are led by Club Director Dalton Beaver, who herself was a full-scholarship player at a Top-10 Division I university. Beaver has spent the past 12 years specializing in elite field hockey training, as well as fostering relationships with college coaches within Division I, II, and III.

With the importance of recruiting to the club experience – something Beaver knows inside and out – the Whalers were eager to elevate the way they assisted their players in finding the right collegiate fit by putting the right systems in place.

“SportsRecruits has made my job as a club director much easier. I don’t have to have a separate folder for every girl in our program in my email and then try to find and manage whom she is communicating with. I can go to one place and it’s all there. I can look up emails chains to refresh my memory. It is much better than the old fashion pencil-and-paper approach. It is so much more convenient.”

-Dalton Beaver, WNY Whalers Director

The Whalers were spending a lot of time on administrative tasks and redundant work – not able to quickly and efficiently help their student-athletes through a recruiting process that is constantly evolving.

Enter the SportsRecruits platform.

SportsRecruits Integrated Solution

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

“We don’t have that much of a problem adopting technology because our girls are pretty tech savvy,” said Beaver. “When we talk to the players and parents, we stress that it is cost-effective to use the platform. You are able to reach coaches all across the country. You can upload a video and don’t necessarily have to go to a National Festival and spend thousands of dollars for a coach to see you play.”

The WNY Whalers staff has over 100 years of coaching experience. Serving the local community, 8 of their 13 coaches also work within 6 NYSPHSAA Section VI or private school systems. Every Whalers coach played field hockey in college and was hand-selected based on their coaching philosophies and merit.

Employing and encouraging strong communication processes, the WNY Whalers Field Hockey Club delivers prompt, accurate, and uniform information to parents/guardians and participants, ensuring that club coaches are able to exclusively focus on both the field hockey and fitness needs of the student-athlete.

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.

“SportsRecruits has made my job as a club director much easier,” said Beaver. I don’t have to have a separate folder for every girl in our program in my email and then try to find and manage whom she is communicating with. I can go to one place and it’s all there. I can look up emails chains to refresh my memory. It is much better than the old fashion pencil-and-paper approach. It is so much more convenient.”

Customizing the Tools for Success

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 features that the Whalers appreciate the most.

“Overall, the organization the platform provides, and the ability to streamline, is great,” said Beaver. “To have everyone on one site, and see all of the activity of the players – as a director, that is huge. I can see everything in one place.”

“Overall, the organization the platform provides, and the ability to streamline, is great. To have everyone on one site, and see all of the activity of the players – as a director, that is huge. I can see everything in one place.”
-Dalton Beaver, WNY Whalers

A big part of the college recruiting process is communication, both inside the organization and to college coaches. With the organization stressing communication already, the platform eases this process for everyone.

“It is easy for the college coaches,” said Beaver. “They don’t have to open an attachment. They can just click one link and investigate as much or as little as they want based on everything that they see.”

The platform also allows the student-athletes on the Whalers have a dynamic profile, which they can easily update in real-time for a college coach to see.

“You don’t have to constantly have to attach a resume, because it is alive – it’s breathing on that page,” said Beaver. “As the girls receive an accolade, or go to a tournament, they can upload that right on their profile page. We don’t have to worry about forwarding another email to a coach. The links are already in there, and the coaches are able to click on it. And, you can see an archive list of messages and contacts one of our girls made just by going to her page. It’s great.”

SportsRecruits provides a way for the Whalers 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 families also are enjoying the platform.

“It is a fantastic tool and easy to use, said Daniel Quinlan, a parent of a WNY Whalers student-athlete. “My daughter has gotten well over 100 views from different coaches, and the videos we have posted of her have also gotten lots of looks. It’s a great feeling as a parent to know I have this tool at our disposal and can literally reach any coach in the country in just a few clicks.”

At a Glance

What they needed:

Streamline the recruiting assistance provided by the club.

An effective way to manage the recruiting needs of student-athletes.

What they did:

Implemented the SportsRecruits platform.

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

What they are saying:

“SportsRecruits has made my job as a club director much easier. It is much better than the old fashion pencil-and-paper approach. It is so much more convenient.”

-Dalton Beaver, WNY Whalers