SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Texas coach Steve Sarkisian used his pulpit in entrance of hundreds of Texas highschool coaches to encourage them to battle off exterior pursuits who’re getting concerned with their gamers.
Sarkisian, throughout a keynote tackle on the Texas Excessive Faculty Coaches Affiliation conference, mentioned he needed to get on his soapbox about what number of coaches — turned off by brokers or handlers — have taken a again seat of their gamers’ recruitments.
“The sport is altering,” Sarkisian mentioned. “Not the sport on the sphere, the sport off the sphere, NIL, income sharing, publicity rights, no matter you wish to name it. Brokers have gotten concerned, trainers have been extra concerned. And I am imploring upon you to not throw your palms within the air and simply say, ‘Hey, it is out of our management.’ We will not try this. Brokers are new to us. I’ve bought to take care of brokers. That is actual.”
This yr’s conference had 18,562 attendees, the second-biggest crowd for the occasion ever, and Sarkisian spoke to hundreds of them — not because the Texas coach, however as a consultant for faculty coaches as a complete, even overlaying his Longhorns brand on his shirt at one level.
“You might be nonetheless those elevating your youngsters. You are still those proper, that they appear to for steerage,” he mentioned. “This concept proper now of what is occurring for my part, is due to the brokers. They will store your youngsters. And we will not lose sight of making an attempt to supply actually good recommendation.”
Sarkisian famous that 19 of the Longhorns’ 23 NFL picks during the last two seasons — essentially the most by any program within the nation — have been Texas merchandise. He informed the gang it was due to them, and harassed how vital it’s to stay the leaders of their gamers.
“Faculty soccer has modified for many years. There’s been modifications all alongside the way in which and we’re within the midst of lots of change proper now. And never all of it’s dangerous. We’ll get to a great place. There’s good folks concerned on this which can be going to get us to a great place. I am simply asking of you keep linked. Be the leaders of your program, be dedicated to your program. That is what we selected to do. We selected to be coaches, we selected to be leaders of males. And so I am asking that of you as we transfer ahead.”
Sarkisian even made a pitch for the roster of coaches throughout the state, noting that Texas A&M “is in the most effective palms they have been in a very long time with Mike Elko,” highlighting TCU’s 2022 run to the nationwide title sport beneath Sonny Dykes, Dave Aranda’s 2022 Sugar Bowl win, the funding that Joey McGuire has at Texas Tech and the observe document of Willie Fritz who’s embarking on a rebuild at Houston, and yesterday talked about SMU’s playoff run beneath Rhett Lashlee final season as proof that gamers need not play elsewhere.
“The applications within the state of Texas proper now — I can not communicate for 20 years in the past — however man, they’re on an all-time excessive stage,” Sarkisian mentioned. “There’s hundreds that depart the state that go play school soccer. However I certainly would love that they go play at UTSA or A&M or Houston or Tech.”