It is a label that gets slapped on a select few: Ultimate recruiter.
Chip West landed that tag long before his first day of employment at the University of Virginia.
“It is an honor and a blessing when someone is considered good in recruiting, but you have to have help,” he said. “You can’t do it without help. With the help of the coaches in the area that I recruit and help from everyone that is willing to give it to me, it is a great situation.
“It makes it so that I am kind of successful.”
Virginia, reeling from a rough three-win season, has already landed 18 players for the class of 2011 thanks in part to the efforts of West, who has strong ties to the football-rich Tidewater area.
In fact, West was a special part of the installation process of the football team at Old Dominion as an assistant coach that joined the staff shortly after the school brought the sport back.
“I think it was kind of special in the fact that it was a program being started from the ground up, and from the point with the first recruiting class, you had to sell a vision more than the recruits being able to see a facility or anything like that,” said West, who is a Hampton native and a Kecoughtan High graduate. “You had to sell a vision. You had to sell the point of student-athletes building their own legacy there at Old Dominion.”
Virginia is in the same predicament after former coach Al Groh was fired and Mike London took over.
West embraces the challenge.
“It is very fun,” he said. “The challenge of being able to sell and tell a student-athlete that you can build your own legacy, basically, that is pretty fun.”
West was slotted as the cornerbacks coach by London, giving him the chance to work with one of the deepest positions on the team.
Senior Ras-I Dowling elected to return for his senior season despite being mentioned as a possible early-round draft pick. Last year, Dowling was a second-team All-ACC pick.
The Cavaliers also have junior Chase Minnifield, senior Mike Parker and sophomore Devin Wallace.
“From Ras-I to Chase to Devin to Mike Parker, we have a good group to work with,” West said. “They are very good guys that listen, they take coaching well and most of all they are good people.”
It helps that West has a solid staff on the defensive side of the ball with his boss there to help.
“Coach London’s knowledge is well taken, especially for me personally,” West said. “He has a great sense for the game and it is very understandable.
“He is the head coach for a reason — he is a great coach.”
West, who went to Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C., said he is ecstatic about working with London and the opportunity to put UVa back on the map nationally.
“Personally, I am just about working as hard as I can,” he said, “and obviously making Virginia football as good as it can be.”
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement