JC Football: Emerson positions Pirates

Having landed his wish-list job in April, Kevin Emerson knows that football dreams do come true. And, now, just weeks after guiding a makeshift Orange Coast College roster to two wins in the last three games of a 3-7 campaign, he is working hard to facilitate the most ideal future for his players.

Emerson, a head coach previously at San Bernardino Valley and Citrus, has begun his first postseason as a Pirate by amping up the program’s efforts to locate four-year schools for this season’s sophomores. Using technology, ingenuity and some good old-fashioned productivity, Emerson and his nine assistant coaches have implemented a full-blown campaign to find four-year schools at which his top players may continue to compete.

“We market our guys effectively,” Emerson said. “If they’ve got the grades, we find a home for them. In 13 years I’ve been doing this, I can say that if you start in my program, you can pretty much get a good package [scholarship and/or financial aid]. We are using football as a vehicle to get an education and I think that’s what is important. With school so expensive nowadays, that creates an even bigger drive. Football is not going to get many of these guys to the NFL, but it’s a vehicle to get their education paid for. Whether that’s at a Division I school, Division I-AA, Division II, Division III or NAIA.”

To that end, Emerson and his staff do everything but hang fliers from door knobs and/or slip them under windshield wipers.

“First and foremost, there is perception and reality with the players,” Emerson said. “Every player has a perception of where they think they can go, and then there’s a reality of what four-year colleges will be looking for them. We need to determine the target [level at which] they can play. I tell everybody, there are more than 600 schools that give scholarships, and only one needs to like them.”

Emerson said OCC, like all schools, utilizes scouting services to promote its talent. But Pirates players benefit from much more than standardized packaging.

“We put a list of players and their information in a color brochure,” Emerson said. “A lot of schools do a spread sheet, but there is no character to that. We want to put something out that has character to it.

“Then our email is pretty cool,” Emerson said. “It includes video highlights as well as the player’s general information. That allows us to expedite the process and get things into the recruiters’ hands faster. It’s critically important that the high school guys know that OCC is here to get them out to the next level. We want to flood those 618 schools with info and keep giving them information that is fresh. It’s just like direct marketing. If you don’t keep the information in front of their faces, they are less likely to act on it.”

Emerson said there are stages in the process by which four-year schools select junior college recruits. And some bring in players without ever having set foot on the OCC campus.

“We’re in the first wave right now, when schools are focusing on guys who will [obtain their associate arts degree] in December,” Emerson said.

“The next wave is going to happen in March and April, when the [four-year colleges] are in spring ball and they start to uncover some holes in their roster.”

But Emerson said the process will continue into the late summer, as schools look to fill in personnel gaps.

“There is never a dead period,” Emerson said. “As coaches, we are at the office later now than we are during the season [including recruiting next year’s players]. We’ll be in the office a lot during the winter break. But my favorite call of the year is when a college coach is on the phone asking about players, and I can tell him ‘Coach, they’re all gone.’”

Already aligned with four-year homes are sophomore offensive tackle Zach Bateman, an Estancia High product bound for UCLA, as well as sophomore linebacker Paco Potter (Texas State). They can sign NCAA letters of intent on Wednesday.

Emerson said offensive linemen Jeff Mansfield and Reuben Brien-Arnold, as well as defensive lineman Re’Shon Howard, have received offers they have yet to accept.

Sophomore receiver Mark Munson, who caught a school-single-season-record 68 passes for 989 yards and eight touchdowns in his only season in the program, will likely land at a Division II program, Emerson said.

Sophomore punter Jake Ambrose, a Newport Harbor High graduate, and sophomore receiver A.J. Holman, are also in line to continue at the next level, Emerson said.