Success stories: The University of Saskatchewan

The Goal

The University of Saskatchewan (USask) Huskies’ primary goal is to be the #1 track and field/cross country program in the nation. It’s a tall task to achieve such a status, but the USask Huskies have a history of success. An impressive point in their history was the early 2000s when they won 7 U SPORTS national titles between their men’s and women’s teams. Their ultimate goal is to get back to the success of that era.

The only way to do that is having athlete success with points and medals at championship meets. “This comes with having rounded and robust athletes who are highly motivated to be a part of a team that’s team and family-orientated”, said Coach Reindl. Being able to consistently sign impactful athletes with this mentality is paramount to achieving the goals USask has set.

About the University of Saskatchewan

The University of Saskatchewan is one of Canada’s oldest and most distinguished universities, located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in Western Canada. USask is recognized as one of Canada’s top research universities and offers undergraduate and graduate programs in over 150 fields of study. USask is a member of the U15 Group of Canadian research-intensive universities and is one of few universities to hold multiple Canada Excellence Research Chairs.

With a 12:1 student to faculty ratio, students enjoy a high level of support typical of a smaller university, creating an environment that inspires collaboration, innovation, and discovery.

There are 15 different sports offered at USask including both men’s and women’s track and field and cross country. Head Coach Jason Reindl leads all 4 teams as they compete for championship titles and banners in Canada West, one of the four regional conferences within the U SPORTS association.

The Challenge

The USask Huskies team goals are set high - and with that, the expectations for their recruitment and the athletes they sign have to match. This was a challenge for Head Coach Jason Reindl whose recruiting efforts were focused primarily on local athletes due to the methods available to Coach Reindl at the time.

USask’s recruiting methods leaned heavily on Coach Reindl’s local network, digging through ranking sites, cold calling athletes, and hoping they’re a fit. Coach Reindl found this approach to be inefficient and time-consuming. He was frustrated with the low response rate of his outreach emails, the lack of straightforward and official athlete information, and the tediousness of digging through countless resources to acquire the athlete information they needed. This slow process sometimes caused them to miss out on athletes who already committed somewhere else. Their status quo recruiting cycle became stale, leading Coach Reindl to look elsewhere to help them innovate and improve.

The Solution

A shift away from the status quo was necessary for Coach Reindl and the USask team to improve their recruiting efforts. After an introduction to the Streamline Athletes team, Reindl saw the value Streamline Athletes could provide him and his team. Unlike many of the other services Reindl was familiar with, he wasn’t just another number in the system - with Streamline he knew he was important and that there was a human connection to the partnership.

Coach Reindl was one of a handful of coaches who were onboarded to the beta version of our coach app. With the simplicity of the coach dashboard, the transition to recruiting with Streamline Athletes was quick and simple for the team at USask. Cold calls and mundane introductions to prospective athletes turned into meaningful recruitment conversations with athletes who had a genuine interest in attending USask. Establishing mutual interest before connecting coach and athlete is at the core of what Streamline Athletes does, and that approach saves Coach Reindl a lot of time - making his recruiting efforts go a long way.

How have Streamline Athletes helped Coach Reindl and USask move toward their recruitment goals?

• The Streamline Athletes platform offers clear, relevant, and consolidated information from athletes, allowing Coach Reindl to spend less time digging through unreliable information looking for athletes who meet his standards.
• The level of commitment and education of the athletes on the platform sets the recruitment conversation up for success. Coach Reindl spends less time informing athletes about his school, program, or recruiting process because they are already familiar - making conversations much more efficient. Streamline Athletes strives to educate athletes on the ins and outs of the collegiate athletic recruitment process and encourages proper research into programs of interest.
• The ability to search and filter through tiers of athletes with validated performances and PBs puts Reindl in the driver’s seat, making his recruiting easy and very flexible.
• Streamline Athletes partners receive marketing support through the promotion of their school on our marketing channels and access to our full database of recruitable athletes within their tier.

The Impact

The impact Streamline Athletes has had on USask’s recruitment process was felt in a few different areas.

• Previously, the athletes Coach Reindl recruited were primarily local to the province of Saskatchewan. Afterward, the ease of use and efficiency of our platform, coupled with access to our large athlete database, allowed Coach Reindl to broaden the scope of their recruiting. They now can confidently recruit outside of their province and even internationally - opening up a world of new talent.
• With the use of promotional content like partnered school highlights, case studies, program outreach emails, and testimonials, we’ve helped USask greatly increase its program’s visibility to athletes who otherwise wouldn’t know about the opportunity there.
• USask recruitment is no longer a slow, tedious process that occasionally saw them miss out on impactful athletes. With the help of Streamline Athletes, they were able to sign a talented jumper from Vancouver Island named Drew Sundberg. Not only did they sign an impactful athlete outside of Saskatchewan, but they also did so quite quickly. The process of discovery to signing only took approximately 3 months (most of which was held up due to conditional acceptance requirements).

When asked why he might recommend Streamline Athletes to other coaches, Coach Reindl said “It’s going to save you time. If you can even save an hour a week, that’s a significant amount of time expanded over months, years.” He believes that Streamline Athletes “have their act together” and are “ready and prepared to do what they say they are going to do.”

Recruit like the University of Saskatchewan

With a little help from Streamline Athletes, the University of Saskatchewan was able to fill some important roster spots.

We know that recruiting athletes can be hard, and as the only track and field/XC specific platform, we aim to make it easier.

Talk to a recruitment expert today.