VimSince03
Well-known member
I can tell you the Griz coaches base a lot of their recruiting, especially in-state players, on what they see in their summer camps. They want players who want to be a Griz, and see how they interact with the other players..
For whatever reason, Glacier Coach Bennett, while being a former Griz standout, is not a big proponent of promoting his players and their abilities, and doesn't necessarily "encourage" them to get to these camps. In fact, he has in the past taken the whole team to Coeur d'Alene and Spokane to their camps instead.
First and foremost, good high school coaches like Grady stay completely unbiased in the recruitment process of their kids. Second, its pretty hard to blame a coach for taking his kids to camps that get them more exposure and the opportunity to compete against better competition. There is a reason Glacier is good every year. The UM/MSU camps during the summer are excellent ways for Montana kids to get to know the staffs of the schools. But it isn't out of the ordinary for Montana high school teams competing at out-of-state camps. For example, Billings Senior tries to go down to Colorado State's high school team camp every year.
And it isn't like Stitt isn't recruiting Glacier kids. He offered Hashley and Gilman. The Bobcat ties certainly weren't in his favor with Hashley but he lost to the Cats in recruiting Gilman despite the rhetoric that the Cats only got Gilman because he was good friends with Hashley. Gilman chose the Bobcats because he liked the coaching staff better at MSU. Just like the Deming twins and Nate Dick chose the Griz because they liked the UM coaching staff better. The "culture fit" matters for these kids.