LEANN BURKE / THE DEPAUW
Sophomore lacrosse player Benton Givens played a role in the program’s turnaround in its second year of existence. In his first year on the field for the Tigers, Givens was fifth on the team in goals with four. After a winless inaugural season, the Tigers went 3-12 and 1-6 in North Coast Athletic Conference play. A year before, however, Givens was a senior in high school at Carmel High School. This is Givens' story about his recruitment process and what eventually brought him to Greencastle.
Getting recruited by DePauw was not unlike most other schools that I was being looked at. It was much the same process. The only difference from a couple of the other schools was that DePauw contacted me first.
For some schools such as Marquette I had to make first contact. After that point, however, they mostly all were the same. I would send in my lacrosse resume, which is pretty much a job resume geared towards my athletic ability and accomplishments in my sports career. Along with the resume I sent a link to my highlight tape so that they could get a general idea of my playing style.
At that point it was upon the university to make the next move. Either I would get a call back from them asking for my game schedule so that they could attend a game and see more of my gameplay, or I wouldn’t hear back for a couple weeks, at which time I would send a follow up email in a last ditch effort to get spark interest. DePauw fell into the former case.
Coach [Carl] Haas made contact after one of my high school games that he had attended because I went to a near-by school in central Indiana. After a short discussion about my interests in a college and what my plans were for the future of my lacrosse career, he asked me to send him my resume and tape. After reviewing my personal facts, such as GPA and community involvement, he asked me to come to campus for a day visit and for an interview.
I guess I did pretty well because within the next week I was asked to come back for an overnight visit. In my opinion, the overnight is the make or break moment for many schools. I had a very unpleasant overnight at one of my top schools and immediately crossed them off of my list.
When I came for my overnight at DePauw I was greeted by my host, said bye to my parents and headed to the dorms. My host happened to be in Humbert. After I settled in, we headed over to practice, of which I talked with the other guy staying that weekend. That night, inevitably we headed out to a fraternity and had a fun night and then to an on campus house of my host’s, roommate’s brother to end the night. We finally made it back to his dorm and wound down with some 2 a.m. Marvin’s and discussion about college basketball.
Overall, it was a great visit, I loved the school and loved the people, along with the team. I then gave a verbal commitment the following week and never looked back.