Richalyn Miller, Campus Carrier Staff Reporter
Last fall, the Vikings football team made history by being the first ever to play for Berry. Immediately after the season ended, head coach Tony Kunczewski and the rest of his coaching staff prepared to hit the road and begin the recruiting process.
Since November, Berry has had approximately 120-150 visitors for the football program. On their visits, the young men interacted with some of the school’s current players, got a campus tour by Presidential Ambassadors and finally met the coaching staff.
“We essentially took one week after the season, and we got everything organized, and we went out and started recruiting to the various high schools in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and North and South Carolina, which are our main areas,” Kunczewski said.
Offensive coordinator Rich Duncan said that in the recruiting process, they do not particularly look to recruit for one certain position.
“We’re not really focused on just one side of the ball, but of course we want to make sure we find guys we feel can start for places where we may lack depth,” Duncan said.
Kunczewski said that they want to look for players who can fill multiple roles, but there are certain positions the staff knows they need to focus on.
“We wanted to replenish every position,” Kunczewski said. “But there are three areas [in which] I would say we needed a little more improvement. These include interior defensive lineman, some of our secondary and more players that can be explosive on offense.”
Kunczewski also said he is looking for players who will fit Berry’s philosophy and standards.
“We’re looking for guys that fit this program but also suit Berry as well,” Kunczewski said. “It’s especially important that we find individuals who work well for the school, and I’m proud to say that I feel we’ve done a good job of doing that with our current guys fitting with this campus.”
The players recruited for this season have proven to mold well with the Berry community.
“We never expected to have all of our players from the first season,” Kunczewski said. “Right now, we have 74 players involved, and we’d like to keep our roster anywhere from about 90-110 players. We feel like anything higher than that makes it harder to really build team chemistry and it’s important to us and the program to create that family atmosphere.”
Duncan said that the process isn’t over yet.
“We’re a very young football team, so we want to make sure we can recruit players for each position and so far, our class in general, is really solid,” said Duncan.
So far, the football team has some form of commitment from 18 players, and Kunzewski said the program can expect announcements in the coming weeks on those who will officially become a part of the Berry community next season.
“I’m very proud of the guys we have coming in, and we’re excited about the direction the program is going in,” Kunczewski said.
The Vikings will open up the 2014 against the Maryville College Scots on Saturday, Sept. 6 at 1:30 p.m. in Maryville, Tenn.