How Recruiting Works with Mercer's James Chakey

Around this time every year, dozens of parents of high school prospects ask IL's Terry Foy some version of the question, "How does recruiting work?"

In an effort to round out that answer, he's interviewing DI men's lacrosse coaches about their process, continuing the fourth year of the "How Recruiting Works" series with Mercer coach James Chakey.

Named the Bears' head coach just 48 days ago, Chakey discusses his own unique recruiting journey from Haverford (Pa.) to being an LSM at Penn State — after focusing on summer baseball for much of high school — then shares what he learned about recruiting from Jeff Tambroni and John Nostrant. After starting his college coaching career at Washington College, Chakey joined Jon Torpey's staff at High Point for a year before heading to Brown with him, and he goes deep on how those experiences helped his evaluation style evolve. He ends by explaining what appealed to him about the opportunity to move to Macon, how he built out his staff and how he is approaching the ’27 and ’28 classes.