Bowdoin women's basketball has long been a premier regional and national contender in Division 3. In her four years as head coach, Megan Phelps has kept the ship sailing smoothly.
The Polar Bears are 97-17 under Phelps, making three NCAA Tournament appearances highlighted by a 2023-24 Elite Eight run. She's earned NESCAC Coach of the Year honors twice and was named to the Women's Basketball Coaches' Association's 30 under 30 list in 2019.
Phelps, a former Bowdoin player, was also on Dartmouth's staff as both interim head coach in 2020 and then assistant coach and recruiting coordinator in 2021-22. Having been at two high-academic programs in both Div. 1 and Div. 3, Phelps has deep insight into what these types of schools look for in prospective student-athletes.
Phelps is next up in our Recruiting Insider series. She discussed her approach to the wide-open Div. 3 recruiting calendar, her advice for aspiring high-academic prospects and more.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What was different in your job recruiting at the Div. 1 level (at Dartmouth) and Div. 3 level?
"Both Dartmouth and Bowdoin obviously are extremely high-academic, so the academic piece plays a really big role at both places, and I think you'll find some similarities in the Ivy League to Division 3 in terms of, you're not talking about scholarship money. But I think honestly the biggest difference for me was, I think in Division 1, you get a lot less opportunity to actually evaluate talent. The recruiting schedule is so structured in such a particular way that live periods become so important.
"Seeing people play with their high school teams, you don't get to do it as much as I feel like we get to do in Division 3. There's probably an event I could find any given weekend that I could go to. And there are definitely some drawbacks to that too, in terms of work-life balance, and also the pressure it puts on teams and athletes, both physically and financially, to play in these events. But I think that's the biggest difference, honestly, structurally, just the rules around when you can and cannot speak to recruits and evaluate recruits."
What do you prioritize as far as events on a wide-open Div. 3 recruiting calendar?
"It's a little different in just a purely woman-power kind of situation. It's just me and my one assistant (Kate McCann), and I'm pretty lucky as far as Division 3 goes. I have a full-time assistant, and not all my colleagues have that, and so I think it's kind of a constant push and pull between taking advantage of the fact that you can evaluate more and also having a work-life balance.
"I feel like we definitely now prioritize the live period events. We're recruiting pretty nationally — I think we had seven different states and the U.K. on our roster last year — so in terms of working with a much more limited recruiting budget at Bowdoin, I think we tend to get the most bang for our buck, for lack of a better phrase, when we're at some of the bigger events. But New England is such a hotbed of basketball. I feel like there are a lot of teams that play more locally that we can really take advantage of getting to see them not in live period events. So we kind of split it that way. When we're evaluating our recruits from California or from Chicago, we often have to travel to see them, versus being able to go to high school games even during the season."
What do you think has been the biggest change to recruiting at the Div. 3 level in recent years?
"Obviously we're seeing the convergence of NIL and unlimited transfer portal, and particularly (in) this recruiting cycle, I feel like the class of 2027 is one of the first that is just so educated on that and what it means for their process. I feel like recruits are bringing it up to me more than me having to talk to them about it. Especially (when) the transfer portal piece first started, I was a little bit nervous, just because obviously Bowdoin is a super selective academic institution, and so transfers aren't really a thing at our school, so I knew we probably weren't going to be diving into the transfer portal and getting new additions to our roster every year.
"So I feel like we've tried to approach it a little bit more as a positive. I certainly feel that way when I am seeing my friends and colleagues in the spring (who are) so stressed in the portal. I'm kind of just a spectator, if you will, for the most part, but I feel like it's really become something that we pride ourselves on. We're really invested in finding players who are going to stay for four years and who are excited about the growth opportunities that that presents them, and I feel like over time it's really honestly kind of helped us in recruiting."
Besides playing well and getting great grades, what can recruits do to appeal to high-academic schools?
"I feel like the combination of high-level basketball and high-level academics really is similar across the board, but each place kind of has its own personality. The thing that I'm always trying to talk with prospective student-athletes about is just: fit is really important. It's easy to be like, 'Oh, this team won this many games last year, they won a championship, and so I want to be at the best team possible,' but that's not always going to be the best fit for you and your experience. So I think showing coaches that you're interested, not just in being on a certain type of team, but more importantly that you're interested in getting to know us and what differentiates us — I feel like it's one of my favorite things in coaching. There's so many ways to be really good at what we do, and so I always really love when a recruit really asks questions and is excited to kind of figure out what makes us us.
"... The other, more kind of technical piece of advice: I would say a lot of times, I'll have people reach out who have really great GPAs. For us, and I think for many of the high-academic institutions, the rigor of your classes is really important. So I have a ton of respect for a 4.0, I know how hard that is, and also, if you're not challenging yourself with the level of classes you're taking, that can definitely make it more challenging to recruit, even though the grades are really good. I think the honors, A.P., whatever kind of I.B. comparison at your school — it's really important, I think, to a lot of these institutions that you're challenging yourself as well as finding success in terms of grades."
Has your approach to valuing certain on-court skills, leadership traits or types of players changed over the years?
"I definitely think it's changed, and honestly, I think that's something I always try to keep in the forefront. It's easy, I think, to become a head coach and then kind of get set in your ways. But I still remember I played for Adrienne Schibles, who was at Bowdoin, and I worked for her for five years between Bowdoin and Dartmouth, and when I started working for her, I just remember being like, 'How did you know that kid was gonna be good?' Because I would watch the same people and have a totally different evaluation. And I think when I was first starting out, I was stressed that maybe it meant I wasn't good at evaluating, but I feel like every year I learn a little bit more about what I see in AAU, in high school, when I talk on the phone, when I see kids on campus, and how that ends up translating to their four years at Bowdoin.
"... I feel like over time, I've started weighing almost more in favor of, who is this person and what qualities do they have that kind of complement their game? I never really know how first-years are going to be when they first get to campus, no matter how good they are as recruits. But again, if you get the right people, hopefully they're the ones who are going to grind, and in Division 3, that's a big difference from Division 1. You don't have a coach with you all the time, so you really are the driver of your development. Our men's coach says all the time: You have to have a different type of discipline and work ethic to be successful at a place like Bowdoin, because you don't have somebody telling you what to do."
What's your biggest green flag and biggest red flag you can see in potential recruits?
"I think my biggest green flag is bench energy. I think it's so funny — Jess Giorgio graduated two years ago, and she often gives me a hard time, because the first time I emailed her when I was an assistant, I was like, 'I didn't even actually see you in the game. I just caught you on the bench, and, man, you were electric.' She was celebrating her teammates and just getting excited. I think AAU is a long season, and it's easy to get caught up in the stress of it, and just the people who can kind of keep that perspective, that joy, and how lucky they are to be playing basketball with their besties, that's important to me. That is a big selflessness green flag. I feel like we really value that.
"I think my biggest red flag — it kind of goes in line with that, but I think there is a way to talk with college coaches about struggles you faced in your career, whether it be with a coach that you don't align with, or maybe you had teammates who were hard to play with. I think there's a way to talk about that honestly that isn't like, 'Oh, I'm pretending everything was fine,' or completely trashing these people that I don't align with, or whatever. I always feel like coaches can tell if there's tension (on) either end of that spectrum. I would say definitely the negative communication's, obviously a bigger red flag, but just — there's a way to be honest about things that you've struggled with, with your team or your recruiting process, or whatever that may be, without being super negative about the people around you. And always, the first thing I think is, are you gonna come here and talk about me this way or your teammates that way?"
