Episode #161: Scott Fjelstul on Recruiting

⛳ A 39-Year Masterclass in College Fit and Recruiting

In Episode #161 of the Significant Recruiting Podcast, Matt Rogers continues his conversation with Scott Fjelstul, Director of Golf at Luther College and a 39-year head coach with a remarkably decorated career.

This is a 39-year masterclass in how to think about recruiting the right way.

Too many athletes and families make decisions based on offers, rankings, and coaches.

But what happens if the coach leaves?
 What happens if the sport is taken away?

This episode challenges you to think differently—and focus on what truly lasts.

Coach Fjelstul shares insight on:

•  Why the school has to feel like home 
•  What college coaches actually look for in recruits 
•  Why character, work ethic, and passion matter most 
•  How to evaluate fit beyond rankings and stats 
•  The importance of academics and time management 

If you’re a student-athlete, parent, or coach, this conversation will help you make a decision that holds up long after the game is over.

🎧 Listen: coachmattrogers.com/podcast
 📺 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@CoachMattRogers

🔗 Learn more about Scott Fjelstul: https://luthernorse.com/staff-directory/scott-fjelstul/143

Transcript

0:10

On the latest edition of The Significant Coaching Podcast, a recruiting presentation of the coach, Matt Rogers YouTube channel. Available audio only everywhere you get your favorite podcasts. I'm your host Matt Rogers. This is part two of my conversation with Scott Festool, the director of golf at Luther College, and a 39 year head coach with a remarkably decorated career. When families go through the recruiting process, one of the biggest mistakes they make is putting too much weight on the coach and not enough on the school. Because here's the reality, coaches can leave, situations can change. Injuries happen. Priorities shift. But the school, that's where you live, that's where you grow, that's where you earn your degree. It has to feel like home. And one of the things that stood out during our conversation with Coach Festool is how clearly he understands that he talked about Luther, not just as a place to play golf, but as a place to live and learn and grow for four years, a place where the education comes first and the sport supports that journey. So in this part of the conversation, we're gonna dive into what really matters in recruiting, how to evaluate fit, what coaches at the division three level are really looking for, for college golfers, and how families can make decisions that hold up even if the game is taken away. And as always, if you're looking for more tools, resources, and guidance throughout your recruiting journey, you can find everything@coachmattrogers.com. All right, let's get into it. Here's part two of my conversation with Coach Scott Festool. Coach fto, so great to see you. We had a great conversation about coaching and course management and the love and the passion you have for your players and growing them not into, not just into great golfers, but into great young men. And I'm so thankful for you. I want to get into the world of recruiting for you. You and I have gotten to have a few conversations about recruiting over the last couple of months. But I wanna talk a little bit more about mental toughness, but really from how you're evaluating that with your recruits, what tells you that someone is mentally tough to succeed at the college level? Is there something that you see or hear that you know that they might have that. Hi, Matt. Thank you very much again for asking me. I think that's a loaded question, but that's why you asked it. It's because, even as a basketball coach it's hard to know if a kid's got what it takes to handle the pressure that they're gonna go through. Start basically starting over. And you don't know and nobody knows. Five star recruits at the division one level. That never pan out. And then you see walk-ons that work hard for five years and become all Americans and get drafted in the NFL. And it's a work ethic. You hope somebody works as hard as you want them to work. But I think an 18-year-old has a lot of things to learn. It's not a guess, but you don't ever know how somebody's going to turn out. And I've had some, I'm very fortunate, I have great young men from great families, but I have some players that have had some great resumes, but they were better golfers in high school. They just didn't develop and grow. They worked really hard. They just couldn't get to the next level. No matter how many times we talk about things or I don't think I hindered them, tried to help'em as much as I can, but everybody grows at a different level. But I think providing the right environment to grow and mature and the value of hard work. I think that's very important in college athletics and some young people have a lot of success and they've probably worked hard, but I think college athletics, you take it up another level of hard work and what we expect out of our players all while they're being a student and going to class and doing homework and all those things too. So that's a time management thing. But you don't ever really know. You're hopeful. But I've been lucky that I've had a lot of good players that have worked hard and been very successful. Re recruiting is just as a, is a very big thing that is not perfect for every single school or every single situation. I guess I'm finding I'm working. I'm finding these days I'm working so hard on the parents as much as the athletes coming outta high school. To get them to understand that division conference scholarship need to be your last thought and how important fit of who you are as a person and the people that you're gonna go be with not just the players on the team and the faculty, but the coaches and all those things. Yeah. How big of a role is that to really figure out what you're made of and find, have the resilience and the determination to find that work ethic and joy of the game starts with finding the right fit. You're exactly right. I, the parents are such important part of recruiting a young person. You're recruiting their parents. They've gotta like you, they've gotta like your opportunity. They've gotta like what you say. Or like what you provide their child. I love recruiting parents. I love talking to people so it's fun for me'cause I can talk about us and I talk about Luther and I can talk about all your successes for a long time, but recruiting parents is very important because I think we provide a lot of great opportunities here at Luther. It's a great place to go to school. Great opportunities to go to great education over the corner. We've got a golf team and I think we're pretty good, and I think we've had success, but it's still a small part of the big picture of getting a college degree. And I think that's what's neat about Division three program, that's still the main focus in our recruiting, but. Young people grown up in great situation, great families, all of those things you can tell right away. They look you in the eye. Very attentive. Every once in a while. Some people aren't as attentive as other young people, so do they really want to be there? That type of thing. But I love talking to parents because they need to know all those things too. This is going to be home for the next four years. Yeah. And that's all I ever say to anybody. I think this is a place to call home'cause it's a really good place. But it's a very important part of the process. I know this is gonna be a challenge. You can question'cause you probably don't think about this all the time, but is there something when you have that conversation with a parent and a student athlete on campus where you're just like, this is, they're right for me. This is a family and a kid that really fits me. Are there things that you hear that you go, that's what I wanted. That's what I was looking for. There is, and I see that all the time, and I'm very lucky that I've gotten a lot of those people over the years. You're not gonna get everybody that you want. Yeah. And the recruiting process. But you have a great feeling because you can feel or sense that they all like what you're saying. Okay. They, first of all, came here to visit. They came here to meet me. I really like having lunch with your players. They're great young men. They say so many things about you, coach. They like what you do for them. And so that's another part of our recruiting process is they spend some time with my players and have lunch with them. And I say, ask every question you wanna ask. I'm an open book. I like us. But I get that feeling all the time and it's a really neat thing because there's so many great families, great young men, confident, mature, that are great students and they're a great fit for us. Yeah. There, there's just that sense that they loved it there and they're, they, the energy's already there. They're already excited. Just being, they haven't even, they're not a part of the team yet. They're already excited about being a part of that day. Yep. You're right. You're such a positive person. So this is gonna be a hard one for you, but I'm gonna remind you, this is an educational podcast, so as much as we can open eyes and Sure. Get people thinking. Get them thinking the right things and understanding how you think. Are there red flags that you see from a student athlete or a parent where you're like, it's just, that's just not gonna work here. This isn't, this is gonna be the right place for this family. Yeah. Thankfully that doesn't happen too much. Sure. And so that's good. You probably nip a lot of that on the bud early on. Yeah, I think you can nip that. You're exactly right. Because. My time, their time coming to visit, communication, the whole thing. Still trying to find the right fit, who fits me, who fits my team, who fits my family and our college. And body language is important, attentiveness. You can get a feel in a conversation even about work ethic. And sometimes over the years I've had a dad more times than a mom. Dad lead the conversation than dad talk all the time. But I'd like to hear more from the young man, right? Because he might make the decision to come join our team. But the young. The father is telling me everything and telling me all the great characteristics and all of those things, and I think all of those things need to come out from the young person and whatever the traits and qualities. But I think a lot of coaches can see great traits, great characteristics, great values from young people and their parents in conversations. That is so important. Humility. Yes. Is that a key for you that there's there's a passion and a confidence, but also some humility with it, right? Yeah, no doubt. Yeah. That's part of it. A wide range of things, but it's all part of it. Can you tell that a kid loves the game? Yes. You can see it in their eyes, and when they talk about. Practice in the next tournament they're gonna play in and all of those things. You can almost feel it in the room. Yeah. So that's pretty neat. Yeah. It's the beginning of work ethic, I think. It's, love it. It's hard. It's hard to go hit 300 balls, yeah. And I just say college athletics is four times higher than. High school athletics. Yeah. In whatever sport. Yeah, absolutely. And it can take a lot of work, and I think most families understand it, but the biggest thing in college athletics is time management and a young person's getting an education. I think they're getting a great education at Iowa or Oklahoma State, and they're getting the great education at Luther too. But time management as a student athlete. It's so big. Yeah. And they might have four tests or four papers that week. And those are a lot more important than a golf tournament. Yeah. Or a couple of golf practices. Yeah. And but learning how to manage your time, that you leave the golf course, go get something neat and you take off your Titleist hat and you put on your academic hat'cause you've got four hours worth of homework that night. And. So learning how to take care of yourself and manage all of that time and work required. Absolutely. And I, and when you say four times from high school, the college in terms of work ethic and things, go with it. That's not hyperbole. That's an exaggeration. That's the reality. I don't think kids understand that, let alone parents how much more work has gotta go into it to be really good or just be average at the college level compared to what you were doing in high school. And they've gotta be willing to put the work in. Yeah. And. Not everybody does. And not everybody wants to because sometimes success in sports has come easy because they're so talented. Yeah. And they have so many opportunities and that's great. But we wanna take you to the national level. Yeah. And I want you to be an All American. Yeah. And that's gonna take work. But the. The best thing for me, Matt, is I've had 38 academic, all Americans, fantastic, and they played really good golf and they've gotten really good grades, and they've represented me and my family and our program and our college in many great ways. But that's the neatest thing to put on their resume, that they're an academic all American. That's one per year coach. That's crazy. And so it's awesome. Unheard of. I'm so proud of these young men and their families. But it started with their work ethic. Yeah. And how hard they worked at school, how hard they worked at golf to perform at a high level and shoot good scores, and they learned how to manage their time. Yeah. If the work ethic is there on the course and in the classroom. That's character. If it's just there for the golf course, it's then it's not there for the classroom then we question the character. And I am very lucky. I love all sports. I'm a big fan of everything, but I think golfers have great character, great integrity, and a great passion. And that's just part of the game of golf. Yeah. I find myself writing about that so often when I write every week, you look at what Tommy did last year, in that great tournament and he was the only one that saw that ball move, took the penalty on himself and he cost, might have cost him the tournament going from what he did. You don't have that in any other sport. You don't one last year yeah. Yeah. All right let's clear up some recruiting stuff, I think. Sure. When I, if I put coaches in a room and I put parents and athletes in a room, it doesn't matter the sport, I go, okay. What do you think a college coach is looking for in terms of evaluating you? And then you ask coaches the same question about how they evaluate. You typically get two pretty extreme answers. Sure. So I'm gonna throw some things at you. And I want you to kinda walk me through what's really important to you and what's not so important to you when you're evaluated a recruit. Okay. Rankings, average score, handicap average course length that they play their home course. Tournament golf experience, how far they drive the ball. Their accolades, all conference honors, things like that. What are, what jumps out at you when I give you that list that you're like, that's important to me that's gonna translate to college success? Everything. No, I think every coach will say that. Yeah. But. Coaches have the availability to see a lot of stats, see videos, see tournament results, see ranking, see all that stuff that we didn't have 30 years ago. And so it's really neat today to have all that information available to us. Good term results, high finishes, accolades are good.'Cause you want somebody that handles the pressure and can be tournament tough. Yeah. And do that on somewhat of a consistent basis. Rankings, maybe? Yes. Maybe no.'Cause maybe a young person in high school is in three sports. Yeah. And they wanna focus on a certain sport in college. And so I love the multi-sport athlete. Because they've probably been successful at each one of them. But I think you learn the values of teamwork and a lot of things being in other sports too. And then when you have the time to commit to one sport, in my world, golf, and you work all summer long because you just finished your senior year by playing three different sports. That's fun to think about the possibilities of. That hard work. Yeah. And character though, body language, who they are, how they look at me in the eye, all those type of things are very important. And sometimes you get recommendations and all that stuff. I love reading letters of recommendation'cause that talks about the young person Yeah. And who they are. And sometimes about their family too, which is awesome because a young person coming in to my golf team is now part of my family. Yeah. It's different from you than a basketball or football coach. I have to, as a basketball coach, I have to manage relationships with 20 some kids, oftentimes. You might have eight to 10, maybe 12 on your roster at a time. And you get really in depth with each young man. Yeah. And that relationship, I would imagine, grows so much faster than a footballer, a baseball or a basketball coach because of that individual time. No doubt. It's got a matter. You no doubt we're, we spend so much time together and I think every mom understands that their golfer is gonna come home at dark after leaving the golf course, playing around the golf, practicing, chipping, putting, come home, what's on the stove? Mom? What's for dinner tonight? It's 8, 8 30 at night. But it's the same thing in college. We practice a lot. We put a lot of time in. And so very important I'm gonna put your feet to the fire a little bit here. A kid comes to you and is interested in playing for you. What are some of your first questions that you ask in terms of just finding out how good of a golfer they are without seeing their swing? What are some of those things that you ask? So you get an idea of what their ability is? So you can ask the basics of what your. Handicap and scoring average. What are you looking for with those two things? What gets you into that kid pretty quickly? If somebody's a scratch or a plus handicap.'cause we've been very successful. Yeah. And nothing against it, but somebody's got a high handicap isn't gonna perform for us. But is it a good handicap, good scoring average. Where did you play? What type of tournaments did you play in? Or was it all local? You've got a good conference, state competition, that type of thing. And then I always ask a couple questions. Please tell me what are some strengths of your golf game, and then tell me a weakness or two. Then tell me what you like to practice. So a lot of times young people say they like to practice their strengths, and I say, I do too.'cause that's fun, right? But we're gonna come at it from the other angle that we're gonna practice our weaknesses a little bit to try and make them stronger. We can perform on the golf course and hit those shots when we need to do that. And then how much do you practice and how much do you practice The short game that speaks to the love as much as the work ethic, right? Yeah. I get home in dark every night. Yeah. That's pretty good. I like that young man right now just because they're at the golf course all day practicing and playing. Yeah. That type of thing. Yeah. You gotta love it. Yeah. Is there a handicap that you hear that you're just like, yeah, it's just not gonna work? There's probably other places you need to probably double digits and I don't mean anything against a 10 or a 12 handicap. Yeah. And I've had all kinds of young men come join our program with all kinds of handicaps. But I would love about them is they're great young men and they work really hard and they're very determined. Yeah. And if you have that determination and that drive, and you're gonna work hard more times than not, they're all conference their senior year. And have a chance to win tournaments. Yeah. And help the team be successful. So you can't judge that determination and that work ethic completely in the recruiting process. But you can get a feeling about it. Yeah. Would you say that most kids maybe can improve one to two strokes every year? So if they're coming in as a 10, they're probably never gonna be better than maybe a five or a six by their, probably a good Makes sense. Probably a good comment. Yep. If they're a seven, if they're a six or a seven, there's a good chance that you can get'em to that close to a scratch. Be a kid that can score low seventies consistently. Yep. Yep. By the time they're junior, senior. Yep. I think that's a. Good comment. Reasonable. Reasonable. I just, what's so important to me is work ethic. Yeah. And passion and drive. Yeah. And so you don't always see that on a piece of paper or a resume or recruiting link. Yeah. I love what you said about multi-sport athletes and, we've talked about Leo. Leo's never had a year in his life where he didn't play baseball all summer, basketball all winter. So I'm excited to see when he gets to put all of his energy into golf, what that looks like, because I'm sure you get a ton of those kids that Yeah. And it's fun. I'm excited about Leo just to see those opportunities. Yeah. And all those young people that are that way now, this wide open door that they can focus a hundred percent on this sport and. Work hard at it all summer. Yeah. Yeah. And if you haven't done so yet, go to Luther's website and look at Coach's indoor facility. I You've got a great indoor can I tell you a little secret please? It's not a secret. We're very fortunate. Luther very good president. Great energy on campus. Yeah. Just hired another really good athletic director following two very good athletic directors. Our athletic facilities is going through a$24 million renovation remodeling. Holy cow. I don't think many small colleges can say that. Nope, they can't. So in the renovation process, we had a really nice golf room before, right? I have a track man, 65 inch tv, all that type of stuff. We're moving into a new space that's more than three times bigger than a racquetball court, and we're in the process of remodeling it and we're gonna put in three hitting bays. Oh, amazing. And a putting green and probably multiple track mans, everything's related to money Yeah. And all that. But we're gonna have three launch monitors. A nice indoor putting green and I'm so excited about the future'cause I love Luther and I'm just excited what we offer our athletes. But our new golf room, Matt, is gonna blow people away. I love the one you have now. I'm so excited. I'm coming. I'm coming to, look I gotta drive through Iowa in the next problem. Couple weeks. I may be coming to see you coach. Yeah. It'd be great to see you. You bet. Yeah. Yeah. I wanna finish coach. I'm gonna do a little different here. Sure. Usually I finish with advice, but I'm gonna let you speak to the character you run your program with. I'm gonna give you two questions I tell every families to ask when they're on a visit. Good. And I want you to speak to'em'cause I already know what that answers are gonna be in my heart. But I want to hear'em. I want to hear you say it out loud. Sure. Student athlete comes to you and says, coach, this is middle of the season. And they say, coach, I got three tests this week. I've got two papers. I'm overwhelmed. I feel like I'm gonna fail at all. I don't know if I can put three hours of practice in this week, every day, or I'm gonna, I'm gonna fall back. What do I do? Very simple answer. You're a student. You're a student at a really good college, and our professors want you to work hard in their class, but you've gotta prepare for those tests and those papers. Golf takes a back seat. And do not worry about me. Do not worry about the program. Do not worry about practice. You study hard and do well in those things. Mom and dad want you to get straight A's, and I want you to get straight A's. Very simple. Yeah, great. Great answer. All right. Second question. Get a phone call at 6:00 AM kid's sick. He's throwing up, thinks he has a fever. Hot mess. Mom and dad live 1500 miles away. Coach, how do you handle that? We can't. I'm a dad. I can't get on the plane and go take care of him. How do you guys handle that? I consider myself a second or third father, so my young people, and I think that's part of a coach that you're in that parenting role for these four years. It's would you like me to take you to the hospital or have you gone to health service or do you want me to get you something or Ann and I'll be right down, or usually me, but what can I get you? But we probably should get you checked out. I don't care about golf. You need to get healthy, you need to rest up whatever you need. That's right. And so I'm up ready to go. We've got things available to our students if they're sick. So let's first get'em to health service on campus. It doesn't matter what time of day it is. I'm here to help in any way I can. And for your parents out there to understand why you ask those questions is so you can hear the soul and the spirit of the person that you're sending your child with. And that's exactly what you wanna hear. You're gonna hear it in different ways, but you're gonna hear. Authentic, genuine, passionate, caring, loving, surrogate parent. So coach, I'm so thankful to have you in my life. I hope you're okay if I call you a friend, please. We are friends, so thank you very much. I'm so excited for all the young men that get to play for you, but. My, my cousin Leo is coming to play for you and I couldn't be more excited about his future and what he's gonna the mentoring that he's gonna get from you to become the young man. I know he is capable of. So thank you for that. And thank you for doing this today. You're welcome. But thank you for asking me and thank you for letting me tell my story. I like Luther, I like us, but I'm very honored you asked me and I appreciate it, Matt. So thank you. Pleasure's mine. Good luck this spring. Very much. That's a wrap on part two of my conversation with Scott Festool. Thank you, coach for sharing your time and wisdom with us. Coach Festool is an anomaly in today's world of college athletics, a head coach that stays in one place for his entire career. He has generations of young men and women who have come through his program that see him as a father figure and someone who helped provide a tremendous foundation for the rest of their lives. Every week I get to learn from some of the best coaches in the country, like Coach Festool, how they lead, how they build environments, and how they take care of people. And now I'm taking those lessons on the road. If you're a school, a team, or an organization looking to strengthen your culture, your leadership, and your approach to recruiting, I'd love to come share what I'm learning through these conversations and my personal experiences these past 25 plus years as a head college coach and ad, and as a head national scout, where I've advised and guided over 4,000 families through the college recruiting process, whether you're looking to schedule me to speak. You wanna dive into the significant recruiting book and online classes series, or access our catalog of conversations with top coaches across the country. You can find it all@coachmattrogers.com. Thanks again to Coach Festool for a great conversation. Until next time, stay focused on what you can control. Stay humble and keep chasing significance.