Patrick Nyarko (12) traps the ball during Tech's home victory over Old Dominion in the third round of the 2007 NCAA tournament. Following the season, Nyarko was taken in the first round of the MLS SuperDraft by Chicago.
Correction: This story has been modified from its original version. — This story has been modified from its original version. A recruit's name (Vinson to Vinston) and the school to which another recruit would eventually commit (Florida State, not Florida) have been corrected. The Collegiate Times regrets these errors.
"Seventy percent of the time, they contact me first," Weiss said. "They either hear about me going over there or hear about how our team has done. I'm recruiting an English kid right now because he looked up Tech and how we did last season. They sometimes hear about me from other players or friends who have come here before them."
That's not to say the recruitment process isn't a difficult one. Weiss is bombarded by promising prospects every day.
"On a given day, I'll get 25 e-mails a day from recruits," he said. "Six or seven of them are always international. I look at every recruit who contacts me, or I forward him or her to one of my assistants. Because they're coming from all over the world, they come at all times of the day and night. It can be quite a distraction sometimes."
If the players don't come to him, Weiss gets information from one of his various connections in other countries.
"Thirty percent of the time I get a tip from my coaching friends that I have in various countries who tell me that a kid is good academically and would be a good fit for the environment that I provide for them over here," Weiss said.
Weiss has mainly recruited from Ghana and Germany in the past but plans to branch out more in the future.
"I'd like to go to Mexico," he said. "The world is shrinking. Mexico, India, Pakistan -- who cares where you're from? The world is becoming a much smaller place in general thanks to technology. My recruiting boundaries are no longer Southwest Virginia or the East Coast. There are none now."
The number of international players that Weiss has on his roster is not uncommon in Division I.
"We're right in the middle of Division I in terms of number of international players on our roster," Weiss said. "We have the most or second-most international players in the ACC, but in the country I'd say we fall into the 50th percentile. Last season we had only 14 or 15 percent of international players on our roster."
Weiss said that his developing program is not yet at the point where it can obtain or even contend for the top U.S. recruits, however -- one of the biggest reasons the coach makes several trips overseas.
"Can we do great things with only U.S. or Virginia kids? Absolutely," Weiss said. "But getting those kids to come to Virginia Tech when they're at the top of their game is a challenge."
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Sloppy editing, guys. First, it's Vinston Painter (not Vinson) and E.J. Manuel is signed with Florida State, not Florida.
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