Episode #137: Donnie Danklefsen on Recruiting

🥎🎓 Recruiting the Right Way | Coach Donnie Danklefsen (Trine Softball) — Significant Recruiting

How do you end Season 2 of the Significant Coaching and Recruiting Podcast?  A great 2-part conversation with one of the best college softball coaches in he country!  That's how!

In this episode of the Significant Recruiting Podcast, I’m joined by Donnie Danklefsen, Head Softball Coach at Trine University and a 2x NCAA National Champion.

Coach Donnie breaks down how he evaluates recruits, why GPA matters more than most families realize, what coaches actually look for in film, and why character, effort, and fit consistently outweigh talent alone. 

This episode is packed with practical insight for:

• Recruits navigating the process
• Parents trying to support without adding stress
• Coaches who want to recruit with integrity and clarity

👉 Learn more about Coach Donnie and Trine Softball:
 https://trinethunder.com/staff-directory/donnie-danklefsen/139

🎧 Subscribe now at coachmattrogers.com and join us in 2026 for Season 3 of the Significant Coaching and Recruiting Podcast and all of the Significant Recruiting tools, books, and resources, including Significant Recruiting: The Playbook for Prospective College Athletes, the Significant Recruiting Launchpad, and the Softball Recruit’s Journal.

This is the final episode of 2025 and a powerful way to close the year.  See you all in 2026!!!

Significant Recruiting Resources — Take the guesswork out of college recruiting with Significant Recruiting: The Playbook for Prospective College Athletes, sport-specific Recruit’s Journals, and the Significant Recruiting Launchpad. Practical tools to help families research schools, stay organized, and build a smarter recruiting strategy. Learn more at CoachMattRogers.com.

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Welcome back to the Significant Recruiting Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Rogers. In today's episode, I'm joined by Coach Donnie Danson, the two-time NCAA Division III softball national champion coach from trying University, one of the most thoughtful and honest voices in college athletics. Donnie came on the show to talk recruiting the way it actually happens, not the miss, not the marketing, the real conversations coaches are having behind the scenes. We dig into what coaches truly look for when building their roster. Why GPA matters more than most families realize how coaches evaluate film and why fit character and culture. Always outweighs talent alone. Coach Donny also shares powerful advice for parents and athletes about slowing down the process, asking better questions, and choosing a school that feels like home, not just one that looks good on paper. It is a fun and provocative conversation because Coach Donnie isn't afraid to say it how it is. It will be a great listen for any family going through their own college recruiting process, and as always, you can find more tools and resources to support your recruiting journey at Coach Matt Rogers dot. Including my book, significant Recruiting, the Playbook for Prospective College Athletes, the Significant Recruiting Launchpad classes, and the new softball recruits Journal designed to help athletes stay organized, be intentional, and stay grounded throughout their entire recruitment journey. All right, let's get into it. Here's my conversation with Coach Donnie Danson. Coach we just had a great conversation about coaching and the great 22 years you've had at building Trines program. I want to get a little deeper into recruiting. We touched on it in the first segment. When you look at your roster every year, are you looking to replace your seniors or are you tempted sometimes to go, she's so good, we need that role, we gotta go find another one of her? Or does that typically not cross your mind? I think you can't replace the senior. You gotta look at, okay, when that senior can, as a freshman, can we find a kid equal to that? You can't make the mistake of, Hey, I gotta replace that senior because you can't replace that senior with a freshman. Yeah. If you can replace that senior as a, when she was a freshman with someone equal to that. You can kinda get back to that same building block and work from there. Yeah. I think you try to find someone that same caliber. Yes. But we try to just go out and find, again, a kid that kind of fits our mold. The first thing you know, I think every D three coach has the same philosophy. First thing you ask is what's GPA? Because it, if there's a kid that's got a three eight or a three nine and the same type of player has a two seven, we're always gonna go the higher GPA because they have a better chance of getting into our university. And get more money probably. Yeah. Yep. That's why, 'cause the after package is getting better. So that's a huge factor. Athletes that are listening the academic side is way bigger than you ever realize. That's the biggest thing is that GPA is so important. I say right now test score is not as important because right now COVID the test optional most schools are, but the GPA is very important. I would imagine for your admissions, not only is it GPA, but they're looking for the highest level of math and sciences that the kids could take. Yep. Math and sciences are huge. I they challenge themselves. Yeah. You know what AP classes do you have? That helps a lot. A lot of people are come in a lot more classes now, courses, college courses coming in, so they're coming with a lot more credits. Yeah. So that's a big factor now too, is how many years are they gonna come in and wanna play. Yeah. So you gotta look at that. Does that deter you if they've got like that associate's degree? No. It's their future. It's so whatever they want to do. So we have a lot of programs that are three three, so they can come play three years and go to a grad program for three years. Nice. And if we can camp for three years, great. We're not gonna try to term, play four. No. It's your future. What's best for you. It's now what we can do for you, what we can do for you now you can do for us. Is that the same for junior college for you? Do you ever, are you ever concerned if a junior college kid wants to come play for you that you only have two more years with them? No, it's the junior college though. You gotta be careful because you never wanna bring a junior college in unless they're gonna be able to play right away. Because it's not fair to them to come here and sit with, only have two years left. So the junior college kids we're extra careful to make sure it's a great fit, that they're gonna come in and play right away because there's always somewhere they can go play. You gotta be careful you're not putting 'em in a bad spot. 'cause I really do care about those kids that come in. They all wanna play. Not everyone's gonna play, but they all want to play. So I think as coaches we have to do a good job, make sure we're being honest and evaluate their talent and let them know exactly where they fit and put 'em in a good spot. Absolutely. I love that. How many of you like to carry on your roster? What's your ideal roster? Size 18 to 22 is, is perfect. Okay. When you get to the 22, do you ever, does that push you a little bit to make sure those kids that are busting their tail at that 17 to 22 on your roster, that they're getting some innings here and there, or do you, is that just conversations that you're having? We try to get 'em in. If we can get 'em in, great. But it's college. Your best players are gonna play. You've gotta earn everything. But one thing here we're blessed is we're not required to have 30 kids. We're not, you have to get this many freshmen no JV program. Our president ad love winning and they realize our program success is based on smaller numbers and small individual group and a lot of one-on-one training. And that gets lost when you get in 30, 35 kids. I'm very blessed that we don't have to do that. You use such a great anecdote in the first segment about the classroom size and the value of that professor knowing each of those kids that's in the classroom and being able to connect with them. And I agree, I think it's the same when schools say we've gotta over recruit to fill beds or something like that, it just makes your jobs so much harder for retention and keeping kids happy and excited that they came there. So I love that. Let's take families to. The bench with you. Not the bench, but you're at a game recruiting. What's catching your eye? What are you looking for? Because you talked about your assistant kind of handling the pitching side. Are you one of those guys that can see us, can see a great shortstop? That's a great athlete with a great arm and glove and go, all right, I can play in center, I can play at third, I can play at second. Or are you pinpointing a skillset at each position? No, I think it, just, kids that can multi-skill kids the more you can play different spots, the more we can play you. We had a kid that was think top five and batting average. Here's a long time ago now, but I drove a long way to see her play and went Indiana as you can get, you can get summer, winter, and fall all in the same day. And it was hot and then it poured down rain and it ended up almost sudden, the snow, whatever. But all I gotta see her do was run from the dugout to shortstop and back, and the game was canceled. And that's an athlete just watching her move. Yeah, she has moved different and coming here having a great career. Just some kids are just athletically gifted, they just move differently than other kids. And we gotta do a good job to figure out who those kids are. And it just, it limits what they can do on the field. Have you changed? I remember early on, I made, I was 26 years old when I got my first head coaching job. I made some offers early 'cause I'd see a kid play like you said, and man, they just move differently. They, they do things on the court I haven't seen and I'd make an offer and then they'd come and I was like, gosh, I didn't ask this question. I didn't ask this question. I didn't talk to these people. I failed myself 'cause I didn't dig deeper. Have you changed in terms of how you go about that timeline of offering a kid? It's not really changed. We've got wiser in how we do it. Yeah. We kinda have a rule if you come on campus that first time, we don't really want you, kids get in, they get excited, right? And they come, they see all the new stuff and they see the wall and all the championships and they, and they want to commit right away sometimes. And we always tell 'em, Hey, 24 hour rule, go home, talk to dad's down the visitor with mom, whatever. And let the coolness of the visit. Calm and take a couple days. Yeah. And if you still feel like this is home, yes. Then we'll let you commit. But the first visit, we don't want that to be your commitment because we want to soak in a little bit and we can't tell sending, we're not gonna go watch you the first time. An offer, so typically was if I go out and see her next weekend, I'll send Coach Smith and then I'll send Coach Houston the third weekend and we all take a rotation. We all can see because maybe I go see her. She's four for four and she's a great teammate, right? 'cause when you're not failing, you're great. But I want one of us to see her when she's over four, because now we're gonna see who her character really is, right? It's really good to be a good teammate. Easy when you're hitting doubles and making all your plays. Wait for, oh for three. So I hope when I go, every recruit is O for three and has two, hes, 'cause then I get to see what's really revealed inside. Are they still talking? Are they still hustling? Are they still high fiving everybody? Are they still saying please and thank you? If they pass that test, then I get really interested. And that, that's, they never understand that when I tell 'em that. But you want me to fail? Yeah. Because then I see who you are. And all our best teams are best years or after years that we had some failure. Yeah. And that's what life's all about. You only grow through failure. It's convincing a mom and a dad and a 17-year-old that. If I'm here, if I'm here watching your game, I already know you can play. Yeah. We're trying to see what else is in you, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The visit is for you to see the place also for me to ask you a lot of questions, and see how you respond. Yeah. I wanna know what these words mean to you. I wanna know what your characters, I wanna know what you say to my players when I'm not around. That's right. My kids are awesome at that. They'll come back and be like, coach, nope. I'm like, kid, the kid was three time all state. She asked about this, and this. That's not us. Yeah. Like you're right. And I passed on kids, people, what are you doing? Passing on this kid? She doesn't fit our culture. Yeah. And most time it's pretty much about me and not about us. And our kids are usually spot on. Yeah. And so that's great. You've got to realize that it's not always about talent. I'll take a great kid that's a good player over a great player. That's a good kid all day long. Love it. That just needs, it almost needs to be said. We need a college coach to say that in front of the 300 girls at every club, match in front of their parents and go, just so you understand, this is what I'm looking for. It's like we need everybody to rotate and have that conversation with every kid and every parent that's, this is so important. If we're gonna recruit you talk about film. What does film mean to you? Where does it fit in your recruitment? It's huge. If we can't possibly go through all the emails we get every day, right? I know at higher levels, head coach doesn't really go through email, like they have an email, the name, but you I go through my own email obviously at D three. If we get 40 emails a day or whatever it is, and 30 F film and 10 don't, we're gonna go to the film right away, right? So it is important. Now, does it have to be some. $10,000 program you bought? No, it can be an iPhone. It can be a prac, it can be in the backyard off a tee. It doesn't have to be fancy by any means, but it needs to have you running, throwing, and hitting and fielding a ball. Yeah. And it can be 30 seconds of each. Yeah. But it is very important. So we can at least see how you move and just the way your body works. Do you wanna see in a batting situation, do you wanna see multiple angles so you can see the pitch coming in? Like from a catcher's perspective, do you wanna see face on? So I can see that weight shift. Yeah. Is that valuable to you? It definitely helps if it's not 50 feet behind the backstop. If it can be, zoomed in from the side, that's great. Obviously we can't always get that, but the side view is probably my favorite. Yeah. But. It doesn't have to be elaborate, but just something we can get a good view of how you swing. If we can have some matrix in there so we can see arm speed. Obviously exit speed is important. Now I've had kids that have exit view loads of, high seventies, but if you can't hit the ball off a tee really doesn't help you. But there are some measurements that we, like our kids to fit in these categories athletically to keep us where we've been. Yeah. Hands, eyes, you wanna see it all. You wanna see hand-eye coordination, how quick their hands are. Let's say you watch it's a two minute film. First minute is 15 swings and it's everything you're hoping for. And then you see it third base, 15 ground balls and the arm's not there. Or the technique of getting that ball quickly from third to first isn't there. How do you handle that? We're pretty honest here, so we'll invite you to a camp. We'll come see you play. And if you ask, Hey, what do you see? I'll take love the offensive side of you. I'm not sure the arm's good enough. So now it's a, we change over to the right side, play first base or it's a D rule. And we flat out just lay out the exactly where we see you. And my line is I'll give you nothing, but you can take whatever you want. So you come in and change those things and make 'em weaknesses, make 'em strengths, and your role can change. But this is what I see right now based on athletically where you're at. I'm a take me into your camp. I'm a third baseman and I hit the heck outta the ball. I'm a kid that's gonna give you 15 home runs, 20 home runs a year. I'm that type of hitter. Okay. I just. It takes me a step and a Gallup for go from third to first. Can you fix me? Can you fix that arm ability? Can you get my arms stronger? How would you do that? I, we sure can try. There's all kinds of throwing programs, all sorts of wasting we can do. There's all kinds of band stuff we can do with you. But some kids just can't throw the ball very well. Yeah. So we're gonna try what we can do, but again, if you can hit, there's always a spot for you. I love talking about the left side of the infield. 'cause that's really the hardest part. It's really about it's footwork. And understanding how to make up that gap from short to first or third to first. Are there things specifically that you like to teach on that side of the infield to just even the really good infielders teaching them how to get that ball outta their hands and get it over there faster. Like third base is definitely more reaction than a lot of things. Yeah. See third base more reaction than second base. Second base, a lot more ranks third base on more reaction, first step stuff, so we do a lot more stuff down the line, a lot more. One hop drills with their base. We spend a lot of time, so we train our infielders, a lot of 'em together, and pitchers come with them. If you step on the field, we're gonna treat like an athlete. Yeah. So they're all gonna take. They're all gonna do glove work stuff. They're all gonna work on over the, shoulder stuff. They're all gonna be doing athletic movements. Yeah. Outfields gonna come and take ground balls. Infields gonna take fly balls. It doesn't matter where you stand. That first step's gonna be the same, the one hop on the run, same throw. So if we don't work on it in practice, you're not gonna be comfortable in a game. Yeah. And the last thing I want our kid doing is being in fear of my reaction of making the play that is needed. It's behind the back flip. If it's a die from your knees, whatever it is, if we don't work on it and get you comfortable, you're not gonna try it. And maybe that's the out required to make that big play. Yeah. We do a lot of things that, I'm a pitcher, no, you're an athlete and we're gonna work on this and we'll put 'em in groups and they're gonna rotate all the spots and four or five minute shifts. And it's rapid. And we're just getting comfortable and we're moving and we're having fun and we're just working on game speed stuff. And yeah. I got shit better at that today. Like I got pictures, I can throw the run. Now I can flip. Yeah, you can, because Awesome. You might just make that play in a game. Yeah. Don't label yourself this. We can make you all of this if long, you're willing to just give it an opportunity. I think that's a part of what's missing with kids these days. I'm sure you can agree with this. We'd watch Michael Jordan on tv. We'd watch Magic Johnson on tv. We'd watch Barry Bonds or whoever it may be, and go, I'm gonna go work on that. We went outside and we worked on it. I don't know how much of that's going on anymore. I talk about every camp is, everybody has a hitting coach. Play a metric coach. How many have a catching coach? Just go out, you don't need it. You need a ball, a wall, a glove, a tee. Yeah, an net and you can get a lot better. Yeah, like you don't have to have a coach they don't just go out and play anymore like they used to. Obviously baseball, softball was hard to get enough people to play, but like just go out in the backyard and you can get a lot better. Like our middlefield last couple years have been phenomenal and I'll come in the gym, guess what? They're on their knees, they got a tennis ball, and they're working off the wall over and over again. They're just doing little things that guests come into play in the game and they made that play in the run because they've done on the wall the last six months over and over again. I keep telling family, save the 4,000 you're spending on a coach, and just use your darn garage door more. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yep. Mom, for the tennis ball, or a, I know it's a little harder with softballs that softball might go through your garage door, there's things you can do. Exactly. I could throw side arm because Kent to Kent Alvy could throw 89, 90 mile an hour with the Pittsburgh pirates, and I wanted to see if I could do that. I'd see Ozzy Smith take a ball deep in the hole and he'd back in. I wanted to work on that. I wanted to see that. You watch any ESPN softball, the division one, and it's like it's right there for you. I'll go practice it, try and replicate it. Exactly. Tell mom and dad to come outside with you. Yeah. 45 minutes a day. Yes. And don't have to spend, drive four hours. Some guy in a, in a fancy facility on turf to do this. You can do it in your basement on carpet. How much comparison do you want your, the women in your program doing with each other in terms of, you just talked about a drill with your infielders and your pitchers. Do you want them watching each other? Do you point it out? That's the footwork we wanna see. Do you do a lot of that? Yeah, we do. I think that's something we have to build in our program is the hate to lose mentality, right? So we do a lot of this group versus that group, infield versus outfield, pitchers and catchers versus this group. And we won't always post who won, but we'll post who lost? So big board came in today, losers were blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I love that. Oh, I love that. If you don't wanna lose, then don't lose. Like today's side. You can't call someone a loser. If you lost, you're a loser. So for the next 24 hours, we call you the loser because you lost. That's one thing. A trial ball, they play so many games, it didn't matter. It was just a bracket game. You, it wasn't a pool game, it was blah, blah, blah, whatever it was. Yeah. In college, one game can take you out of a conference title. It can take you out an large bid, it can knock you off at the NCAA tournament. So we have to find ways to create that. I hate to lose. And so our job in practice is to make it so much harder than game days. So it's almost like an analogy is you eat McDonald's six days a week, and on game day you finally get a filet there. Now we get to put the whole team back into one group, and now this whole group here gets to go attack that group, right? And you can see 'em like, almost like D drill the mouth. We're not going against her today. We're not hitting off our staff. We get to go attack that staff. And you've gotta create that in practice where, not that they hate each other, but they're just like, they're always fighting each other now. Yeah. Now we're on the same team. That's right. And it's it's an off day, almost an easy day. Now we go attack them. And we always start with a challenge and finish with a challenge. So it's always somebody losing something and I promote talking crap back and forth. I promote that. I want them to create that atmosphere of absolutely. And we leave the field, we, it stays, but when we're in practice, yeah, it needs to be competitive. And girls and them struggle with that. Guys, we're in practice and we had the all time league score when I played here in basketball and I broke his nose. We grew up together and he looked at me and said, I knew I shouldn't have reached in 'cause I knew you cleared the elbow. That's my fault. And that night we went dinner together, the big old mask on, and we were fine girls. They struggle with that a little bit more. But you have to create that culture where they hate to lose. We expect to win every single game and. If you get beat, you shouldn't go to sleep. Then that night you should be rolling around. You should be pissed off because you lost. That's your book coach when you write it that's the foundation of your book right there. Because what you just said, I can put football, baseball, soccer, golf, tennis, cross country track. Doesn't matter what sport coaches I put in front of you, that should be their message. If they come here, you speak, they need to go home and go, how do I create that with my program? How do I create that competitiveness? That's how you build a championship culture. I don't care if it's a team pickleball day or whatever it is. Like they That's right. They should wanna win. Yeah. I don't care if we're playing re or if we're playing cards. Exactly. That's how I was youngest of five. I never won anything until I got in high school. That's just, you lose 'em. So you finally get to win. It means something to you. And I knew we were brothers from another mother. I'm youngest coach. I'm the baby of five. I get I get, let's finish with some advice. I put you in a room with 300 club softball parents. What's your advice to them about the recruiting journey? Take it day by day. Don't get so caught up that you'll lose why you're playing the game. So many those kids, it becomes a business at way too young of an age and they forget why they're playing. They started playing this game because they loved it, and it's a fun game. Now it's all about getting the scholarship. Getting the scholarship. And it doesn't matter what the scholarship's called. If the scholarship is $20,000 athletic money or if it's $20,000 academic money, it's still $20,000. Yeah. And sometimes we forget that, oh, it's gotta be academic or it's gotta be athletic. Money is money. That's right. And it's gotta be based on fit. So I always tell kids, Hey, don't pick a school based on the coach. 'cause they could leave. Look at old Miss football right now. Oh yeah. Look at that hold. I'm not gonna say who's right or wrong, but the loyal loyalty issue right now in sports is wrong on both sides. That's right. So don't pick on coach, don't pick it just based on sports. 'cause guess what? You could get hurt and now you're not playing. That's right. You need to pick it. Obviously, based on academics, there's none the best academic fit. You shouldn't be going there. I committed, visited? Nope. They have your major. I know what I major in. How can you commit if you don't even know what you're gonna study yet? Yeah, so I would tell 'em to take it slow. If coaches are trying to pressure you real quick, that's gotta be a red flag. If you go on a visit and you don't get to meet the players without the coach present, that's a red flag. Huge red flag. Ask the players a lot of questions with the coaches not present. Do some homework. How many of their players each year go in the portal? How many people are not staying? How many players are graduating each year? What is Team GPA? What is team culture? Do you wanna go somewhere and win a conference title or you wanna go somewhere and win a national championship? Yeah. Not putting down mid-major, do you wanna go play for something every year? Have a chance to win national title or maybe win a conference? Tournament to get to the NCAA tournament. Like kids kill me, especially portal kids. I always wanna go somewhere and win. I'm gonna go swim and win coach and they go back to the division one that won eight games. Like you talk about culture, you talk about winning, but you go somewhere that won eight games when you just left the program that won seven. Where you could have came maybe a D three or, and maybe one 40. That is all about culture and caring budget. So don't always chase the money. Chase best fit. Find a school that feels like home and don't care about everyone else. Thinks about where you're going, where are you gonna be happy? Put the ego aside and find somewhere ego that you just feel comfortable and someone that cares about you as a person. We care more about our kids GPA than their ERA and their happiness than they do. Can they win us a ball game? Coach, you're awesome. Keep doing what you're doing. Keep having fun. Keep loving it. And if we can ever do anything for you, please holler. I'm always happy to help. I appreciate It was great. And that's a wrap on our final episode of 2025 and season two with Coach Donnie Danson. Whenever I have conversations like this, it is always a reminder to me to never allow someone else to shape who I am and who I want to be. We are all at our best, whether we are playing, coaching or parenting when we stay true to ourselves. Coach Donny is the perfect example of what can happen when you believe in your mission and purpose and let your own moral compass guide you. You can easily see why recruits from across the nation are lining up to play. For Coach Donnie at Trine, he's a special coach at a special university. As we close out the year, I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for listening, for sharing the podcast, and for trusting me to be a part of your coaching and recruiting journey. This community continues to grow because of your commitment to doing this the right way. I wish all of you a happy, healthy, and peaceful new year. I'll see you in 2026 as we launch season three of the Significant Coaching and Recruiting Podcast with another lineup of outstanding coaches, leaders, and conversations designed to help you with your journey no matter what side of the sidelines you're on. Until next time, stay focused on what you can control. Stay humble and keep chasing significance.