By james art 
Photo from: Angilo Allen/Kansas Athletics
Kansas Infilder Chase Diggins, left, struck hands with an assistant coach/recruiting Coordinator John Coin during the match against Kansas in Manhattan on Saturday, May 4, 2024.
The fresh outside of college and works as a volunteer assistant at a baseball team that no longer exists, John Coyne slept on the floor in his office.
Coyne was paranoid that he would fall asleep his alarm from 5 o’clock in the morning to prepare the field in Texas-Panpine. Soon he was half scared to death, when a spider crawling on the floor scared him.
At that moment, he broke and on the floor of his office Coin thought, “God, can I really do this?”
Thirteen years later, Koyn finds himself as an assistant coach and recruited a coordinator at the University of Kansas, where in each of his three years of staff, he helped the number 1 to recruit a junior college in the country.
“I still remember this day bright,” Coyn said. “These are the days, you look back and you are so grateful that you have gone through grinding, those early years when there is no money in it.”
Coyne is constantly on the phone, sending text messages or flying to meet Commits and Nerbraits, something he believes is one of his favorite things in the world.
“I’m genuinely pleased to do my job every day,” Coyn said. “I know it sounds cliche, but I love what I do.”
These phone calls and flights are added annually for Coyne, which has stayed at Marriott Hotels 158 times in two and a half years, all for recruitment.
“I’m happy to be single with this travel schedule,” Coyne joked.
But the journey does not bother Koyn as he holds his head down and is constant with his work and he does not stop recruiting. He puts on the long days to help his colleagues staff coaches, led by head coach Dan Fitzgerald.
Coyne does not do it because the other coaches are not capable, but because they are busy with other duties for the success of the team.
His way of doing things is quite simple. When a dial comes out, he makes a calendar for all tournaments in the summer where other coaches should be present. He will tell them all the specifics, dates, hours, places, which specific players should watch. The only solution that coaches have to make is if each player is good enough to wear a jayhawk T -shirt, which then relay Coyne.
Coyne does this simply through Google Docs and sheets for each specific trainer. He prints them and has accurate instructions on where they need to stand at some point to watch a set.
“It’s really fun to coordinate when the games move around and it is raining,” Coyn said. “These are the parts of a job that I have to be really good at.”
When you are a recruitment coordinator, you need to understand that you will not engage with any rookie you are in contact with and Coyne admitted that providing this bet is the most challenging part of his work.
“It’s quite easy to identify a good player,” Coyn said. “The hardest thing is to make your child commit to you.”
According to Coyne, this is a business of people. The ability to build a meaningful relationship with the player, their family and coaches is what is important to assigning a commitment.
“I think someone will be a good recruitment coordinator, they have to really enjoy it,” Coyne said. “It must be in their DNA.”
With his almost permanent journey as a recruitment coordinator, Koyne misses practice during the season, but hunter Ben Hartl, a rookie of Koyn, who was made by Texas Rangers in the 14th round of MLB 2024, said his presence always feel.
“It’s always good to have a person like him in your corner,” Hartl said. “I wouldn’t be where I am without a man like John Coyne.”
Twenty -six players, hired and Coyne coach, have been selected in MLB’s draft in his career.
The right pitcher Hunter Cranton is another of the stories of Coyne’s success. Cranton was a selection of the third round in last year’s Seattle Marinrs project and participated in his spring training this year as a non-roster invited. Canton said Coyne was one of his favorite coaches of all time.
“During my dialing process, he was not only a great resource, but a really great person who wanted the best for me and other recruits,” Cranton said. “I felt like we were longtime friends after a phone call.”
Koyin’s role in Ku is far from what he dealt with in Cisco College. During his time there in the same position, he was charged to prepare the field, while serving as an academic advisor and coach in force.
The recruitment of a coordinator was not the path that Coyne was expecting outside of college. But after his time as an assistant to the Volunteers in Texas Pan-American, where he slept on the Witca Floor, Cisco offered him the work and Coyne was put into the position. His perseverance to stick to him in the difficult times allowed him to climb the ladder and reach Kansas by paying dividends for him, Ku Baseball and the many players with whom he comes into contact.