New obstacles hinder recruiting plans

By Ryan Donough

On Aug. 1, the official ban on the use of text messaging as a recruiting tool for all coaches in the NCAA will be put into effect.

The updated recruiting restrictions, which the NCAA's board of directors passed May 3 with a vote of 13-3, will now exclude the use of text messaging as part of a coach's repertoire of recruiting tools.

Santa Clara's new head basketball coach, Kerry Keating, who is known for utilizing technology as a part of his recruiting tactics, believes that the new ban will limit his ability to recruit potential athletes.

"I would like to make sure that we have all tools technologically available to us," Keating said. "I think it is a way to open up communication and let the kids have control of their recruiting."

Currently, coaches and recruiters are allowed to contact high school athletes only after the first of July preceding the students' senior year. Also, student-athletes can only be contacted once a week by a college or university recruiter.

Prior to the ruling, coaches and recruiters were allowed to send unlimited text messages to student-athletes and ask them to call back even after their once-a-week phone call had been used.

Currently, there is no penalty imposed on a university if a student-athlete calls them first and since there was no ban on text messaging, a loophole was available for recruiters to get in touch with their prospective athletes without restriction.

The new ban eliminates this loophole. It specifically states that no college recruiter may contact any recruit via text message, even if a recruit texts a coach or recruiter first.

Recruiting can be one of the most time consuming and difficult processes for any college coach, and the recent ban is now limiting their opportunities to have contact with athletes.

According to Santa Clara Athletic Director Dan Coonan, the new ruling is a disappointment.

"Obviously we are disappointed by it because text messaging was a good way to talk in the language of high school students," Coonan said. "It also removes some of the main vehicles of communication."

While restraints placed on a coach's ability to communicate with prospective athletes impedes their ability to recruit, another contributing factor limiting this process is the amount of scholarships designated to a particular program.

Currently, the two sports at Santa Clara that receive the most scholarship funding are soccer and basketball. Other sports such as cross country, water polo and crew are at a recruiting disadvantage because they receive little or no scholarship funding.

Head Cross Country Coach Tom Service believes that if the team had only one or two more scholarships, they could compete at a higher level.

"Even if we had three instead of one, which doesn't sound like much, that would be unbelievably huge for our sport," said Service.

Despite the lack of scholarships, however, Service believes that getting recruits to commit is based on how much time and work is put into the whole process.

Keating shared similar feelings. Keating said he believes any program is capable of getting any player if they are willing to put in the effort.

"You have to recruit every day," said Keating. "I have always maintained that we had players at UCLA that anyone in the country could have recruited."

According to Keating, text messaging and hard work have already helped many recruiters bring in recruits.

"We had one kid (at UCLA) who was recruited 100 percent through text messaging," Keating said. "There is no question you can have a relationship or enhance a relationship through communication of text messages."

Keating also said text messaging is a better means of communication than traditional ways such as phone calls.

"It is better in the sense that kids are doing it and it gets you into their world, so to speak," Keating said. "Also, it is short, sweet and to the point."

Contact Ryan Donough at (408) 551-1918 or rdonough@scu.edu