COLUMN: Time for coaches to make final sale

Josh Callahan, Commentary For coaches of Penn varsity teams, however, the first week in April is the proverbial calm before the storm. Knowing full well which of their recruits were accepted by the University, they are told to bide their time until the letters reach the students' hands. An official moratorium on recruiting hung over all Ivy League schools last week as acceptance letters were mailed out to the Class of 2002. For one Monday through Friday period, coaches couldn't contact recruits. But no coach will tell you it was a vacation period. Preparations had to be made because at 6 p.m. last Friday, coaches were ready to go on one final binge to piece together their teams of the future. A ban on visits by prospective athletes to campus is in effect until 6 p.m. on Friday, April 10, but other forms of communication are allowed. Coaches of fall and winter sports therefore will be tough to pin down as they scamper from phone to phone, city to city, trying to explain to 18-year-olds across the country that being a Quaker is better than being a Tiger, Eli or Lion. All this excitement shouldn't just be a nervous time for coaches and teams waiting on final words from players -- it should be nervous time for athletics fans as well. Those interested in how Penn does in athletics over the next four years should check out how Penn does over the next three weeks. And we aren't talking about the opening of spring football practice. Spring practice sessions may be a key step towards forming championship 1998-99 seasons, but it is the results of the spring recruiting sessions that will have a much greater impact than practice on the winning prospects for seasons two years ahead and beyond. Events of the past year have brought the importance of recruiting to a level not seen since Sports Illustrated questioned Penn's recruiting tactics and ethics in 1995. "If the dean of admissions and the financial aid people aren't in your corner, you're in trouble," Penn football coach Al Bagnoli told SI in 1995. With the Penn administration in their corner, the new mandate for coaches is, "Get players to accept admission or you're in trouble." All of the searches for new coaches at Penn have cited recruiting as one of the top issues for a coach to tackle. Volleyball was a prime example, as the Athletic Department made sure that Kerry Major had connections with the West Coast -- the hotbed of volleyball in the country -- so that she would be able to recruit players to come east. Likewise the new men's soccer coach, Rudy Fuller, has a background that will allow him to recruit heavily in an academic/athletic environment because of his Georgetown coaching experience and other ties. The changing financial aid policies of Yale and Princeton have also brought attention to the high priority placed on recruiting. While neither Yale nor Princeton changed to grant based financial aid for purely athletic reasons, that hasn't stopped other schools from pointing out no that grants give those schools a tremendous advantage in recruiting athletes away from both other Ivy schools. Welcome, then, to a frenzied three-week period whose results will have a profound impact on the success of Penn athletics. So why will coaches drive themselves to exhaustion over the next three weeks making sure their players sign on the dotted line and send in their tuition deposit? Because no matter how good a coach is, great talent makes success easier. Not all players have the same potential. Whether it is the discipline to practice, great physical gifts or the ability to learn, there exists a hierarchy of ability. Just as with professional drafts, recruiting is somewhat of a crapshoot. Some players will become far better than expectations, while others will come to college and find new, non-athletic passions. But if anything that only increases the importance of doing the most thorough job problem. The recruits of the Class of 2002 will be in uniform the first time most Penn fans get a chance to see them and welcome them to campus. They should be welcomed and encouraged to do their best, but by then the fate of their respective sports may already be partially decided. So as we start this final three-week push, here's hoping the coaches put out a great sales pitch.