The 2001 season isn?t over yet, but Sac State?s track and field team has already set its sights on 2002.

Hornet head coach Joe Neff and assistant Mike Gipson have been busy recruiting athletes for the future, while working with athletes on their current squad.

“It?s an ongoing process,” Gipson said, pointing to a thick stack of folders labeled “active recruiting file.”

The fifth-year sprints and relays coach added that the recruiting period usually runs from mid-April to August.

The Sac State coaching staff has come a long way in the recruiting process since 1996, when the program was pulled up to the Division I ranks and dumped into the talent-laden Big Sky Conference pool.

“We?re not always successful, but what we try to do is ratchet up the talent (of the recruiting class) a few notches every year,” 20-year Hornet head coach Joe Neff said. “And that?s what?s happened over the past five years.”

Gipson likes how the recruiting process works, and how the team has improved along with improved recruiting.

“I came to this program five years ago and people recruited us at the time. They weren?t ranked very high in the Sac-Joaquin Section finals or even in sections. But that was then. Since then, we?ve made a concerted effort to target higher-level athletes than we have in the past,” he said.

Case in point: Sac State freshman phenom Shanita Bryant. Bryant, who was pursued by several Pac-10 and Western Athletic Conference programs last year, already has a Big Sky indoor title under her belt in the long jump. She has also proven to be one of the conference?s top sprinters in the outdoor season.

Other recruits from the 2000 class that have paid immediate dividends are Jennifer Burkhatler (400 and 800), a junior transfer from Mt. San Antonio College, and freshman Brent Sims (400) and Shawn Hooper (300-meter high hurdles).

The Hornets also have red-shirt freshman Brandon Parker on board. Parker, from Stockton?s Lincoln High, captured the Sac-Joaquin Section title in the long jump last year and finished fifth in the CIF State Track and Field Championships after notching a 23-foot-5 mark.

“A lot of kids come out of high school with big dreams,” Gipson said. “They want to go to UCLA or to the University of Texas. Now we?re competing with schools in the Pac-10, the Big-12 and the Southeastern Conference. Now they see us in meets and say, ?I sure wish we had that person on our team.?”

Gipson said that the 2000 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials held at Hornet Stadium has helped the team garner attention from potential recruits.

“The Olympic Trials helped upgrade our facilities, and also helped in exposure,” he said. “Now there?s history down there, and our recruits have an opportunity to be a part of that history.”

So far, the Hornets have nabbed Ileah Jackson of Shasta College and two-sport standout Reshundra Smiley for the women?s contingent.

And Neff and Gipson are far from being done.

Both coaches said that few athletes have made verbal commitments to Sac State while theirs are just waiting to dot their “i?s” and cross their “t?s.”

“What we?re trying to emphasize are sprints, hurdles and throws for both teams,” Neff said. “Right now, I?m talking to a 16-foot pole vaulter and another gentleman that can run the 21 (second) 200. That just shows you the caliber of athletes that are coming here.”