Recruiting is the lifeblood of NCAA athletics. Once a high school student-athlete is eligible to be recruited, it is open season for his or her services – sort of. Each sport has its own timeframe for when recruiters may begin their search for the next blue-chipper.

Coaches must follow strict guidelines and rules when recruiting. Recruiting is quite complex and time-consuming. The rules are in place to protect recruits from universities whose main concern is winning – not the student-athlete.

Some of the major recruiting restrictions includes not calling a recruit before he or she is officially a recruit on the recruiting calendar, not meeting with a recruit unless it is an official visit as designated by the NCAA, and once the student-athlete is officially named a recruit, no practice can take place in front of universities until the allotted time on the recruiting calendar.

Katherine Zedonis, athletic compliance director, said the rules are in place to maintain a level playing field when it comes to recruiting.

“Over time, every sport has a different culture and makeup,” she said. “The rules have changed for different sports, while others have stayed the same. If one sport will implement a rule, all the other sports will go ‘Oh, that’s a great idea,’ then they want it and it gets implemented for everyone else.”

Men’s and women’s basketball and football have a different, stricter set of rules than the rest of the sports in the NCAA. Recruits may only visit campuses on an official visit, usually on the first day of classes. In Division I men’s basketball, recruiters may speak with student-athletes once a month over the phone on June 15 following their sophomore year. While in Division I football, a recruiter may not begin to make phone calls with student-athletes until the time between April 15 and May 31 of their junior year.

“Over time, those sports have put more regulation in place to make sure that playing field stays equal for every single college coach,” Zedonis said.

One of these regulations is in women’s basketball. Recruiters may only call student-athletes on or after the Thursday following the Final Four in the beginning of April.

Jamie Craighead, women’s basketball head coach, said limiting phone calls makes sense.

“If you didn’t limit phone calls, they’d have calls from a coach every single day of the week,” she said. “That’s not really fair to the kid and (his/her) parents.”

Zedonis said, from an administrative standpoint, the phone call rule is something the NCAA could look into revising.

“I think the ‘phone calls’ would alleviate a lot of the issues that come up,” she said.

Zedonis said she keeps track of the phone logs, which are filled out by coaches.

Craighead said the most difficult part about recruiting is finding athletes who fit the athletic department’s philosophy: character before talent.

“We recruit a little differently than other people,” Craighead said. “Character is a big thing. It’s not just based on talent.”

Craighead also said battling big universities for recruits is something she deals with.

“They have facilities that we don’t have,” she said. “(However), there have been huge upgrades on campus – the Rec Center, the dorms – all these places have been a great tool for us from a recruiting standpoint.”

Softball head coach Kathy Strahan said recruiting takes up a good portion of her schedule.

“It’s probably about half of what I do,” Strahan said.

Craighead also said she spends about 50 percent of her time on recruiting. From making phone calls when she is allowed too, to visiting recruits and going to their games, she has a lot to do outside of coaching the Hornets.

Golfer Grant Rappleye, sophomore business major, reflected on his and his brother’s recruiting experience with Sac State golf director David Sutherland.

“We started getting recruited in our sophomore or junior year (of high school),” Rappleye said. “He didn’t take the job until the beginning of our senior year and we already had a couple of schools call.

Dustin Nosler can be reached at [email protected]