RECRUITING
CONSTANT
COMMITMENT TAR HEEL HEAD COACHES DETAIL THE COMPLEXITIES OF MODERN RECRUITING written on a stone tablet somewhere, they The family of Carolina head volleyball BY ADAM LUCAS coach Joe Sagula is familiar with the realities PHOTOS BY JEFFREY CAMARATI & BRIAN BATISTA would be easy to memorize and forget. But the NCAA-mandated requirements change on a of their lives. yearly basis, sometimes in a major way. And add to the complexity Anytime Coach Sagula is awake, no matter where he might be that rules for every sport don’t always change simultaneously. or what he might be doing, when a call or a text comes in from a Men’s and women’s lacrosse, for example, were already recruit, the answer is immediate: operating under guidelines that restrict high schoolers from “I need to take this.” making a visit and making contact with coaches on campus until For Tar Heel coaches, recruiting isn’t just a summer activity, or September 1 of the prospect’s junior year. Other sports followed an offseason activity, or a way to fill an occasional roster hole. It’s suit in May of this year. That’s a significant change in some sports, every day, every month of the year, day and night. where commitments from high school freshmen and sophomores “We are available 24/7 for any prospect,” Sagula says. “We had become routine. And the rule doesn’t necessarily eliminate encourage them within the rules to call us. So it’s not unusual those commitments, because a prospect could be willing to to get a text at three in the afternoon from a prospect who says, commit without visiting a coach on campus. It might sound ‘I’m going to try and call you tonight at 8:30.’ Well, they might far-fetched, but given the allure of a college scholarship, it’s a be in California or Texas so the time zones can be a little tricky. possibility. And by the rules, I can’t respond to that text. But whether I’m “Kids are committing so early,” says men’s tennis coach Sam home, or out having dinner, or anywhere I might be, when that Paul. “That has changed a lot since I’ve been doing this. We went call comes, I have to get it. If it’s a freshman or a sophomore, I from that happening in a couple of sports and now it’s trickling can’t call them back. So if I miss a call, I have to try to call a club down into tennis. When I first got here, we’d bring uncommitted coach or someone like that and try to get them to call me back, kids to basketball games during a visit in their senior year. They’d and that’s not a guarantee. So I try very hard not to miss a call.” visit us on a basketball weekend and that would be a big deal Sagula used a key phrase: “within the rules.” If the rules were
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BORN & BRED
