For most students at Pepperdine several weeks of their senior years of high school were spent anxiously and nervously awaiting envelopes that would reveal the admission or rejection to the university they dreamed of spending the next four years.
High school students put in countless efforts toward academics standardized tests and extracurriculars to prove to a particular university that he or she is a student who deserves to be admitted.
However for a minority percentage of students at Pepperdine— Division I athletes— senior-year story can be much different.
For many athletes the highly systemized recruiting process causes schools to compete for them; coaches and athletic departments give massive time investments toward searching out potential student-athletes hoping to attract them to the school selling the program and proving to the high-schooled that it will be a positive match in every way.
Senior Kasey Crider starting setter for the men’s volleyball team had become one of the top players in northern California by his senior year at Granite Bay High School in Granite Bay Calif. Along with his first-choice Pepperdine Crider was also highly interested in other top volleyball programs such as USC Penn-State and Cal-State Northridge. And these schools plus many more took interest in him as well.
“The recruiting process while it sounds glamorous is not fun process Crider said. These coaches really invest in you. And you have to say ‘no’ to a lot of people that have invested tons of time in you and sold their program to you and who you talked to all the time and developed relationships with. It was really difficult to call that coach from Penn State and tell him I was going somewhere else. It kind of rips your heart out to tell people ‘no’ who seem to really care about you and want you to be successful.”
For many of the high-caliber athletes that Pepperdine attracts this “competition” is a typical story. And not coincidentally this story usually starts around the beginning of September of the high-school athlete’s Junior year.
While much of what coaches and school say and do are lies of the control of regulations the NCAA has placed detailed rules and dates on when and how often a coach and potential-athlete can correspond how many schools an athlete may visit and who pays for that visit as well as what the schools and athletic programs are allowed to spend money on in relation to the athlete’s visits and interest.
According to head volleyball coach Marv Dunphy due to regulations the coach or program cannot contact a potential athlete by letter or e-mail before September 1st of the student’s Junior year of high-school. Starting July 1st of the student’s senior year the coach may call and text the student-athlete but no more than once a week. Every high-school athlete is given five official visits (where the school pays for the student’s airfare food and provides lodging with a current athlete hosts).
In a unique small-school Christian and dry-campus setting such as Pepperdine’s the recruiting process is greatly affected by the environment on both the athlete’s and coaches’ side.
Both coach Dunphy and head water-polo coach Jack Kocur say that evaluating character is a foremost part of recruiting.
“The first and foremost thing we look for is character and academics Kocur says. If the athlete doesn’t have the grades, they can’t get into the school. And we look for a character that will fit well with Pepperdine’s environment and be an asset to our program and not a hindrance. And of course athleticism goes side by side with this. A combination of these three things is what we look for.
Coach Dunphy has a similar stance.
“When I watch a young athlete I ask myself how he compares to the best players that I have ever coached at that position he said. If he doesn’t compare I move on. And at some point in the recruiting process we have to determine if it will be a “good fit” for Pepperdine and for the athlete in all areas personal academic and athletic. The athlete needs to have the same strength of character that our guys have.”
Once a coach has developed a relationship with and devoted effort to a high-school prospect and perhaps offered scholarship rewards much of the final decision rests in the young athletes’ hands. What is important to the recruit whether it be in the athletic category or not is personal and unique to each individual.
Ironically while Pepperdine’s top-notch beauty is near fact many would agree that the same high standards and “beauty” per say are not reflected in the size and quality of the athletic facilities despite the nationally competitive teams and top-notch athletes. For recruiting purposes some coaches and players see this as a possible hindrance.
Coach Kocur says that some recruits make up their mind immediately that they don’t want to be an athlete at a small school such as Pepperdine.
“The morals that we stand for—I don’t think that hurts us at all he said. In fact it helps us find the kind of people we are looking for. The size of the athletic department though—that plays into some athletes decisions. In the eyes of an 18-year-old male a big program with a football team is what they sometimes want.”
Through Crider’s personal experience as well as his several occasions hosting recruits on visits he agrees that Pepperdine can be a difficult environment to attract the top talent especially compared with rival like USC that may have more to offer in some athletes’ eyes of a good athletic program.
“Other schools sometimes have no problem saying ‘hey you don’t want to go there'” Crider said. “It’s hard because we don’t have a football program we have a dry campus things like that. Some of these recruits are going to other schools and being told they can play in huge kind of glamorous stadiums everyday and go out and drink and party all the time and that’s attractive to a lot of juniors and seniors in high school. Pepperdine is not the most recruiting conducive environment in that sense.”
“But at the same time it weeds out a lot of the guys who have bad character. I think we have kids with really good character who will make the right decision in most circumstances and that all starts at the recruiting process.”
