Questionable Recruiting

[marc]

One of the best ways to build an XC team is through recruiting. While that can be argued, I came across the results from the NCAA Division II South Region Cross-Country Championship. The top 5 were all from Harding University.

www.hardingsports.com/Pdfs/mcross/2008/11/10/Men%20Individual.pdf

My question is when is overseas recruiting fair? You have people like Sam Chelanga who runs for Farleigh thingyinson (now Liberty) or the top 5 of a team like Abilene Christian. Do you find this cheating to bring a team of "nearly professional" runners to a team or do you view it in the opposite way of giving them an academic opportunity in the United States and just the opportunity to compete as a collegiate athlete?

[frojoe23]

I view it both ways. I think that sometimes it is the easy way out for coaches. Instead of really molding talent, they get a jump start by recruiting.

But the other way, is that foreign athletes in the NCAA system forces collegiate athletes to be better and makes some of them used to racing tactics that they will see on the world stage if they turn professional.

[burgrunner]

I would have to agree with Jaron's post. It really depends on how you choose to view the situation. However, it is no worse than the Gaylen Rupp situation at Oregon. It is pretty obvious that he is receiving additional perks that other college athletes are not. Is this fair?

[wvrunner]

I'll weigh in on this one. Take care of our kids here in the US first. Many of the best coaches can take above average high school American kids and develop them into great collegiate runners. I have little respect for coaches who recruit overseas talent, bring them in to colleges and win championships. That's not coaching or developing, just recruiting.

[Justin]

There are some good points here. I personally think that international athletes should be allowed to come over and run, but there should be guidelines. I think there are, but I could be wrong. Restrictions on the amount of international runners on one team is a place to start. I'm not sure about DII, but I do know there are some restrictions on DI. Abilene Christian is in NAIA, so with them there are essentially no rules, so it's less a collegiate atmosphere and more a club one. Overall I've found with running the more competition you surround yourself with the better you become, so having the best college-aged runners in the world run in the US is a plus for us. The American kids need to compete against these guys in order to understand what they are up against in International competition.

I think Coaches can do what they want as far as recruiting. It's their teams, and they ultimately represent their schools, so they are doing what they need to do to win for their schools. That doesn't mean I agree with what each one of them does, but it's their right to do what they feel is right. Overall for every coach that goes the international route there are probably 100 that develop homegrown talent.

College sports shouldn't be sheltered from the best competition available, if it is American distance running is what will be hurt.

[gdbrown]

An interesting thread...

It's interesting because most of the names for Harding appear to be names of runners from African countries.

Think about this: Major universities such as Villanova and Haverford (D-III power) heavily recruited runners from Ireland in the 70s and 80s. At the same time, UTEP recruited Africans. UTEP was criticized but Villanova was not. Why?

The bottom line: This is not the world of your parents or grandparents. Regardless of whether it is running or a career choice, individuals need to prepare to be the best they can be because in the words of Thomas Friedman, "The World is Flat." Perhaps Americans need to work harder if they want to compete on the world-wide stage.

Any really good collegiate coach will attempt to land the best runner he/she can find and continue to develop the athlete. What's wrong with that?