Recruit a Lute

PLU Athletics Department emphasizes academics to attract student athletes

Collin Guildner

Mast Sports Co-Editor

Anyone who follows college athletics knows how important it is to a program to be able to recruit the best athletes possible for your school. This is no different at Pacific Lutheran University.
Though the Lutes will most likely never attract any extremely valuable student athletes or ones looking to go professional after college, this does not make the quality of student athletes in our programs any less important.

“It is essential to the success of our programs to recruit well,” athletics director Laurie Turner said. “It is number one in our mind.”

The type of student athletes who choose PLU, according to Turner, make the decision for different reasons than if they were to attend a Division I school on scholarship.

The athletics teams at PLU have to identify different aspects of the school in order to attract student athletes. Aspects such as having parents who attended PLU, or specific academic programs are emphasized when persuading student athletes when they are in high school.
Steve Dickerson is the head coach for PLU men’s basketball, and also acts as the recruiting liaison between the Athletics Department and Admissions.

When recruiting at a Division III school, it is very important to pitch the school first and the athletics second. Because the athletes are not receiving a scholarship and therefore will have to pay for school on their own, they need a comfortable environment, according to Dickerson.

“We ask the student to imagine they came here and blew out their knee the first day and could not play,” said Dickerson. “Would you still want to be here?”

Judging by acquisition of top recruits, it looks as if PLU is getting more and more successful at pitching itself to higher-level student athletes.

Most recently, the Lutes’ volleyball team was able to persuade arguably the most-prized recruit in its history to play for PLU. Beth Hanna chose to attend PLU after being offered scholarship money from Division I schools and being recruited by Northwest Conference rival Linfield.

According to Hanna, she decided to come to PLU because of the community and the nursing program. The nationally ranked volleyball program did not hurt, but it was not the most important issue to Hanna

“I chose to come to PLU because of the great academics and then the volleyball came second,” Hanna said. “I loved the atmosphere of PLU, the campus was beautiful, everyone was so friendly, and I loved the volleyball girls. I knew it could be my home when I was done with my visit.”

The PLU Athletics Department believes that it has a great school to pitch to student athletes and has begun developing new ways to get the word out to high schoolers.

The Athletics Department has developed a good relationship with Admissions. The two departments work together in making the decisions on student athletes to target.

Coaches will send names of student athletes they are targeting to the Admissions Office so that when their counselors visit the area, they will make contact with these athletes. Admissions will also contact coaches when a prospective student expresses interest in playing a sport.

Steve Dickerson believes this helps keep good contact with the athletes they are attempting to persuade to become Lutes. Dickerson also believes that PLU has a lot to offer and getting that message out to athletes is important.

“The key is getting them to visit campus, then they usually fall in love with PLU,” Dickerson said.
Direct communication with student athletes has also become an important aspect to successful recruiting. The PLU Athletics Department recently purchased cell phones for each full time coach, which are used exclusively for recruiting. Most of the calls being made by coaches are long distance so the cell phone is most economical for the department. Also, coaches can now use text messaging, which is not regulated by the NCAA and has become a valuable recruiting resource.

“We have to be actively recruiting student athletes,” Turner said. “It can be hard.”
PLU coaches will look to recruit mostly from around the Northwest United States. Student athletes who come from out of the area will usually have some tie to PLU, according to Turner.
Alumni connections are very common with student athletes who attend PLU and teams rely heavily on these ties to land high-level players.

Sophomore tennis player Kevin Floyd was recruited by Division I schools Gonzaga, Montana, and Eastern Washington. Floyd chose PLU partially because he knew the school as the place where his father played college tennis.

“I liked the coaches and the team when I came to visit,” said Floyd. “And my dad went here, too.”
Because PLU athletics have put more of an emphasis on recruiting in recent years there has been much growth in the sports teams, according to Laurie Turner. When PLU competed in the NAIA Division, it was able to give performance awards to student athletes. Now that PLU is part of the NCAA, that is no longer allowed.

“When we first switched to NCAA, we stopped recruiting,” said Turner.

Now that PLU is emphasizing recruiting in all sports, Turner feels that the Lutes have become more competitive in the Northwest Conference and at the national level.

Photo by Zennon Olbertz

First-year outside hitter Beth Hanna hits a ball in a match with Linfield this season. Hanna chose PLU to play volleyball after being offered scholarships from Division I schools.