By Gilbert Gutierrez III
Daily Titan Staff Writer
Recruiting players like shortstop Christian Colon kept the CSUF baseball program strong. Photo Courtesy Titan Media Relations.
Cal State Fullerton’s athletic recruiting is both thriving and suffering during CSU’s unprecedented budget crisis.
For example, Titan baseball’s recruiting class for the upcoming 2010 season was ranked fifth in the nation by Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America.
Baseball has brought in several players who were selected in the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft to rebuild their strength for another shot at the NCAA College World Series.
On the other hand, the wrestling and gymnastics teams have suffered many financial cuts and may not be around next semester.
Recruiting student athletes is an extensive process.
It all starts with finding talented individuals. The next step is evaluation.
Coaches must evaluate players and make a decision to recruit someone who meshes well with their team and fits seamlessly into a pre-existing formation.
Coaches must then approach the player and, through clear communication, present them with an opportunity to play within a talented team as well as earn a degree. The last step is to close the deal.
The player must then sign a nationally-recognized letter of intent that binds them to be fully committed to the school of choice.
Despite the ups and downs, CSUF has had a remarkable history and has been successful with doing “more with less,” said John Elders, cross country and track and field head coach.
“The athletic budget has been affected in offering scholarships, recruiting, travel and other elements of expenses due to the rising costs of university cutbacks and tuition fee increases,” Elders said.
He said that both men’s and women’s track and cross country are non-mandated sports, which are non-traditional and less of a priority for CSUF and other universities.
The mandated sports are classified as first priority to allocate a substantial amount of funds to maintain conference standards and competitiveness, said Mel Franks, senior associate athletics director for Media Relations.
The more traditional sports are now more competitive than ever; this is why most of the money is allocated to sports such as baseball, basketball, soccer, softball and volleyball.
“There have been cuts across the board,” Franks said. “Every sport has been affected and has reduced expenses in travel, recruiting, scholarships and more.
Since track and field and cross country are non-mandated, they are to meet a certain form of equivalency and divide the available funds amongst the men’s and women’s teams as opposed to the mandated sports that get the opportunity to provide full scholarships to their players.
Elders said that it’s hard to offer partial scholarships to students who are expecting a full ride and to compete for CSUF as opposed to other schools that do offer full scholarships.
Currently, the four teams share 18 womens’ scholarships and 12.6 mens’ scholarships.
However, Robert Scialdone, associate athletic director for Business Affairs, said last year’s budget for recruiting and scholarships was exactly the same amount as this year’s.
Sophomore sprinter Lauren Williams jumps over a hurdle during a track meet. Photo Courtesy Titan Media Relations.
Travel for men’s and women’s track and cross country was reduced by a couple thousand dollars per sport, which resulted in a total of $8,000 in savings, he said.
And yet although most of the funding is allocated to other sources, Elders’ teams still have no problem competing with their opponents.
Last year, women’s track and cross country achieved fourth place overall in the Big West Conference finals.
“We have been consistently at the bottom of the Big West as far as amounts of funds for the teams goes, but we are being successful nonetheless,” Elders said.
Elders added that the impact of the funding freezes, and cuts have not been noticed yet, but they are going to leave their mark.
For him, success has come in all realms of talent, from recruits to walk-ons.
The women’s cross country team has two walk-ons – junior Yomaira Hernandez and senior Carolyn Ellis – both are very consistent and deserve much respect for their efforts, Elders said.
There are teams that remain in the middle, and so far coaches are still fighting to squeeze out every dollar possible for the ongoing success of their players.
Bob Ammann, head coach of men’s soccer, said that everyone was expected to be very prudent with their spending and due to the budget cuts and fee increases, the team had to deduct one scholarship from their scholarship funds.
The move was made in order to pay for the added student fee increases that went into effect on July 21 and allowed each of their players to remain on scholarship without having to worry about the extra fee increases.
“Recruiting is the lifeline of any program,” Ammann said. “We would love to have more money to work with, but we work with what we have, and so far we have been successful.”
“We get many of our players from United States soccer clubs, academies and junior colleges,” Ammann said. “We try to stay close to home and squeeze out as much as we can with the funds we have.”
They very rarely search for talent in high school, but there are such players that stand out more than others.
Ammann said the players that are on his team are the ones that sell the team to the recruits because they are the ones that know first hand what it is like to play for CSUF.
“We are a program that plays for the Big West Conference, and if there are players that are looking, then we are happy to have them represent the Titans on the soccer field,” Ammann said.
2009/10 CSUF Athletics Budget
Mandated Sports Scholarships Recruiting Non-Mandated Sports Scholarships Recruiting
Top 5 Bottom 5
1. Men’s Basketball $220,000 $26,000 1. Women’s Golf $19,700 $2,500
2. Women’s Basketball $202,496 $18,000 2. Men’s Golf $28,000 $2,500
3. Baseball $169,229 $11,000 3. Men’s Cross Country $30,053 $500
4. Women’s Soccer $169,104 $5,000 4.Men’s Track $30,053 $500
5. Women’s Volleyball $159,104 $7,500 5. Women’s Cross Country $30,281 $500
Softball $159,104 $6,000
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