Wednesday, August 16, 2000 / THE SUN

SPORTS

Rules of Recruiting

Providence Catholic High School baseball coach Joe Rodeghero can relate.

Rodeghero said that while he tries to help his players as much as he can during recruiting, things don't always end up as he hopes or expects.

"A lot of times, a college will go for a player who you think should be recruited and then sometimes they don't," Rodeghero said.  "You wonder why sometimes."

While still coaching high school, Wheeler helped both his children be successfully recruited, one by a Division I school and the other by a Division III school.

But it was not until he started his own recruitment agency, Midwest Scouting Report, that Wheeler began to really master the process of recruitment and all its intracacies.

And finally, as a college coach, Wheeler understands the coach's dilemma: how to get the best players with a limited amount of funds.

Now Wheeler is using his wealth of experience to help prospects get what they deserve: a chance to use their talents to help them get an education.

"The process is definitely tilted towards coaches and recruiters, not prospects," Wheeler said.  "Coaches want to recruit the best athletes with the least amount of money.  Even though that's understandable, it makes it difficult for the prospects.

"There are lots of parents and lots of students who deserve to understand how the recruiting process works," said Wheeler, who added that the decisison to compose his book came as an "epiphany".

"I just woke up one morning and said, 'I have so much information in my head, I should write about this.'"

Wheeler's random flash of inspiration to create his guide to the recruiting process is a blessing for talented young athletes everywhere.  It is a powerful and helpful tool, which Wheeler presents as an alternative to using a recruiting agency such as Midwest Scouting Report.

"I recently talked with an athlete who was on a service for $999," Wheeler said with some degree of shock.  "For $14.95 (the price of the book, available in any bookstore), athletes can have the same information, strategies and tips as a recruiting service."

By Jeff Cockrell

SUN CORRESPONDENT

A message to college coaches and recruiters: beware.  Your task of acquiring as many high quality athletes as possible with the smallest amount of money just became slightly more daunting.  Your great advantage over the players you court has just been eradicated.

Why? Because America's young athletes have found a new ally to which they can turn in defense of their inexperience regarding the recruiting process: Dion Wheeler.

"Prospects don't understand their value in the marketplace," Wheeler wrote in his new book, "A Parent's and Student Athlete's Guide to Athletic Scholarships."

Because of this, and their ignorance about how to negotiate for athletic financial aid, Wheeler said athletes are at a tremendous disadvantage when it comes to trying to get money out of coaches and recruiters.

He intends for his new book to provide tools, devices and strategies that will give prospects an equal hand in negotiations.

"The purpose of the book is not only to educate," Wheeler explained.  "The real purpose is to provide useful tools so [prospects] can level the playing field."

The tools Wheeler provides include tips on how athletes can boost their leverage in negotiations, how to avoid sleazy coaches or being strung along and questions that every athlete should ask of a potential coach.

Wheeler explained that while coaches might not flat-out lie to their recruits, they certainly may be selective in what truths they decide to reveal.  Therefore it is important for prospects to know what they need to find out about the schools they consider.

"I've never heard of a situation where the coach would be devious," Wheeler said.  "They really can't afford to be.  But they need to be asked the right questions."

Wheeler also provided in his book negotiating strategies that he has found to be successful in his own experience with the recruiting process.

"I thought that there were certain parameters the recruiting process lied within as far as how college coaches treated prospects.  But there were a couple of situations where the outcomes were not what I thought they would be."

 Dion Wheeler

COLLEGE TRACK COACH AND AUTHOR

And Wheeler has ample experience with the recruiting process.

He has been involved with the process from every angle, including being recruited himself.  Then as a high school coach, Wheeler struggled to understand the process and watched as several of his athletes were unsuccessful in being recruited.

"I thought that there were certain parameters the recruiting process lied within as far as how college coaches treated prospects," Wheeler said.  "But there were a couple o situations where the outcomes were not what I thought they would be."