Changes ahead for recruiting at Flagler

By Andrew Bernius

With a change in organization to NCAA for the 2006-2007 school year, Flagler athletics will face recruiting hurdles that were not present in the NAIA.

The NCAA currently holds 88 championships a year in 23 different sports, championships which Flagler will soon have the chance to participate in.

Flagler College’s Assistant Athletic Director, Taylor Mott, pointed out that with these new opportunities their will also come new responsibilities. “Recruiting under the new Division II policy is going to be one of the biggest changes,” she said.

According to the NCAA, there are four different periods in which recruiting can take place, each with its own different guidelines. There is a contact period, an evaluation period, a quiet period and a dead period.

These different periods will change weekly or monthly depending on the recruiting calendar of that individual sport. The Division II men’s basketball calendar shows the recruiting period changing 12 different times throughout the course of the year with period lengths ranging from two days to two months.

“Despite these new changes, moving Flagler to the NCAA is going to be the best thing for the schools athletic program,” Athletic Director Dave Barnett said. The official confirmation is not due till this summer but as far as Mott and Barnett are concerned, all systems are go.