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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, July 24, 2002

Recruiting foreign athletes gets tough

Advertiser Staff

The recruiting of athletes from foreign countries should become more difficult after the NCAA Division I Management Council am-ended a reinstatement policy yesterday for participation on "professional" teams.

Effective Aug. 1, 2003, any athlete who does not take the first opportunity to enroll in a collegiate institution and instead participates on a professional team, will forfeit all of his or her NCAA eligibility.

In other words, if an athlete graduates from high school and then immediately plays on a professional team, that athlete is no longer eligible to participate in NCAA athletics. The ruling will likely eliminate many of the "older" athletes who are recruited from European clubs and professional leagues.

But an athlete who competes on a professional team before the first opportunity arises to enroll in a collegiate institution, and receives no more than necessary expenses from that professional team, can still enroll in a collegiate institution. However, that athlete would be subject to a penalty — for each game played professionally, the athlete would have to sit out one collegiate game.

For example, if a high school athlete plays 20 games while receiving only necessary expenses in a summer pro league, that athlete would have to sit out 20 collegiate games. The penalty cannot exceed one full collegiate season.

The new policy could affect the recruiting strategies of several sports at the University of Hawai'i, most notably men's basketball and men's volleyball. Both those sports gained success in recent years through the recruitment of European athletes.

"It just means that we have to recruit those players at a younger age," said University of Hawai'i assistant basketball coach Jackson Wheeler. "It's a different system in Europe, so that makes it difficult. But there are still a lot of good players out there. You just have to find the right ones."

Had the policy been in place five years ago, many current and former UH athletes could have been declared ineligible, including men's basketball standout Predrag Savovic. When the rule takes effect on Aug. 1, 2003, athletes already enrolled in college will not be penalized.

Under legislation approved by the NCAA in April, a professional team is now defined as "one that provides any of its players more than actual and necessary expenses or declares itself to be professional." Many club teams in Europe can now be considered professional under that definition.

"It's definitely going to make the recruiting process more difficult," said Daniel Arakaki, UH's NCAA compliance coordinator.