Posted on: Friday, March 12, 2004

Recruits will be out of reach

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

Imagine the University of Hawai'i without Jason Elam, one of its most celebrated football players; without Kim Willoughby, one of its most decorated volleyball players ... Do that and then you can also begin to imagine the impact of one of the NCAA's proposed rule changes could have on UH.

In the wake of recruiting scandals at the University of Colorado and elsewhere, a special NCAA task force is considering a package of proposals aimed at recruiting, including one that would ban university-paid recruiting trips, forcing recruits to pay their own way if they want to visit a school.

For UH, a school geographically challenged by the 2,500 miles separating it from the continental U. S., the legislation could be devastating, if passed.

Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water, it would severely penalize schools far removed from large population centers that — so far as has been revealed, anyway — haven't been implicated in the recent scandals.

It would throw an expensive hurdle in the way of Mainland athletes considering UH, causing even some of those with the resources to pay for their own recruiting visits to think harder about the choice. For those without the price of a ticket, it could be prohibitive.

Likewise, it would limit the options of some athletes from the state looking to go elsewhere.

"I don't know that Jason would have made it there (to UH) if that had been the case," said Evelyn Elam, the mother of the Warriors' All-American and three-time Pro Bowl kicker.

Jason grew up in Georgia, and his mother was initially apprehensive about her son going 4,500 miles away from home as a freshman. So much so that she "scraped up the price of an $800 ticket" to accompany him on the visit in 1988.

"It wasn't easy for us, but I could see where it might be a real hardship for a lot of people," Evelyn said. If the family had to pay for both or if Jason had to visit solo, I don't know," she said.

Rainbow Wahine volleyball coach Dave Shoji said: "Kim (Willoughby) would not have been able to take a (recruiting) visit. I don't know that we would have gotten her (from Louisiana)."

UH assistant football coach Dan Morrison said he doubts the Warriors would have even gotten some of the East Coast players — one each from Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina — signed last month to even visit if the NCAA required players to pay their own way.

Under current NCAA rules, recruits may accept as many as five recruiting trips where their transportation, room and board are paid by the school.

If players were required to pay for their own trips, "we wouldn't have gotten a lot of the players who ended up here," Shoji said. "It's not like you can just drive here."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.