Cost, academic rigor make Goucher a difficult sell to athletic recruits
Alyssa Rittenburg
Issue date: 3/16/07 Section: Sports
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One thing that rarely crosses most Goucher students' minds is how the cost of a Goucher education will affect some of the most heavily recruited future Goucher students: student athletes.
Each year, Goucher varsity coaches contact prospective athletes with notable skill about considering Goucher as an option for their future.
Coaches scout local tournaments and meets, talk to hundreds of prospective applicants, and send numerous information packets all over the country.
This year, Warren Prestwich's field hockey team garnered 30 applicants from his 71 prospects. Of those 30 skilled women, 20 have been accepted, 1 rejected, and the remaining 9 are awaiting decisions. So far, two have paid their deposits, which Prestwich said is an unusually high number.
Until May 1, the varsity athletics coaches won't have a clue who their class of 2011 will be. It could be two, it could be twelve.
"Currently I'm finding that the girls I'm talking to are strongly interested, we're their number one, but they're asking me, 'How can I help them fund a Goucher education?" said Prestwich of his 2011 prospects.
Cross Country and Track and Field coach John Caslin expressed similar sentiments. "I think the biggest challenge is selling the student athlete on what a Goucher education could mean to them," he said.
Women's Tennis coach Sally Baum said, "What I think frustrates most coaches here is working incredibly hard to attract students to Goucher and to get them to visit and apply here, only to see some of the best athletes among them choose to go elsewhere because of two key reasons: they are denied admission or find Goucher financially unaffordable.
"What coaches here eventually learn is to recruit only those athletes who can afford Goucher (or who will be subsidized enough in some way) and who will qualify academically," she said.
Many Goucher sports are also put lower on a prospective student athlete's list because of Goucher's virtual disappearance in Conference Championship games over recent years.
Coach Prestwich's perspective on that was "if you're here just to win games, you're not going to win the games you want to win." Prestwich's squad went 1-14 during the 2006 season, 0-6 in the CAC.
Prestwich uses his team's small numbers to his advantage when recruiting. With athletic opponents that have over 30 players, he can guarantee they won't spend their freshman season at Goucher on the bench like they would at many other schools.
"They've got a lot of opportunity here, I think that's gotta be a selling point for all the women's sports here," said Prestwich.
For most Goucher coaches, the key is to emphasize the whole package.
Caslin looks for "how can I help them become the best student athlete they can become."
Cost is still the greatest factor in whether or not a student-athlete will choose Goucher over the competition.
"We used to lose students to other liberal arts colleges, now we're losing them to state schools. They see $40,000, wow, that's a lot," said Prestwich of the competition.
However, the stronger athletics programs and lower tuitions of the competition schools often come hand in hand with lower academic standards and less opportunities, such as studying abroad, service learning, or internships.
"What they'll graduate with in four years is a tremendous asset," said Coach Caslin.
"We're very transparent. We're honest about who we are, and we're proud of who we are," said Athletic Director Geoff Miller to a group of student athlete prospects.
"We want you to come here because this is where you want to be."
Men's and Women's Soccer and Women's Volleyball were unavailable for comment at press time, but The Q hopes to have a follow-up story on the student athlete recruitment for all Fall 2007 sports in a future issue.
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