Searching for the next generation of Elis

When his work is finally done, after he has traveled the thousands of miles, after he has stepped into the living rooms of all 50 families, he can finally coach again.

For Yale head football coach Jack Siedlecki, the recruiting season is as intense and grueling as the regular season. So grueling, in fact, it sometimes makes his head spin. After a while, all those towns--Bellevue, Sugarland, Austin--all become the same to him. He's probably become more familiar with the Texas highways than the plays in his playbook. In 48 hours, he will zoom across the state and visit six homes in five different locations.

Somewhere in Austin, Tex., where February weather is perfect, the coach steps out of his rental car, walks up the driveway and rings the doorbell. During his hour-long conversation with the prospect and his parents, he must convince the all-state linebacker to come to Yale. Turn down West Point. Turn down Navy. Turn down Harvard. Somehow, he does. And just like that, the football program's future looks a lot better.

The slump

The entire Athletic Department--not just the football team--is in a terrible slump. Since 1980, only Cornell and Columbia have totalled fewer Ivy League championships than Yale. In the '90s alone, Harvard and Princeton each have twice as many league titles as the Bulldogs. Several individual teams are suffering through astonishing droughts. The men's basketball program has not tasted a championship for more than three decades; for the women, it's been 19 seasons.

And yet, Associate Director of Admissions Diana Cook confidantly says, "I believe that we'll win more Ivy League championships next year, and each year after that."

When it comes to sports strategy or talent evaluation, Cook is the first to admit that she's clueless--yet she's one of the keys to turning around Yale athletics. Cook must know something we don't. After all, revitalizing a program involves attracting better quality athletes, something that, over the years, has become increasingly difficult.

Indeed, it has become more and more of a struggle to attract athletes like John J. Lee, BK '58, and Richard Diana, TD '82.

The right place for a `different sort of guy'

Just before he was to fly down to Lexington, Ken., for the 1954 North-South All-Star basketball game, which showcased the nation's premier basketball talents, Lee decided to pay a visit to his friend Ned Irish, the president of Madison Square Garden and the "George Steinbrenner of the '50s." The two had become friendly since Lee, a high school All-American, had spent so much time at the Garden scrimmaging with the New York Knicks. A recent graduate, Lee had been lured by coach Frank McGuire of the University of North Carolina. He was all set to be a Tar Heel.

Irish told Lee that by going to North Carolina, he was missing out on a grand opportunity: a Yale education. "Ned brought me into his office, and he wanted to talk to me," Lee remembered. "He said, `John, you're a different sort of guy. Take your opportunities. If you want to play for the Knicks, I'm going to draft you anyway.'"

After long talks with his coaches and his mother, Lee contacted the Yale Admissions Office. Within months, he was a starter on the Bulldog basketball team and went on to set numerous school and Ivy League records. In 1957, Lee led his team to a league championship, and upon graduating, he was drafted by the Knicks. "I have no regrets," Lee said. "Yale opened up my mind, from an academic point of view and a social point of view."

Diana, the Bulldogs' all-time leading rusher, passed up a scholarship offer from football power Notre Dame to come to Yale. "Like any decision, you weigh the pluses and minuses," he said. "I wanted to go into science and medicine, as well as play football and baseball. Yale offered the best of both worlds."

Although Diana went on to a brilliant career as a Bulldog, leading the Elis to back-to-back league titles in 1980 and 1981, the orthopedic surgeon insists that if he were a high school student today looking at colleges, he wouldn't consider applying to Yale. "It all comes down to money," he said. "The days of the Ivy League institutions landing top-notch athletes is over. They don't have a chance these days."

Finding the remedies

Carm Cozza, who recruited Diana during his tenure as head coach of the football team from 1965 to 1996, has seen the best and worst times. During his 32 seasons, Cozza coached nine league champions, but the team had just one title in Cozza's last 15 campaigns.

"We were dragging our feet for awhile," Cozza said. He cited poor communication between the Admissions Office and the coaching staff, as well as lackluster recruiting efforts, for the fall-off. The coach spoke of something as simple as "likely letters," which are sent to prospective athletes to inform them of their good chance of acceptance a month before regular admissions announcements in April. "For years, Princeton had an edge on us because they could tell their athletes that they'd get in," Cozza recalled. "I would have a recruit in my office who already had been `likelied' by Princeton, and I couldn't tell him anything. We lost too many athletes that way."

Yale didn't start using likely letters until four years ago. In recent years, the number of such letters sent out by the Admissions Office has risen; this year, 100 letters--the maximum allowed by the NCAA--were mailed.

"In bygone days, there was a perception that the Admissions Office was completely oblivious to what the Athletic Department was saying," Cook said. "There has definitely been closer communication in recent years." Now, each coach has an admissions liaison, and during the fall, the two parties meet frequently to discuss specific athletes who coaches are eyeing. "We sit down together," women's tennis coach Meghan McMahon, BK '87, explained, "and they tell us who's got a shot to get in, and who doesn't. We know who we should go after in recruiting, and won't end up wasting our time on someone who's not getting in."

Many believe that the state of the athletic facilities in recent years also deterred recruits. Cozza noted that recent renovations such as those at Payne Whitney Gymnasium, John J. Lee Amphitheater, and Smilow Field House are critical in attracting recruits. "Facilities are vital. Recruits see that the university cares about athletics," Joe Smilow, PC '54, whose donations funded the renovations of the field house, said. "Attracting better athletes is purely a function of maintaining facilities. We need to have places that athletes can be proud of."

Another improvement Cozza has seen recently is a stronger alumni network. For the first time in years, all-time receptions leader John Spagnola, TD '79, was contacted by the department to become a resource for a standout recruit in Pennsylvania. "A lot of times, we alumni are very critical," he said. "Maybe we should be doing less talking and more doing. I'm certainly willing to do so."

"I really do think we're headed in the right direction," Cozza added.

Still the right place for some

It seemed like a perfect match. Somer Khanlarian, SY '99, an all-conference tennis standout at Grimsley High School in Greensboro, N.C., had been offered a full scholarship to play at the University of North Carolina. "I had signed, and I was set to go," she said. "Then, I got a likely letter from Yale." It was McMahon's first year at Yale, and already she was faced with a daunting task: to lure this prized recruit to New Haven. "I know that money is always a big deal. But I told Somer that you have to look at the bigger picture. A Yale education is so valuable," McMahon recounted. Ten years ago, McMahon was in Khanlarian's shoes. She had been offered a scholarship from Duke, but turned it down for Yale.

Khanlarian listened to the woman who would become her coach. "It's the best school in the country," she said. "In the end, I told myself that a Yale education will last longer than my tennis career will."

The days of attracting athletes looking to compete after their college years may not be over. Like Lee, Ray Giroux, BK '98, knew that he wanted to play professionally. The junior hockey standout from Ontario had been drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers and was looking ahead to a career in the NHL, but wanted much more than a strong hockey program when he was college shopping.

"It was an opportunity I couldn't pass up," Giroux said of his decision to come to New Haven. When he arrived on campus, the Bulldogs had just completed a dismal 5-16-1 campaign. This year, Giroux, a first team All-American, led the Elis to their first ever ECAC regular season championship and their first NCAA tournament bid in 46 years. "It's been a great experience," Giroux said of his Yale years. "The benefits go beyond hockey." This summer, Giroux will sit down with the Flyer organization and work on a contract.

Perhaps the Ivy League does have a chance after all. But even after a top high school athlete with a strong academic background chooses an Ivy League experience over a full scholarship, the job's only half done for Yale coaches. The next hurdle is to convince recruits that Yale is a better fit for them than Harvard.

Good athlete hunting

Rosie Wustrack, BR '99, and Stephanie McMahon, TC '01, spent this past Monday night with one of the volleyball team's top recruits. After a nice dinner, they spent a quiet night indoors watching a movie in Wustrack's room.

The prospect, a standout from Los Angeles, is headed to Harvard and Princeton next week. She has already forgone several full scholarships from state schools. "To me, the most important thing is academics," she said. "You're going to have to make sacrifices to go to the best school."

Now, it's Wustrack and McMahon's job to show the recruit that Yale is for her. McMahon remembered when she was in the prospect's shoes. "I came to Yale first, then Harvard," she said. "The general vibe here was much better. The people were relaxed here. At Harvard, they were harsh and standoffish."

"There was just an energy on campus and on the team," Wustrack said, recalling her recruiting visit. Wustrack, the two-time Ivy League Player of the Year, arrived on campus in October of her senior year. She was in attendance for the team's biggest win of the year, an exciting thrashing of rival Harvard. After the game, Wustrack spent Halloween night out with the team, dressed up as a handyman. "Things just clicked on the recruiting trip," she said.

Athletes get a total of two all-expense paid trips to schools they are seriously considering. Women's tennis coach McMahon thinks that such trips are to Yale's advantage. "I'm confident that if we get a recruit coming in and visiting here and Harvard and Princeton, they'll choose Yale," she said. "Harvard's an intense place. Princeton isn't as diverse. Recruits generally have very positive experiences here."

"There's a contagious enthusiasm here on campus," McMahon added. "I think it's very unique, and very attractive."

Head to head

It seems as though someone is following Siedlecki around the country. Or maybe it's the other way around. "I would check into a hotel at 7:30, and I would see that he was there at 4:30," Siedlecki said. Siedlecki is referring to Harvard head coach Tim Murphy, who visited just about every living room that his recruiting rival from Yale did.

But right now, Murphy's program is certainly several steps ahead of Siedlecki's. While Siedlecki's Bulldogs were winless and finished last in the Ivies, the Crimson was the undefeated league champion. When Murphy took the head coaching job four years ago, Harvard football was where Yale football currently resides: at the league's bottom. Murphy knew that the key to revitalizing the program would be to bring in strong recruits.

"[Recruits] had to believe in me," Murphy explained. "I told them that they could be a part of something special, that they could really do some good things for the program. They believed in me." Murphy's first recruiting class is graduating in June, and the players have left their mark. Not only did they lead their school to its first ever undefeated league season, but three were selected as first-team All-Ivy performers, including defensive lineman Tim Fleiszer '98, who was the first selection overall in last month's Canadian Football League draft.

Murphy believes that the quality of football players enrolling in Ivy League schools is increasing. "There's no doubt about it," he said. "The players are getting better and better. The main reason is more aggressive recruiting."

Siedlecki will tell you that six homes in five days is pretty intense. Maybe a little too aggressive for the Harvard coach. After all, both coaches visited three of the same recruits in Austin and Bellevue. All three were considering both Yale and Harvard. Two have sent postcards back to New Haven. The third is off to Cambridge in the fall. Two-for-three--not too bad. So maybe when Cook says that more Ivy League Championships are well within Yale's reach, she isn't so clueless after all.

Graphic by Melanie Schoenberg.

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