Emily H. Stauffer '98, who was last year's women's soccer Ivy League Rookie of the Year and this year's Player of the Year came to Harvard after having played for soccer coach Tim Wheaton in the Olympic Development Program.

"Tim Wheaton has been my soccer coach since I was 13," Stauffer says. "He is really honest, really good. I think my decision to come here had a lot to do with the fact that I'd known him for a long time."

The Home Field

The recruiting process picks up in July after an athlete's junior year of high school--when the NCAA allows coaches to begin telephoning and visiting recruits at home. (For football, the embargo on personal contact does not lift until August 1).

This gives coaches their first chance to sell parents on a school and to tell recruits how they fit into the plans of a given team.

"When they visit or call...they'll usually let you know what kind of interest level they have in you and what plans they have for you in the program," Halfnight says. "If you have a particular skill they're lacking, like scoring, they'll make that clear. They'll say they're really interested in your scoring touch, they need some goals and they want you."

Recruits say the interest a school shows is determined not only by what it says, but also by how frequent the contact is.

"Some coaches call you every week on the same day, at the same time, and you can tell from their questions that they're really interested in you," says hockey player Marco J. Ferrari '97. "And some schools wait a while, maybe call you every couple weeks. The phone calls let you know where you stand."

These visits are heavily regulated by the NCAA. Because of one intercollegiate rule, Restic was not even permitted to recruit his own son when he was applying to schools in the late 1970s.

Instead, Restic suffered in silence as Yale coach Carm Cozza visited his home and talked up New Haven.

Says Restic: "Thank God my son went to Notre Dame."

Away Games

Home visits and flattering letters only go so far. A recruit's trip to Cambridge is the centerpiece of the recruiting process, providing coaches their best opportunity to convince an athlete to attend.

Most recruits are flown in for NCAA regulated 48-hour weekend visits, and are hosted by current team members. Recruits from the Boston area often come to campus for a shorter amount of time--a day, or even a single afternoon.

Whatever their visits' lengths, recruits generally tour the campus and the athletic facilities, meet the coach and an admissions officer, and attend a practice or a game.