They give over 300 tours a year to prep sports stars interested
in attending UCLA. The job doesn’t command a lot of
attention, but it does play a hand in recruiting Division I
athletes.
On each campus, the role of a student recruiting assistant could
be easily overlooked. In fact, they usually are.
Athletes are welcomed onto campus be these fellow students as a
community representative. A friendly face on an official campus
tour.
However, the public perceptions of a college recruiting
assistant were forever changed with a national scandal at Boulder,
Colorado that forced the hand of the NCAA and altered
regulations.
The information slowly spilled out of the Rocky Mountains in the
spring of 2004 and by the start of training camp that summer, the
details of the story had come to the surface. Several news sources
reported that three Colorado student-recruiting assistants
allegedly paid strippers to have sex with visiting prep athletes
during a trip to Boulder.
In response to the scandal, and the Colorado Grand Jury Trial
that inevitably followed, the NCAA set forth a new policy that
regulates the role of a student-recruiting assistant. The NCAA
committee, of which UCLA associate athletic director Petrina Long
is a member, enforced the new policy on every college campus in the
country, including UCLA. The Bruins are one of many programs to
have never been linked to any kind of recruiting scandal in recent
history.
Nevertheless, UCLA still had to change the role of it’s
student recruiting aides. After years of having “recruiting
assistants”, UCLA now employs the “Blue and
Gold”, which is the student organization that helps to
welcome Bruins onto campus.
“The Colorado mess was something none of us wanted to
see,” said Michael Sondheimer, director of UCLA recruiting.
“It gives people the impression that there are all sorts of
problems at every school.
“In my 25 years, all of these students help recruiting as
best they can as a way to stay involved, not create a
scandal.”
The problems that occurred in Boulder, according to Sondheimer,
rests heavily upon the fact that many schools across the South used
to employ all-female recruiting groups. In 2004, the NCAA forced
the University of Texas to hire male student assistants due to the
policy set forth.
According to NCAA regulations, the only time an entirely female
recruiting assistant group is permitted is if the campus tour
organization, which is open to the rest of the student body, is all
female as well.
For example, one third of Blue and Gold’s staff is male
and has repeatedly hired male students to balance things out.
“The Pac-10 has never had the problems the SEC or other
conferences have had with student-led tours or assistants,”
Sondheimer said. “I think a lot of it has to do with making
sure there’s diversity. Not just in gender, but
everything.”
The members of Blue and Gold must also sign a contract that
guarantees they will not compromise the integrity of the job by
adhering to the regulations of the Department of Intercollegiate
Athletics.
“The contract is actually not a huge deal, because we feel
confident in bringing solid citizens on board,” Sondheimer
said.
While Sondheimer has worked closely with each recruiting
assistant over the past quarter century at UCLA, most people around
Westwood have a limited idea of exactly what these people do.
It might be a job that gets overlooked, yet still plays an
important role when it comes to portraying the best that UCLA can
offer a student-athlete.
After all, these are people who represent the first interaction
between the student-athletes who wear Bruin colors and the rest of
the student body. They are the first faces to greet each
year’s new crop of Bruins.
“I take pride in seeing a player I helped recruit or
showed around campus succeed on the field,” graduate student
Mariella Trombetta said. “The job really gives me a feeling
of being involved in Bruin sports.”
Trombetta, 22, spent her four years as an undergraduate helping
UCLA recruiting. She saw the development of Blue and Gold, and now
advises the student group while completing her graduate degree in
sports management.
“It’s an introductory job for those who might want
to do something in sports management for a career,” Trombetta
said. “Most of the time, it’s just a way to feel like
you are contributing to the school.”
Perhaps what best illustrates how differently UCLA’s Blue
and Gold has operated in comparison to the likes of Colorado is the
fact that the president of the group is a male student. As opposed
to having only girls show the athletes around the school, Blue and
Gold is led by third-year Matt Potter.
“When I tell people what I do, they think that all
recruiting assistants are ditsy girls, but it’s just not the
case,” Potter said.
Potter’s involvement in Blue and Gold started as a
first-year when he came to Westwood after playing varsity sports in
high school and he was looking to be involved in Bruin athletics,
regardless of the capacity.
“I think most people who help out with recruiting are in
the same position as me,” Potter said.
“They came to a school with a major athletic program and
want to be a part of it.
“For me, I can’t compete with the Division I
players, so this is a rewarding way to contribute.”
Blue and Gold by no means makes up the core of the recruiting
process. The major work is done by coaches’ power of
persuasion and the ability to produce a winning program that
appeals to dominant prospects.
But the role played by these recruiting assistants does set a
tone for the relationship between the student-athletes competing
for titles and the student body trying to socialize with them.
“The athletes sometimes come to campus and are unsure of
whether or not they will fit in,” Trombetta said. “We
take pride in helping smooth things over and creating a positive
atmosphere.”
Blue and Gold does its job whether the UCLA community is aware
of it or not because, despite their lack of recognition, they know
that their work is not lost.
“Every time an athlete’s parent spots me at a
football game and thanks me, I know it’s worth it,”
Trombetta said.