With the spring signing period, including women’s basketball and soccer, having begun on April 13, players will soon be faxing in their paperwork and capping off the recruiting process.The process begins for women’s basketball with an evaluation of the talent needed to improve the following year, according to Lady Colonels head basketball coach Mark Cook. He said the coaches watch the local players before going on to the state and international levels.

He said he has to find players who can fit both the academic profile and the profile that he is recruiting.

“We find people who are talented enough to fit in on our program and want to come to Nicholls,” Cook said. “My thing right now is to sell Nicholls as a traditional liberal arts college in the United States with many things to offer. Believe it or not, it’s not that hard to sell.”

Head soccer coach Cindy Piper also begins the process of evaluating players through observation. She attends large showcases to watch players. She then talks to club coaches about players before writing letters explaining what Nicholls is about to those players she wants to recruit.

Cook also said it helps to recruit when the team is winning and has a solid tradition, which he said he is working to change for the women’s basketball program.

When looking for players to sign, Cook said he makes sure that they are good citizens with no on- or off-court problems.

As far as on what Piper bases her recruiting of a player on, Piper said it all depends on what’s she’s shopping around for.

“Every position you’re looking for someone with decent speed, ball control and confidence in play most importantly,” Piper said. “If they’re confident with a little swagger, that’s what I’m looking for.”

She also said she seeks out players who can fit into her program, and, at the same time, not change their game too much.

Both coaches try to stay in-state when recruiting, but also venture out-of-state to Texas in search of players.

“You obviously want to stay in your home state,” Piper said. “Everyone here at Nicholls wants to see if they can get their players in their home state. Texas is a ‘huge-soccer breeding zone.’ Because it is so close to us, we can get kids to come from there.”

Although Texas has a lot more people who play soccer, Piper said Louisiana’s getting better at the game.

Cook said he’s currently covering local Louisiana, in order to find second or third tier players. He also wants to go to the Houston and Dallas areas because they are both places he can fly into as well as areas where a lot of recruits..

Cook, the former head coach at Dillard University in New Orleans, said a lot of people do not mind coming down to watch their children play. He said holidays, such as Mardi Gras, attract parents.

“That’s what a lot of people did at Dillard,” Cook said. “They came and watched kids play and then went to Mardi Gras. My freshman center Tarin Seely’s parents came down here in a camper for four or five days and went to Houma and Thibodaux for the parades and came to watch her play.”

Even though she was hired in July and did not recruit any current freshmen on her squad, Piper said she does not find living here for an entire season that much of an advantage. She said she came to Nicholls because she thought they could win, and she would not have come here if she felt she could not.

As to the number of players she signs, Piper said it depends on the number she has to replace due to graduation.

Cook said the most challenging aspect of recruiting is “selling the kids to come to the University.”

“The scholarship has to be signed by both players and parents,” Cook said. “You have to convince both to come to school. You have two different agendas-the parents and the children.”

With the recent NCAA investigations involving Nicholls, Cook said he has not had to address that issue while recruiting players.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t have to talk about that,” Cook said. “The parents that do research see that I have a 100 percent academic rate of graduation.