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Recruiting Year Begins
1/8/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
May 6, 2000
Boca Raton News
Happy birthday to this column, we're one year old! Congratulations and thanks to President Tony Catanese on his far-reaching and courageous decision to continue his drive on plans already forged for FAU's greatness.
Moving on with football's plan for greatness, our full cadre of coaches has invaded the Florida Atlantic Territory in the month-long search for class of 2001 candidates. Separating as lone wolves to cover more territory, they crisscross on a path that stops at every high school. Each principal, coaching staff, and guidance counselor will be visited whether or not their program has a viable player.
Just like every year, we'll focus on The Territory. The difference is that we've annexed Jacksonville. In last year's trek, we found a well-traveled highway laced with stars within five miles on each side of I-95. And experience tells us that Jacksonville players tend to be overlooked by The Big Three.
Last year's coaching staff did an incredible job of bringing back more than 800 names of juniors. 22 became signees to make up our first team. Today we are better armed with last year's notes.
As days go by, more and more information will be gathered to assess each player's improvement from sophomore to junior year. Some candidates will make the list as expected. Last year's sophomores may be making the progress we'd hoped for. Others will come out of nowhere, they're making great progress and becoming hot junior prospects. High school coaches will point out those players who didn't catch our eye but who have made dramatic improvement in a year's time. Some great players won't be on our list. They haven't demonstrated that they'll live up to FAU's code of conduct or measure up in the classroom.
Our inaugural recruiting effort yielded 24 signees, 22 from the Florida Atlantic Territory. We're certain to have even greater success this year. FAU Football has developed a pattern in recruiting The Territory that no else can copy. We're focused exclusively on our gold mine of great high school players. And our gold mine will never play out.
I stand on my prediction that talented players from Florida will choose to play for their home state before parents and girlfriends, coaches and teammates, classmates and extended families. If you didn't believe me, look at last year.
On June 1 at day's end, we'll have our collection of prospects from which 30 signees will become fighting Owls. Yes, Tony, thanks to you, it is these 30 young, courageous warriors who will carry us to Division-I status and fulfill your plan for football greatness.
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