Courtesy of NCAA

    The world of Division III recruiting for NCAA-recognized teams is far less sexy than the lavish world of Division I. There are no suitcases full of cash and no beautiful people waiting for recruits during campus visits. Division III recruiting is about building relationships and a family-like atmosphere.

For many coaches the process begins by watching prospective recruits' high school and club team games. Many local players fill out the online recruiting questionnaire to inform the coach of their interest in the program. The process is fairly simple in most cases. The procedure becomes much more difficult when your recruits live 30 hours away from Fredonia.

For Fredonia State hockey coach Jeff Meredith, this is often the case. Meredith and his staff recruit some of their best players from Alberta, Canada. With such distance between coach and recruit, Meredith and his staff rely on phone calls and hand written letters.

"You spend a lot of time on the phone listening to how [recruits] speak and answer questions," Meredith said. "You really get a good feel for the person. In recruiting, our number one priority, even before getting great athletes, is that we really need to get great people."

Developing these relationships is paramount when a recruit will be leaving home to come to Fredonia. With the time commitment involved in collegiate sports the team becomes the recruits' second family.

"We tell recruits straight out ‘our job is not to sell you on Fredonia,'" Meredith said. "We want to develop a relationship because everything after that becomes easy. Without the relationship coming first I don't think any of the rest works."

After the initial contacts are made recruits typically receive a phone call from their potential coaches once a week. Unlike Division I, there are no NCAA restrictions on how much contact a coach may have with a prospective player. Still, many coaches limit contact to once a week in order to avoid seeming overly aggressive.

A visit to campus is customary and often followed by an overnight visit. At this point the process is almost over and the recruit is faced with a decision. Division III schools cannot offer athletic scholarships so the playing field is even between schools. Once again it comes down to the relationships built during the recruiting process.

Coach Christopher Case coaches both women's soccer and lacrosse. His recruiting schedule is filled year-round. Case echoed Meredith's philosophy that players with character come first. When Case is evaluating a recruit he asks himself and his staff two questions.

"What's their personality and can they fit the team chemistry?" Case said. "With Division III we don't typically get the best athletes. We are looking for players that are willing to work hard and adapt to new things."

Family. That's what it comes down to in the end. Division III athletics is about developing relationships that will last a lifetime. A recruit will choose the program that makes them feel most comfortable and most at-home. The more a recruit feels like a part of a family, the better the chances he or she will commit.