Daily Egyptian Sports : A Strike on Recruiting

The faculty may need more money, yet the school may not have any - I don't friggin' care. Well, if they strike I will, but just figure it out for Jebus' sake.

What does worry me is one sure thing that will be affected - recruiting.

It may at first sound trivial, but it isn't.

Signing day for football is tomorrow. Signing day for basketball is in April. Just like living in Europe during1347-1350 A.D., the timing for this historic strike is horrid.

Like the Black Death, the symptoms of the strike will seem insignificant at first, but will lead to greater complications that will affect the whole school, not just athletics.

SIU athletic director Paul Kowalczyk said the coaches get the unwanted burden of talking to the concerned parents and recruits about the situation concerning the possible strike.

"Well, our coaches are on the firing line, so we have relied on their abilities to answer any questions" Kowalczyk said. "It has hurt us some instances with football recruiting, I know that from talking with [SIU head football coach Jerry] Kill."

Kowalczyk said the talk about the strike has already tarnished many in-state relations.

Sitting in my bed with my nose stuffy and itched by the ill smells of stale cigarette smoke, I thought of some of the more paranoid ramifications.

Recruits are the future of the SIU athletic community? ... yes. Athletics brings the school money? ... yes. And the strike will hurt recruiting? ... yes. So in turn, the school is going to have worse athletic teams because of the strike, and inadvertently will lessen SIU's collective wallet? ... Yes!

That could mean everyone else's wallet too.

I cannot imagine what coach Kill would say, even though he is an articulate southerner with a wide range of never-before-heard catch phrases, to alleviate any of his recruits' worries. Not to mention, if a recruit is younger than 18 years of age, they need their parent's consent to sign.

"Hey we are going on strike, our school is broke. There is also a huge disparity between the male and female ratio. Other than that, this school is great."

Most prospects probably wouldn't take the bait on that.

Bruce Weber, SIU's men's basketball coach, said his six years here have been constant tug-of-war in terms of recruiting.

Our party-school image, which some of our parents are responsible for, is something that Weber has had to answer to when he visits recruits.

"I know we have a negative image in Chicago with people my age, 35-45," Weber said. "Because some of those people came down here and were part of the 'loose and free' lifestyle. And now they are parents."

After last season's Sweet Sixteen berth, it seemed as though the program was taking a gigantic step in a forward direction to erase any bad aftertaste our school may have.

Then comes the talk about this strike.

"This fall we'd go to a kid's home and we though we were in great and as soon as mom said 'I don't think that is a good place to go. It's a wild place, it is a party place.' Then when you compound a strike into that negative image, it is going to make it is not only going to hurt us recruiting-wise."

Right now, this strike is local and semi-national. The Saluki basketball squad is 9-1 in conference and 14-4 overall, giving it a solid chance to garner another NCAA Tourney bid.

"What's a Saluki?" could be replaced by "SIU had a strike, a college had a strike!"

"I think it will go national [if a strike occurs], and it will be detrimental," Kowalczyk said. "Not just with athletics, but to the whole school. We have an image that we need to protect. We spread our name last year with the Sweet Sixteen and got some people interested in SIU that normally wouldn't have been. Obviously, this will ruin some of it."

I'd prefer to hear the annoying statement about our unknown mascot - it was a cute little tidbit, not the negative pimple the hubbub about the strike will blemish SIU with.

Zack Creglow is a freshman in journalism. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the Daily Egyptian.