Langara athletic to practice different recruiting this off season

Reported by Evan Hagedorn 

As Langara’s competitive teams head into the off season, they are faced with the difficult challenge of finding hidden talent to fill the ranks soon vacated by departing student athletes.

Falcon’s coaching staff search annually for players to benefit their roster, but this year, are working more aggressively to find players to fill empty spots vacated by graduating students. Presence at tournaments, high school camps and evaluative sessions are just a few places where the department is looking for new talent.

“The recruitment process in the past, was kind of like a fishnet, whatever swims into the net we’ll take kind of attitude,” said Winston Brown, head coach of the women’s basketball team.

Brown said that past recruitments of athletes have been passive, but this year the staff have been aggressively pursuing leads.

Jake McCallum, director of athletics and intramurals, said the men’s basketball team is one example of a Falcons team looking at a high turnover of older players.

“Our men’s basketball has a lot of second year and third year kids, so they might be looking at a high turnover, so they may be looking at a bigger intake.” McCallum said.

No two recruitment processes are alike, as teams and coaches approach the task differently each year to suit their teams’ unique and shifting needs.

For the women’s soccer team, the recent hiring of the new head coach Rachel Pelat may affect the roster and attract a higher number of new players to the team.

“[All] the players might not come back and there’s a real transitory period with new coaches, so I think there will be a big intake in women’s soccer,” said McCallum.