Final recruiting push on; Ford signs with Hartford

While the process never really ends, the final push of the recruiting season is underway.

For Carson High's Lindsay Ford, the recruiting process has ended as she's signed with a Division I school.

The spring recruiting season officially begins today with the first day of the spring signing period. But for many local baseball players, the recruiting process will take another several weeks.

For Ford the process has ended as she signed on Monday to play volleyball with the University of Hartford, a Division I school in the American East Conference. Ford has been one of Northern Nevada's top setters and thanks to her time with the Capital City Volleyball Club, Ford is heading to Hartford.

The Capital City Volleyball Club contacted Hartford and after Ford sent the school a tape of her playing, the Hawks offered her a scholarship. Ford was also offered a fullride scholarship by Division II Southeast Oklahoma State, but the chance to play at Division I was too good to pass up.

"That was my goal ever since I started playing volleyball was to play Division I and I was given the opportunity," said Ford, who began playing volleyball in seventh grade.

Ford was recruited strictly as a setter and will have her work cut out for her. There are already two setters in the Hartford program. One will be a senior, the other will be a sophomore.

But Ford is expected to come in and compete for playing time. "They just expect me to come in and made a difference," Ford said.

Ford also gave much of the credit to the Capital City Volleyball Club for giving her the chance to play at Hartford.

"If I wouldn't have played club volleyball, I wouldn't be playing college volleyball," she said. "If I didn't have Capital City, I would not be where I am."

BASEBALL

Western Nevada Community College is trying to put the finishing touches on its recruiting class for 2008. The Wildcats recently signed another pitcher in Tyler Waters, a right-handed pitcher from Salem, Ore.

WNCC has two scholarships left and has offered both of those scholarships. One to catcher Carmen Romano of Coronado in Las Vegas and the other to Alex Besaw, a right-handed pitcher from Eugene, Ore.

Wildcat coach D.J. Whittemore said he hopes to find out about those two players this week. Besaw has also been offered a scholarship by the reigning College World Series champion, Oregon State.

"He's trying to figure out if that's in his best interest," Whittemore said. "He hasn't given us any indication yet of what he's going to do."

WNCC is also still interested in a number of local players, but depending on what Besaw and Romano do, the vast majority of them will have to walk on. The two biggest fish that WNCC is holding out hope for is Galena pitcher Eric Maupin and Carson High's two-way player Tony Fagan.

Among the school's who have shown interest in Fagan is the Pac 10's Arizona. "Obviously we're going to wait and see what happens with Tony," Whittemore said.

Among the schools who originally showed interest in Maupin was Pepperdine, but Whittemore said Fresno State and UNLV are among the schools showing interest in Maupin as well. "We're waiting to see what happens with him," Whittemore said.

Other local players still being recruited by WNCC include Galena catcher Basim Azzam, McQueen shortstop Brian Barnett, Wooster pitcher Scott Green and North Valleys catcher Van Love.

As far as WNCC's current players, Thomas Miller has also received interest from Oregon State, Brad Carlsen has been offered a scholarship from Division II Western Oregon and Kyle Bondurant has been offered a scholarship from NAIA William Penn in Iowa.

Whittemore said many of his players should end up at least at Division II schools. He said Miller should end up at a Division I program.

For all of WNCC's players, the process should still last another four to six weeks. There's a chance that some of WNCC's players could end up receiving Division I offers depending on how well many Division I programs do in their recruiting. Whittemore said among the players who could be on the edge of receiving Division I offers are Bondurant and Carlsen.