By U-Wire

(UWIRE) LINCOLN, Neb. — Committing to play collegiatesports is difficult for any high school athlete. But when that athlete commits before senior year of high school, it’s a whole different story.

Collegiate sports, volleyball and football in particular, are starting to see more and more early commitments each year. Nebraska volleyball Coach John Cook said he knows the risk of getting players at a young age.

With recruits sometimes still being juniors and sophomores in high school, NCAA guidelines prohibit Cook from officially visiting their homes or maintaining steady contact with them.

Because of that barrier, Cook said it’s much more difficult to recruit younger athletes.

“It is all done through e-mail and hopefully getting them oncampus at some point,” Cook said. “It becomes a lot more riskywith these decisions, and I really have to do my homework.”Doing homework is an understatement for Cook and his coaching staff.

Because early commits are common in volleyball, recruiting is an all-year routine for the coaches, and Cook said he talks withhis staff about the process daily. NU offensive line Coach DennisWagner, who is responsible for recruiting in the Omahametro area, said the football team faces the same problem.

Not being able to contact younger players as much as if they were seniors makes it just as challenging in football, but that’s where the annual Red-White Spring Football Gameplays an important role, Wagner said.

“It is a tremendous attribute to our recruiting,” Wagner said. “When you can have 50,000 fans show up to a Spring Game, just having a recruit see that is a big advantage.

“Both Cook and Wagner agree that recruiting is a year-round adventure. Using game visits, phone calls, e-mails and recruiting packages are just a few ways early commits can be infl uenced toward joining a program.

“Recruiting never stops,” Cook said. “You never know when you might fi nd somebody or somebody leaves your team. It makes it tougher because of changes that are happening.”

According to Wagner, the Cornhuskers already have begun recruiting for their 2007 class. Recruiting early commits makes it more diffi cult to assess where the athlete is physically as well. The risk of a recruit getting injured or showing subpar results on the field in high school are things coaches have to consider when having an athlete commit early.

There are certain things that every coach looks for to fi t his or her team. Whether it is height for basketball, size for football or quickness for volleyball, each team has holes that need to be filled.

Cook said he has multiple qualities he looks for in recruits.

“First thing we look at is how athletic they are,” Cook said. “Second thing we look at is their character, work ethic and how committed they are to their school. The third thing is to see if they could fit here.”

Wagner is on the same page with Cook, saying the football coaching staff looks for a quality person who is concerned about his education.

Wagner said he drills his players with the words, “book and ball,” throughout the year. “It’s the books and ball that you have to be committed to,” Wagner said.

Committing early is a big decision for any recruit, and NU linebacker Bo Ruud — who committed to Nebraska as a sophomore in high school — said he felt it was the right decision for him.

After committing, Ruud said it was “nice not having to worry about all that recruiting garbage.”

Not having to deal with the hassle of the recruiting process is a big motive for many high school athletes who commit early.

Although Ruud didn’t have to worry about being bugged by different schools, his priorities changed after the decision.

“I still had some thoughts about playing college basketball,” Ruud said. “I used to play on travel teams in the summer, but after I committed, I knew I had to give that up.”

Committing early to a program is a decision that more and more high school athletes are making every year.

In a sport like volleyball, it is becoming more common with each recruiting class. Cook said early commitments are a part of sports now and are becoming a near necessity.

“If you don’t do this, you are going to lose out,” Cook said. “The top kids want to make early decisions, so if you are not in the game, you are going to be standing at a dance with nobody to go with.”