"According to (UFV women's basketball coach Al) Tuchscherer, his team’s recruiting coups this season are a triumph of niche marketing. Rather than slugging it out with the likes of UBC and (Simon Fraser) for the top high school seniors, the Cascades are finding success by building relationships with elite prospects at a younger age."It's not often you get an insight like that into how recruiting works, particularly in basketball and volleyball. Others can comment on how recent a phenomenon this is, but as club teams proliferate in basketball and volleyball across the country to serve the more exceptionally talented teenagers, it seems more commonplace. In some cases, by the time a first-year basketball player arrives on campus, he/she might already have experience playing for her/his new university coaches.
For instance, many Carleton Ravens basketball players have played in Dave Smart's Guardsmen program for a couple years by the time they enrol in university. That's not to say that's what Fraser Valley is doing, but it certainly increases understanding of how coaches attract athletes.
Related:
Luyken and Hart will play for UFV (Mission City Record)
A great example of that would be Trinity Western's men's program, which went with former high school coach Scott Allen last year and already has picked up several of his former players. As well, many other schools, including Queen's, are running high school tournaments and summer camps where the coaches can get to know the up and coming prospects.
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