Swimming: Eastern reaches beyond state borders

Coach Bos looks to continue recruiting out of state

By: Ari Horing/ Staff Reporter

Posted: 12/2/08

While previous Eastern swimming coaches have for the most part concentrated on recruiting in-state, Eastern's new head coach Matt Bos has been looking to recruit out of state this year, especially in Indiana.

Bos has also been recruiting in states such as Missouri, Iowa, Arizona and Florida.

Pat LeNeave, a senior from Conroe, Texas, and Brent Noble, a senior from Terre Haute, Ind., are the only two out of state swimmers on Eastern's swim teams.

Noble said that this year's coaching staff is focusing more on out of state recruiting said Noble.

"Our coaching staff in the past has focused mainly on the Chicago area and basically high school swimmers from Illinois," Noble said. "There wasn't a lot of focus elsewhere. Our new coach is trying to shift that focus and has been recruiting pretty hard out of state."

Bos said that Indiana is a very important state to recruits swimmers from.

"This year we have tried to recruit more from out of state," Bos said. "Indiana is one of the bigger states we've been looking because there is a lot of good swimming in Indiana on the high school level."

Noble agreed with Bos and said that state of Indiana produces a lot of good swimmers

"For swimming, Indiana is a really good place to look at," Noble said. "It is a really good club swimming state and people swim all year around. Because Eastern has recently recruited from my hometown of Terre Haute, people there now know about Eastern and it is a good place for Eastern to continue looking at."

Even though Bos is trying to broaden his recruiting base, he said it can be hard to attract people from out of state.

"One the main reasons we haven't attracted many swimmers from outside Illinois is because of the difference in out of state tuition compared to instate tuition," Bos said. "There is a big difference of around $30,000 dollars additionally."

Bos said that the more swimmers he can attract out of state this year, the more he will be able to attract them in future years.

"The more swimmers we recruit out of state, the more contacts we create out of state as well," Bos said. "The more people that know about Eastern Illinois University and its athletic program, the more we can increase the number of good out of state swimmers."

Ari Horing can be reached at 581-7944 or at akhoring@eiu.edu.