05:07 PM CDT on Thursday, June 1, 2006

By Matt Musil / 11 News

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Recruiting high school stars for college athletics is an extremely competitive business.

KHOU-TV

Kyla Holas, UH softball coach

Universities have long gone to extremes to land the country’s top performing young men.

But 11 News has learned the competition to sign top young women is now just as fierce.

Even though women’s professional sports still struggle to capture the attention of the paying public, there are more women’s sports at the collegiate and high school level than ever before.

This means there are more scholarship opportunities than ever before for young women.

Which, in turn, also means the recruitment of said athletes is more far-reaching and more competitive than ever.

And what’s concerning many observers is the fact that female athletes have to commit to their future college or university much earlier than their male counterparts.

“I just had a freshman fly in from Hawaii for a visit,” said Chris Huston, Rice women’s athletic director.

“The way it’s going, pretty soon we’re going to have to start recruiting grade schoolers,” said TSU coach Dwalah Fisher.

Of course there are definite rules in place to protect the high school athletes from over-zealous college recruiters.

College coaches can’t e-mail prospective athletes until their high school junior year and they can’t call them on the phone until the summer before their senior year .

There are, of course, ways to get around those rules. 

"There's text messaging cause that's not counting as a phone call," said

So in this world of instant communication the recruiting process goes on, thanks in large part to non-traditional recruiting methods.

At the Galleria, thousands of people shop every day, including many teenage women.  It is also, believe it or not, a recruiting tool for area women’s coaches.

And even though the competition is fierce for women’s athletic scholarships, very few women get full scholarships.

Laneigh Clark, Pearland coach knows of what she speaks. She both played and coached softball at the Division One level before coming to Pearland High School.

Her current prize recruit, junior pitcher Rhiannon Kliesing, verbally committed to attend Texas A&M months ago.

And the advice for young women pursuing scholarships?

Make sure to thoroughly research every situation and school before making a life-changing commitment.