Published: June 22, 2009 12:33 am      

HERTZEL COLUMN - Parents big part of the college recruiting game

MORGANTOWN — Inside the Puskar Center, a smorgasbord of football prospects gathered, some so big they blocked the sunlight from pouring in through the door they stood before, some so fast they could run 40 yards before you could pronounce their full name.

They were the elite players that were drawn to West Virginia University’s football camp and they now were gathered in the Mountaineer team room being given instructions on what the schedule would be and hearing the pitch that all recruits hear wherever they go.

Outside the Puskar Center, sitting in the warm sunlight that could not get past the offensive lineman when they stood in the doorway, was JoAnn Yonchiuk, cell phone in hand. On the other end of her phone was her mother, and she was instructing her to try and find a flight to Purdue, the next stop on this recruiting carousel that goes round and round.

All the focus all of the time is on the players who are being recruited, but there is another side to the recruiting game, an unseen side, for it is not only the players who are being recruited, but the parents, too.

JoAnn Yonchiuk’s son Tyler is a rising senior at New Brunswick (N.J.) High, sitting in the shadow of Rutgers University. It is the same school that produced Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots punter Josh Miller. Tyler also is a punter, one of the few in the nation who may actually win a scholarship, one that West Virginia has much interest in, as does Pittsburgh and Purdue.

Mother and son are a team.

“I’m the coordinator of the trips,” JoAnn said.

It is such an adventure, she admitted, that at one point she began keeping a diary on her computer at home, realizing that this was something she would want to always remember.

The recruiting, of course, started with mail from various campuses.

“The mailman must have thought he was a superstar or something,” JoAnn joked.

Next, recruiters began visiting the school. That was eye-opening.

“You start thinking, ‘They’re coming to see my kid?’” she said.

And sure enough they were. At 6-3 and 200 pounds and with a solid punting background honed at the nearby Special Teams Solution run by former Rutgers kicker Lee McDonald and punter Charlie Titus, he attracted attention with a strong leg whip that produced high, booming punts.

Come May, when the football coaches are banned from recruiting, the visiting of campuses began and JoAnn received a lot of help from Yonchiuk’s coach at New Brunswick, Marcus Borden, in setting up the schedule, which is a complicated adventure of matching visits and camps with availability and interest.

What’s more, JoAnn’s former husband, Gerry — they are divorced — is a football coach in Lebanon, Pa., outside Harrisburg, and is active in the process, too.

The Yonchiuks have been wearing out their GPS.

“We visited Syracuse in the spring, an unofficial visit,” she began. “We went to the Blue Chip Day at Pitt in the spring, too, and then came back for the camp. We also made an unofficial visit at Rutgers. Their camp is next week and we’ll be there. We’re here in West Virginia now and we’ll also visit Purdue.”

It’s a lot of travel, a lot of expense and, more importantly, a lot of kicking.

“Our concern is his leg. We don’t want him to just kick, kick, kick,” JoAnn said.

You may have noticed that as she spoke, it was always “we” and not “he,” for this is definitely a tag team.

“He’s an only child,” she said. “It’s me and him against the world.”

The relationship between mother and son is strong and she admits that when it comes time for a decision, she will have input in making it.

“The decision is both of ours,” she said. “I have to feel secure. He has to feel first that he’s joining a family.”

Rest assured coaches everywhere understand this, and parents are recruited as hard, if not harder, than their children. That is what made what transpired moments after the players headed out onto the field so inspiring.

The parents were herded into the team room and coach Bill Stewart stood before them, and when you get Stewart going on what he wants his football program to stand for, you can’t help but be hooked.

Speaking from the heart, as he always does, Stewart talked of faith, family and football and how they all are entwined. He talked about how his players had to have faith. He cared not what religion they were but they had to have faith, even if it was just in football.

He talked about family and brotherhood and the way a unit pulls together and about the way he will look over them like a father. He told of discipline, told them his zero tolerance for drugs and that if you hit a girl you were off the team and if you missed class he’d work you at 5 a.m. until you puked.

The parents liked that.

It was Stewart at his best, sometimes bringing on laughter, sometimes getting applause, always coming from the heart.

How many players want to commit, we’ll just have to wait and see, although some were expected to commit before leaving town, but one thing was certain.

There wasn’t a parent who wouldn’t have sent his or her child to West Virginia by the time Stewart was through.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com or through Facebook.