Chapman’s Visser Is Just Getting Down to Work as a Recruiter

Chapman hired a football coach last week, when Athletic Director Dave Currey met his self-imposed Dec. 1 deadline by introducing Ken Visser to the campus. But it was only a solid first step.

Now comes the hard part.

Visser, who was coach at Whittier College the last three seasons, is already deep into his first task: filling the roster.

Chapman cleared out a closet to set up a temporary office for Visser, who says he doesn’t mind the cramped, makeshift quarters.

“I’ve got a desk and a chair, a note pad and a pencil, and I’m getting to work,” Visser said.

Because Chapman is following the rules of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the league it hopes to join, there will be no off-campus recruiting. So Visser and Dave Bishop, an assistant at Whittier who has been hired as a temporary part-time assistant, are contacting coaches, buying prospect lists and gathering home phone numbers. They will call and write letters to as many recruits as possible and try to set up on-campus visits.

“I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for young players to get a chance to play for four years,” Visser said, “because they won’t have any returning juniors or seniors in front of them.”

There are some potential football players already on campus. Visser was given a list of about a dozen students who are interested in playing and Visser said seven or eight students have expressed interest in person.

Some, he said, look like they might be able to help; others who haven’t played in a couple of years might have a surprise ahead of them. Visser promises something far beyond intramurals.

“I told some, ‘I don’t know if you understand it might be a bit more challenging than you are thinking,’ ” Visser said.

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When Visser took the job at Whittier before the 1991 season, he faced another tough recruiting task. The Poets had only 19 players returning from a team that had been 0-9 the year before.

Visser’s staff was able to round up 31 or 32 new players who helped his first team to a 3-6 record. The next season, the Poets landed 40 more recruits and went 4-6. This past season they finished 4-5 and won four of their last five games.

Now Visser is starting from Square 1 again.

“I think it is a little bit different,” he said. “There should be more enthusiasm with something brand new starting up, at least I hope so.”

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Mixed feelings: Chapman opens the 1994 season at Whittier on Sept. 17, and Visser is already feeling emotionally torn.

“I’ll be very excited seeing my team play its first game,” he said. “I’m just sorry it has to be against the young men at Whittier who I care for so much.”

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Progress report: At this point in the season last year, the Chapman men’s basketball team was 1-5 after a five-game losing streak. This season the Panthers are 4-2.

Better team? Easier schedule? Better coaching?

Chapman Coach Mike Bokosky said it might be a combination of all three. Bokosky said this team, which has 10 new players and only two returners, is as strong as the team last year and says he has settled in as a coach. The Panthers, who have played three NCAA Division III teams and three from the NAIA, don’t have any Division II schools on the schedule.

“This is a tough level,” he said. “Just because we have won a few more games at this point than we did last year doesn’t mean it is easy.”

Chapman will find out more about its team in its next two home games, Friday against Redlands, which has averaged more than 100 points the last three seasons, and Dec. 18 against Pomona-Pitzer.