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[Dave Johnson]

First of all, sorry for the delay in posting this. Last week, as I’m sure you can understand, was crazy.

After our story about Gloucester’s Stephanie Coates committing to Virginia, there were questions raised regarding whether the scholarship was athletic or academic. Here’s the answer: It’s an athletic scholarship.
Olympic sports like softball and baseball rarely grant full rides, and Coates wouldn’t say how much she is getting. She did say she was "very happy" with the scholarship’s worth.

Two HRVarsity.com posters assumed Coates had received an academic grant. Their assumption was based on the NCAA rule that prohibits contact between coaches and recruits until after the prospect’s junior year.

However, NCAA rules are rarely as clear-cut as they seem.

The NCAA’s definition of "contact" is telephone conversations and person-to-person visits. Those are not allowed until July 1 after the recruit’s junior year. However, coaches are allowed to correspond via e-mail, letters and (for now) text messages with juniors.

Plus, here’s a loop-hole to that "no contact" rule. It forbids coaches from calling recruits, but there’s no rule against recruits calling the coaches. So if the recruit (or his/her parents) initiate the call, the coach is permitted to speak with them at anytime.

Hopefully this explains it all.

• Dave Johnson

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