from California, Oklahoma, other far off states? Look at FSU, in the ACC just like we are, they have players from all over as well. I understand about the parent thing for sure, but if a young lady is offered a chance to play for a program like VT and the schools in her area are not seeing the talent in a particular player or in many cases in recruiting many top athletes are overlooked. It happens all the time. Some parents don't get involved in their kids recruiting, but should. The national tournaments are the best way to test the waters of talent level. In 2026, we have the 2nd ranked pitcher in the travel ball circuit that has already committed to the Hokies. Young ladies out there want to play for the Hokies, and there are plenty of top talent young ladies that are unfortantely overlooked every recruiting cycle. If we are playing nationwide now, that becomes recruiting ground. Conferences recruit the same players a lot of times. That's why it is important to be associated with a conference. Look at VT football when we were an independent, we played Richmond, VMI, and other Southern Conference teams. I remember going to games in Blacksburg that weren't half full. When we joined the Big East, we were recruiting the same players and it was our responsibility to bring in the top players, which VT did. Look at the teams we started to play, much better players and teams. Coach Beamer had a lot of success in the Big East. It helped put us on the map, and we went to many BCS bowl games, against Texas, Nebraska, among other top tiered teams. All of this was accomplished by recruiting against the Big East, Big 10, SEC teams, and Notre Dame. There was top talent coming to Blacksburg from all over and we were very fortunate to own the state of Virginia at the time with recruiting the best from the Commonwealth. Look at our programs decline, it started during the Beamer era and has carried into now, we lost the battle of the top players in Virginia. They were poached by Penn State, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Michigan, Florida State, Miami, Alabama, and other blue bloods that figured out that Beamer was good year in and year out due to the talented players in Virginia. The recruiting base does need to be within a certain footprint of your home base, but we need to recruit players that are being recruited by the Florida State, Alabama, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, among others if we are unable to fill our roster with players from our footprint.