This letter is in response to recent...

This letter is in response to recent articles written about Northridge basketball Coach Pete Cassidy. In terms of his recruiting effort, recruiting, first of all, is not an exact science. You can take isolated cases and overall make things very damaging.

Why is the recruiting of Mike Almeido 11 years ago an issue today? The recruiting of Gary Gray was also called into question.

At the time Gary Gray graduated from Granada Hills he was a legitimate Division I player being pursued by mid-major schools. At the time, Northridge was Division II. The talk of going Division I had not even started. Gary Gray made it clear he was not interested in Northridge. So you move on.

This brings up recruiting Kenny Collins. If you talk to the Northridge staff, they claim they did recruit him, then backed off.

Northridge signed a point guard from Cleveland last year that I was personally involved with--Andre Chevalier. Andre apparently had an impact at Northridge as a freshman.

Pete Cassidy is a man beyond reproach. Pete Cassidy is a coach open to criticism because that is part of the profession. He will take something positive out of the articles and work with it.

Pete, his staff, the Valley coaches and the press should try to work together to overcome the obstacles Northridge has to build a better program. To that end, I hope this happens.

DAVE FEHTE

Assistant basketball coach

St. Mary’s College

Moraga, Calif.

(Editor’s note: Both of the above letter writers are former assistant coaches at Northridge during Cassidy’s tenure.)