To see an interactive database of the players, click here. Editor’s note: This story is the fourth in a five-part series involving former LSU athletes competing in the professional ranks.An athletic program can find success either through recruiting top-flight talent or placing an emphasis on team unity and strength.LSU’s smaller sports teams, have used a mix of both. Some teams have had success while producing pro talent, while others have won without future professionals.Smaller sports recruiting — aside from a powerhouse track and field program — has placed the emphasis more on team-building than nabbing the next great athlete.The LSU track and field program has been at or near the top of the collegiate level since Pat Henry took the reigns of the program in 1988 and handed control over to present coach Dennis Shaver in 2004.Henry guided the Lady Tigers to 22 indoor and outdoor national championships and the Tigers to five outdoor and indoor championships in his 17-year tenure. LSU’s men and women have only finished outside the top 10 nationally twice since Shaver took his turn at the helm.The result of their success was evident, as LSU was represented by 12 Olympians at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Several of those Olympians turned to their sports as professions, including hurdler Lolo Jones, sprinter Richard Thompson and jumper Walter Davis.It can be argued the coaching abilities of Shaver and Henry molded the athletes into what they are, but the same can be said about the highly talented high school athletes that lend their abilities to the University.”It’s during their collegiate career that independent shoe companies and people that are willing to sponsor and pay salaries for our sport —   they’re scouting and watching the athletes,” Shaver said. “Without the collegiate program, without those opportunities, I don’t know how they would be evaluated.”The LSU track and field program has been nationally recognized since its inception in 1933, the LSU softball program has a lot less history to rest upon when it comes to recruiting and developing top players.The LSU softball team returned to action in 1997 after a 16-year hiatus. Softball has only had two seasons with less than 40 wins In 13 years since the sport’s reintroduction to LSU, and the Lady Tigers have never had a losing season in their 16-year history.The LSU softball program has produced six professional softball players for the upstart Pro Fast Pitch league. But LSU softball coach Yvette Girouard said athletes may not have much incentive to play in the professional softball league because of the low income players receive and the uncertainty of the league’s future.”There’s a lot of players that could have been drafted over the years but opted not to play because they wanted to finish school, or because there’s not a lot of money in it right now and just decided to go on with their lives,” Girouard said. “They’re not at the point where they’re thinking about professional softball.”The LSU soccer program can claim just one professional player in the American Women’s Professional Soccer league. Midfielder Malorie Rutledge was drafted by the Philadelphia Independence with the club’s first draft pick in the 2010 draft. Rutledge could be considered a product of the recent success of the LSU soccer program. The Tigers won the Southeastern Conference’s Western Division for the third straight year and posted their best team record since the 2000 season.She may be subject to the same sort of tough career choices that face members of the LSU softball team considering to play professionally. Her individual success in a successful program set her up to play professionally, but the low potential for income and the uncertain future of a professional women’s soccer league makes getting a degree paramount.Former volleyball libero Elena Martinez took her route to the professional ranks in a different direction because the United States doesn’t have a professional volleyball league, aside from the two-person beach volleyball league.Martinez decided to take her game to Puerto Rico where she plays for the Llaneras de Toa Baja, in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico.—————Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]