COVID-19 has greatly impacted all aspects of society, including sports. Many high school senior athletes are seeing chances of getting recruited to play in college start to slip away as they can do nothing but stand by and hope for the best.
What does COVID mean for recruiting? Being recruited is a process requiring as many opportunities to compete and demonstrate your abilities as you possibly can. The more a high school athlete is performing in front of coaches, the better chance they have of earning a spot on a college roster.
In a typical year, recruits have several opportunities to impress college coaches, but this year has been anything but typical. The coronavirus pandemic led to an NCAA dead period that was extended until at least August 31, thereby preventing college coaches and prospects from traveling to see one another in person. According to NBC Washington, it also caused the cancellation of exposure camps and tournaments that would have been held this summer. These camps and tournaments allowed athletes to be seen by coaches, which is an important opportunity and step for student athletes to get recruited.
Now, as coronavirus cases rise in many areas, school systems and state athletic associations have been forced to make difficult decisions in relation to fall sports in order to protect students and their respective communities.
As if things were not hard enough for high school senior athletes, the NCAA made the difficult decision to extend the Division I recruiting dead period until January 1, 2021, per 247sports.com. This means there can be no on-campus or off-campus contacts, no on-campus or off-campus evaluations, no involvement in camps or clinics, and no official or unofficial visits through the end of the calendar year. However, general correspondence, including emails, text messages, and phone calls will be permitted.
That may not sound like a huge deal because coaches can still stay in touch with student athletes through online interaction, but for many students it does not cut it. This can’t be stressed enough, the best and most successful way for a student athlete to be recruited is by playing in front of coaches and getting “looks.”
I was able to reach out to a senior student athlete at Roosevelt to get their take on the situation. Sarah Bell, an aspiring college soccer player, shared how recruiting has been for her during COVID. “It’s been a big challenge. Motivation has been a big factor for me. There were a lot of days where I didn’t have club (soccer) training because of the pandemic. Going out by myself and spending a lot of time by myself, improving areas of my game was important.”
When asked what advice Bell would give other high school seniors, she said, “Reach out early. Pick up the phone and call coaches.” This clearly emphasizes the importance of starting and maintaining communication with college coaches.
“Most importantly, just get out there every day and work on all aspects of the game.” In other words, not even a global pandemic can stop you from getting better.
At the end of the day, unless you are a top player in the country, in a revenue sport (at most colleges it is basketball and football), it is very rare to get an offer to a school solely through online communication. Most student athletes around the country desperately need these vital “looks” if they want to play their sport in college.
