Author Spotlight
Catherine Erickson
The pandemic has made the college recruitment process for high school student-athletes exceedingly more difficult. With a limited amount of scholarships and the inability to meet with coaches or visit campuses in-person, athletes are struggling to connect with teams and receive offers to play sports in college.
In March of 2020, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) granted an extra year of eligibility to all college student-athletes whose seasons were affected due to COVID-19. College athletes who were unable to complete their season in the spring are now allowed to play for a fifth year in college, causing the number of open spots for incoming recruits on collegiate teams to decrease.
Senior varsity golfer Hanna Robinett experienced the effects of NCAA’s new rule after being turned down from schools due to extended eligibility of college seniors.
“I reached out to Denver and Baylor and both replied with pretty much the same generic email: that they were not offering 2021 scholarships because of the shortage and that they’re already full,” Robinett said. “Some [schools] told me they’re not even recruiting 2021 graduates because of this extra year of eligibility.”
The available scholarship budget for incoming recruits has been affected by extended eligibility. According to East’s Athletic Director Debbie Katzfey, college students who take advantage of NCAA’s new rule will be able to receive their same scholarship for their fifth year, leaving less money for new recruits.
The extra year of eligibility isn’t the only factor affecting universities’ scholarship budget. With limited crowds at football games and other major sporting events, athletic departments at many colleges are not bringing in nearly as much money, according to Katzfey.
“A lot of colleges rely on the gates and the revenue that comes from football,” Katzfey said. “With them having limited people in the stands, and for some universities, even no fans in the stands…the money’s not there.”
This decrease in revenue for colleges caused several schools to cut programs that don’t bring in as much money. Dartmouth, for example, had to permanently eliminate five Division 1 varsity programs including men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s and women’s golf and men’s lightweight rowing, according to The Dartmouth, the school’s newspaper.
Along with extended eligibility and less revenue leading to a shortage of scholarships, high school student-athletes are unable to meet with coaches or teams in-person and colleges aren’t offering in-person guided campus visits. This has forced prospective students to rely on virtual tours of the campus.
“[Virtual tours are] definitely a disadvantage,” junior and varsity volleyball player Ella Bunde said. “You kind of have to make your decision, for some schools, if you want to still go without seeing campus, which is kind of risky…Some of mine have been doing Zoom calls, like FaceTimes around campus, so we can kind of see it, but it’s still not the real thing.”
In September, NCAA announced that they would be extending the dead period, a time when college coaches cannot have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents, until Jan. 1 due to coronavirus concerns.
The dead period extension means that recruiters are unable to watch fall sport athletes play in-person. According to Katzfey, the Sunflower League is still allowing recruiters to attend games, but coaches affiliated with NCAA still cannot.
As recruiters from the universities Bunde is pursuing will be unable to attend her games, Bunde created highlight reels to send to colleges to showcase her abilities.
“We had to send them video, a lot of video, of us playing, since they didn’t get to see us live,” Bunde said. “It’s kind of hard to send full games…so you kind of have to pick and choose your highlights. And we had to make a lot more highlight videos than we normally do because they couldn’t physically see us play.”
Robinett also sent short clips of her golf swing and form to coaches, but depended more on sending tournament scores to give coaches an idea of how she plays.
“I rely on sending out scores,” Robinett said. “With golf, it’s unique because a coach can see your abilities without having to see you play a tournament. It always helps for them to be able to see you play a tournament. But I was able, for instance, to send a video of my swing, of me hitting multiple shots, to colleges and they’re able to kind of judge my ability from that video.”
While it’s important for coaches to get a sense of how students play, students also need to build personal relationships with coaches and team members before being recruited.
However, they must rely on Zoom calls because they’re unable to meet in-person. Bunde has been trying to connect with teams and coaches over Zoom, but has found it difficult to really get to know the people virtually.
“I did game night with one of the teams, so I met all the players,” Bunde said. “It’s nice to meet everyone, but it’s still kind of hard over Zoom to, like, get a feel for the people and college volleyball-wise.”
With the extension of the dead period and concerns of coronavirus, many recruiting events put on by colleges have been canceled. While these events are a good opportunity for coaches to see how potential recruits play, they’re also a chance to get to know a coach’s coaching style, according to Bunde.
“Different coaches have a different coaching style, and that definitely comes across at [recruiting] camps,” Bunde said. “How they coach and the way they treat their player and think of their team and university is important to see in-person.”
Aside from these obstacles, Katzfey is hopeful that all high school athletes who want to play in college will still have the opportunity to.
“If we keep playing like we’re going right now, then I think that if [students] were going to get recruited, they would still get recruited,” Katzfey said. “I don’t think the really good athlete that wants to play at the next level is going to get overlooked because of the virus.”
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