Granada High School fall sports are in full swing and athletes have become occupied with the pursuit of recruitment into suitable colleges. College athletics are determined to churn out the best competitors and to do so they use a process called sports recruitment.
Sports recruitment refers to how colleges fill up their rosters with eligible players. This process can start as early as June 15 after sophomore year or September 15 of your Junior year. The recruitment process can happen in several ways: June and September are the typical times that college coaches will contact student athletes about joining their team, this is the preferred method but it is not always the most common. Many students reach out to coaches first and ask them to come to their games to watch them play. Others can be scouted at sports camps, promote themselves on social media, or create sports profiles accessible to coaches in order to evaluate their performances, abilities, and lifestyle habits.
This process may sound conveniently short but student athletes can begin preparing for recruitment from as early as middle school. Often students will reach out to several coaches at a time in order to broaden their chances of success. When the student athlete is finally able to communicate with college coaches, the excitement begins. Throughout this process, athletes go through a series of emotions, happiness, excitement, disappointment, anxiety, etc. This process is known to take a toll on one’s mental health and passion for the game.
The goal for these athletes is to be recruited to a university of their liking and thus become what is called committed. Commitment is taking up an offer made by the college coach to play for their team. One crucial step towards being committed is going on visits. Once the coach and athlete have gotten to know each other and believe that the student could potentially make the university their future home, the coach will invite the athlete on a visit.
This policy varies from program to program, however, in general, students offered a visit will go on a campus tour, athletic facility tour, spend time with the coach, meet the players, watch the team practice or play, and have a meeting with the coach or coaching staff. In this meeting, coaches have the opportunity to make the student athlete an offer. This is an exciting time as this allows the athlete to embark on an entirely new journey. This journey’s end result is ultimately deciding if they want to commit to the school and program and eventually attend the university.
Some athletes go through this process multiple times, while others commit to the first school they are offered by. The recruitment process differs for each athlete, however, the ultimate goal in each situation is for the student to find their future university. There are numerous students at Granada who have accomplished the end goal of commitment. One of these athletes, Saskia Raab, shared her recruitment experience.
Raab, a varsity player on Granada’s Softball team, began her recruitment process in 8th grade. Now as a senior she is a committed athlete to the University of Nevada Reno.
Saskia elaborates about the factors that attracted her to UNR, “It’s a nice campus, with good campus life, good coaches who are nice but stern, and has an environment I can work well in as well as players I can get along with.”
Student-athletes seeking recruitment create a list of universities that peak their interest forming a goal for their athletic career, for Raab that was UNR.
Though college applications do not start until a student’s senior year, athletes trying to play in college begin their recruitment process at a very early age. The recruitment process is essentially an athlete’s pre-application for college.
For Raab, her “…recruiting officially started around 8th grade,” however, the hard work and dedication towards softball began long before that. Though one can only talk to coaches beginning at the start of their junior year, there is far more work put in before that allows the athlete to be successful during the later stages of their process.
This process is long however, Raab said, “when recruiting I needed to remind myself that coaches will come and go sooner or later and I’ll find the right fit.”
Raab’s vital steps in her journey to recruitment was to keep her head in the game and work toward her goal efficiently, again recruitment can be a grueling process and the uncertainty of being recruited can unbalance any awaiting athlete.
“I attended a bunch of camps. Camps were a huge part of my recruiting process as the majority of colleges that made me offers were through camps and only one of the colleges that made me an offer was not through camps.”
Along with being on track towards her goal Raab took part in Softball camps bolstering her opportunities for success.
Raab used nearly all methods to being recruited from social media to emails and camps. Now being a committed student athlete she is relieved about her recruitment process coming to an end. “Once I committed it was nice to know that I no longer have to deal with the stresses of recruiting and applications.”
Her hard work truly paid off and with her final months left in Granada she is comfortable knowing she will have a place in UNR waiting for her next year.
Recruitment is a unique process for each individual, however, commitment continues to prove to be rewarding. As a result of all of the prior hard work while searching for the right university and program, the committed student athlete must only fill out one college application, with a nearly guaranteed acceptance. Now that college application season is in full swing, committed student-athletes are finally able to gain a sense of relief. Though this period of relief will soon wear off as the student athlete must not prepare to not only go to college but be a collegiate athlete, committed students are able to sit back during this application season.
