SALT LAKE CITY — With high school sports in the midst of a six-week shutdown, and potentially for the rest of the school year, many athletes and parents are wondering what it all means for college recruiting.
How can uncommitted seniors get recognized if they’re not playing right now? What does the shutdown mean for juniors, which is the year many offers and commitments happen anyway?
In an interview with the Deseret News last week, UVU men’s soccer coach Greg Maas painted a picture of how college coaches are navigating the current landscape of recruiting amid COVID-19 — and it’s not much different from everyone else. They’re stuck primarily working from home, too.
The NCAA has implemented a recruiting dead period, meaning coaches can’t go out and recruit high school athletes in person. They can still text and talk to recruits via the phone, but that leaves a lot of downtime during the day.
Not only are college coaches not coaching their own teams right now, there aren’t games to scout and watch either. Many are filling that time scouring the internet, pouring over highlight videos and recruiting profiles looking at prospective student-athletes.
Now is the perfect time for high school athletes, regardless of age, to be proactive and self-recruit themselves to these college coaches who have more time than ever to recruit from their computers.
“The most important part of this process is for the players and their families to sit down, do their homework, and determine the best overall option for them — it’s not a one-size-fits-all process.” — UVU men’s soccer coach Greg Maas
Maas said athletes who haven’t already done so should be creating NCSA and Hudl profiles, and uploading video. If student-athletes aren’t very familiar with the technology to create those highlight videos, Maas encouraged them to do so ASAP. For soccer, he said even full-game videos are great to upload, because it gives coaches a full snapshot of how athletes manage an entire game.
Simply uploading video and then crossing your fingers that a college coach notices isn’t a smart approach either. Maas said athletes and their parents need to do their recruiting homework to try and find the right fit.
Research a team’s future roster needs. Research the costs of tuition, and differing ways a variety of prospective universities can help bring those costs down throughout academic or athletic scholarships, and other types of aid.
Just as important, reach out to head coaches and assistant coaches, and Maas encourages athletes to try and build a personal connection with all of the coaches they reach out to.
“This is what we spend our lives doing, trying to help prospective student athletes identify what’s available to them,” said Maas. “The most important part of this process is for the players and their families to sit down, do their homework, and determine the best overall option for them — it’s not a one-size-fits-all process.”
Whether it’s Division I, Division II, Division III, junior college or NAIA, there are ample opportunities for prospective student-athletes whether they’re currently a sophomore, junior or senior. Finding those opportunities is all about being proactive on the keyboard while COVID-19 limits an athlete’s ability to be active on the field during these unprecedented times in sports.