Recent Proliferation of Middle, High School Recruitments

NATE GARCIA
Sports Editor
WESLEY TSAI
Staff Writer

14-year-old soccer player Haley Berg was engaging in another normal day of practice, when her phone rang from the depths of her backpack. It was yet another call from a college recruitment coach.

Before she entered ninth grade, she was in contact with 16 college recruiters; three of them offered her full-ride scholarships from the University of Colorado, Texas A&M and the University of Texas.

Athletes around the nation from the ages of 11 to 16 have been recruited by college coaches. According to the New York Times, the reason why the youth recruitment rate has significantly increased is because it is “generally traced back to the professionalization of college and youth sports, a shift that has transformed soccer and other recreational sports from after-school activities into regimens requiring strength coaches and managers.” Some youth are being trained in their early years to give them an advantage in being recruited.

However, some have said that early devotion to colleges may distract athletes from academics by making the students stop putting in effort because they already have guaranteed acceptance into the university of their choice.
To many teenage athletes, their ultimate dream is to play professionally. By being given the opportunity of a scholarship, they are given a chance to make it to the big leagues and pursue their ideal career.

“The recruitment process for college athletics is a great opportunity, [but] it can become a hassle and it also harms kids because of the pressure it puts on them, especially [if they are] middle school kids. But if they can handle the pressure, I say go for it,” sophomore basketball and volleyball player Noah Rinard said.

Although youth across America are being recruited at a young age, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) strictly restricts the practice, according to the article. The NCAA indicates in its rule book that collegiate coaches and scouts are prohibited from calling potential athletes before the July after their junior year of high school. Thereafter, the players are not supposed to commit to any college before signing a letter of intent during the spring of their senior year. However, the rule is commonly overlooked.

“All these recruitment coaches are limited in the number of ways they can approach these kids. I personally don’t think it’s a problem if the coaches and athletes have limited communications. It’s okay to make communications in which both parties show interest, instead of the coaches bombarding the kids and pressuring them to attend their college,” Athletics Director Gerald De Santis said.

According to Tudor Collegiate Strategies, most college coaches pressure their prospects into committing, rather than showing passion toward their talents. A majority of the prospects who initially commit to colleges tend to transfer out or talk negatively about the way he or she was recruited. Passion, on the other hand, makes the prospects “feel wanted,” whether it be a simple smile from the coaches or an impromptu visit to show that their sports department is a family.