The Glamorous Recruiting Process

Being on a scholarship for athletics in college seems ideal, right? Who wouldn’t want to have the athleticism to be playing an NCAA sport and representing their school, all while having their education paid for. But not many people realize how excruciating the recruiting process is for players and their families. Sure, it may seem nice to be a Greg Oden or an Adrian Peterson coming out of high school, having all the national recognition and hype. But it is often forgotten that these kids are just that, kids. They want to live a lifestyle like their peers, which sometimes isn’t an availability. Two examples I have firsthand experience with would be two friends of mine. My best friend, who is now playing football at Virginia Military Institute, was being recruited by West Chester University of Pennsylvania. They offered him scholarship money and told him flat out that he was their top fullback prospect, but he had to commit to them within four days or they’d move on. And that they did, they moved on. For colleges to put that much pressure on an 18 year old to commit, it is unnecessary. Another example is my friend, Courtney, who has committed to Towson University for soccer going into her senior year of high school. She was being recruited by numerous top 25 schools, but she decided to go smaller. The recruiting process wore her out and she was lucky to find a coach who cared about her as a player and person, which led her to not care about the size school she was playing at. With the pressure of recruiting sites (http://www.rivals.com http://www.scout.com) tracking these athletes and their every move, the public seems to lose grasp on the fact that these are just young men and women. One last example is Elena Delle Donne. Elena is from Delaware and is widely recognized as the top female basketball player in the class of 2008. She made a statement this summer but stopping any form of basketball play because she was sick of the recruiting process (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/news/story?id=2927470). She has since committed to the University of Connecticut, but by taking the time off, she proved that athletes can be worn thin, in some cases even cracked, by the recruiting process and the strain that comes with it. We must always consider how great it must be to be on scholarship for athletics and how hard it is for those athletes to go through what they do coming out of high school.