In American college athletics, recruiting is the process in which college coaches add prospective student athletes to their roster each off-season. This process typically results in a coach extending an athletic scholarship offer to a player who is about to be a junior in high school or higher.
How does Collegiate Athletics Recruitment work you may ask. Well to start out, coaches need to gather a large group of recruits. They will identify recruits who meet basic criteria like height, weight, position, grad year, extracurriculars, grades, and other factors.
The recruiting process is a complex, winding journey that is directed largely by the student -athlete. The more you know about the recruiting process and the more effort you put into getting the results you want, the better chance you have to fulfill your dream of competing at the college level.
“Growing up, my goal was always to get recruited. I wasn’t sure what to expect though, but it was a lengthy process. Communicating with coaches was tough because direct contact wasn’t allowed until Junior year.” said Brady Rollyson ‘24, who has officially committed to Ohio State.
College coaches generally follow specific steps through their Collegiate Athletic Recruiting process. These steps are: gathering a list of prospective athletes, sending out recruiting letters, camp invites, conducting evaluations, extending verbal offers and scholarships, and signing athletes.
Green girls soccer and lacrosse player, Sofia Durfee ‘24 has verbally committed to play lacrosse for the College of Wooster.
“Coaches reached out to me [after] going to showcases. I also went to a couple prospect camps where I got to practice with the team, fellow prospects, and the coaches. I also had some phone calls. Once I narrowed down my list I waited for the coach to reach out to me and offer me a spot.” Durfee said.
Getting recruited to play on a college team is highly competitive, especially for a sport such as soccer where most coaches only recruit around six or eight players each year. Most players, after being recruited and committing to colleges, often ‘sign’ to put their decisions in stone through a binding agreement. Kassidy Gorsuch ‘24, Brady Rollyson ‘24, Kyle Smith ‘24 and Olivia Scheibelhoffer ‘24 have all recently signed to continue their athletic journey.
“How this all started was I went on almost every D2 schools website in Ohio and sent them an email all about me and a website link where they could watch film on me. A few days later the Malone coach replied to my email and said he would come to some of my JO tournaments and watch me play in person. He then wanted to set up a phone call, so we could just talk about what the Malone volleyball program does during the off season, how they practice, what kind of team bonding they do, how many recruits are in the 2024 class, etc.” Gorsuch said.
College recruiting used to be limited by the teams budget and how far the coaches were willing to drive to see players: now, coaches can cast a wider net because technology allows them to view videos of student athletes across the country and overseas.
