This year, over 30 upperclassmen were recruited to play their sport in college. “Recruitment” describes the lengthy process of visits, scouting, evaluations, and the narrowing down of offers. For many athletes in the graduating class, this was their reality during junior and senior year.
“I’m really excited. I know it’s going to be a lot more rigorous, but I can’t really imagine myself not playing a sport,” said senior Sydney Mabry, who will play tennis at Penn State Brandywine next year. Senior Miranda Miller, who will be rowing for the Williams crew team, also noted that she’s “excited to be able to go into college with an already formed, built in group.” While many are eager to further their athletic career, the journey to get there contains immense effort, hard decisions, and a consistently high performance.
When entering the recruitment process, athletes should compile a “balanced list of schools that are attainable and some schools that are more hard to reach,” said Miller. Additionally, athletes note that students should evaluate their priorities before reaching out to and ultimately selecting their school.”
Wilson Holman, who will be playing D1 soccer at Temple next year, included that along with playing soccer his whole life and wanting to continue playing, getting recruited “saved my parents a lot of money.”
Basketball player JJ Massaquoi had various priorities, and received multiple offers from schools such as Howard and American University. He decided to commit to Umass Lowell as he “[didn’t] want to let go of the opportunity of having the school pay for it, [it’s] D1, [has a] great arena, great coaching staff, and since they’re losing a bunch of seniors, the opportunity [for playing time] was there as a freshman.”
Miller noted that in her selection of schools, she wanted “somewhere where I could prioritize academics and where athletics would only be a supplement to my education, not a detraction.” In fact, in compiling her list of colleges to look at, she found the overlap in places she knew she would want to attend anyways, even without crew. “Ideally, the school you ultimately commit to should be one that you would be happy to go to even without sports.” Miller highlighted that a common misconception about the recruitment process is “the assumption that everyone who goes D3 only did it because they couldn’t go D1.”
Holman stresses that the biggest misconception is that “the school’s do not come to you; you have to consistently reach out and always make sure that you’re being seen.” He adds that it’s difficult to stand out, as “you’re going against everyone else in the country.”
Mabry, realizing that scouts wouldn’t often come to her matches due to tennis being not as popular as other sports in DC, had to especially ensure that she stood out. She recommends that “knowing how to word your emails and being a team player in general will make you stick out to coaches.”
When faced with these various challenges, Massaqoi advises to “stay true to yourself, you’re running your own race.” Massaqoi experienced moments of doubt and wondered what he was doing wrong and why he wasn’t getting higher offers, but said it “just motivates you to play harder. I just had to keep proving my worth, and that’s what I decided to do.”
At the end of the recruitment journey, the athletes are all looking forward to playing at a competitive level and having a tight-knit community when entering college. After a tumultuous process of highs and lows, one message remains clear for athletes looking to be recruited: “just be optimistic and don’t shut down any school. Don’t put your eggs in one basket,” concluded Wilson.
