With all spring activities and athletics being canceled for their 2020 season, student athletes have lost a lot more than playing time. Juniors who participate in sports such as track and field, golf, baseball and softball have lost opportunities for college recruitment.
Junior Aiden Kendall, a thrower on the track and field team, says that junior year is the most important time for college recruitment. Edwards says that seniors now have lower chances of lowering their times for college recruitment. This is why junior year recruitment or just talking to college coaches is the most beneficial time, Kendall says.
“Since we did not get a season I missed out on getting to show colleges how much farther I can throw this year,” Kendall said. “This means that my teammates and I lost the most important season [junior year] for recruitment in track and field.”
Junior athlete Elijah Edwards participates in both spring and fall athletics. Edwards has the same worries as Kendall for his spring season, but he is currently focused on whether or not fall sports will still be happening. Edwards participates in football, where most practices and camps happen throughout the summer leading up to the fall season.
“The cancellation of everything made me miss out on a lot of Junior day visits for football and one-day college football camps,” Edwards said. “I am able to do a few of them online but it really sucks to not be able to see the colleges in person.”
Even though the circumstances for spring sports recruitment are not ideal, Edwards and Kendall are still finding a way to get their name out there for college coaches. Edwards uses the NCSA (Next College Student Athlete) recruitment website and contacts coaches at many different colleges to see what they need. However, Kendall prefers using more social media.
“The most important thing is to film/highlights [from Hudl or another source] and then to put that film on social media,” Kendall said. “I personally use Twitter because I have had a huge amount of success reaching out to coaches and hearing back from them via Twitter.”
Luckily for most juniors, they will always have next year to talk to college coaches and recruitment officers. Unfortunately, seniors who are not yet committed to a college have lost their last season to impress college coaches with their athletic abilities.
“I feel that it affected the times I could have achieved in track and potentially hurt college recruitment, but I have another chance next year,” Edwards said. “I mainly feel bad for the seniors whose last season was this year because they could have lowered their times even more or had more college looks.”