Navigating through the recruiting process can be very overwhelming for a family, especially for the athletes themselves. These 17/18 year old student athletes are faced with a decision that will effect not only the rest of their athletic careers but their entire lives. It is important that student athletes are educated on every aspect of each school that they are deciding on. It is important when an athlete makes a final decision that they would want to go to that school if they were not going there for athletics.
Why?
Reason number one is that as an athlete you are only one ACL tear or break away from never playing sports again. Before you commit somewhere, ask yourself “If I can never play sports again will I still be happy at this particular school?”
In recent years a new issue in college athletics has created another reason student athletes need to chose the school based on other reasons outside of how much they like the athletics. As college coaching veteran Randy Taylor always says “make your decision based on the school, not the coach…”. While a coach can have a huge impact on your experience as an athlete, in this current environment college coaches are being fired, leaving for other schools or going to the pros. Coaches leave schools all the time and as an athlete you should have the security that if during your career, your coach happens to leave you will still be happy with where you are.
This is an issue that is most recently facing the 2012 football commits for Rutgers, yesterday in a very quiet move head football coach Greg Schiano was hired as the head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A move that not even his assistant coaches were aware of until news broke via the media while they were waiting for him at Don Bosco Preparatory School to lock up two more top recruits. Rivals.com has noted that Rutgers currently has 17 verbal commitments before Schiano’s left for Tampa, many of whom took to twitter to express their frustration and shock. In what could have been Rutgers best recruiting class to date, five days before signing day many of their top recruits are now questing whether or not they should jump ship, to the other top schools who are now coming after them.
These student athletes world has been turned upside down, but before de-committing from the Scarlett Knights they need to sit down with the significant adults in their life and go over the reasons they originally committed to Rutgers, if it was because of the coach they need to look at their other options, however they should also keep in mind that any school they go to another school there is a chance that during their careers that coach could leave as well.
Making a decisions as a young adult that will effect the rest of your life can be a lot of pressure on these, especially if they are only thinking of things from an athletic stand point. As an athlete you need to remember that less than one percent of all athletes will go pro in their respective sports. Athletes need to remember that they are going to school to receive an education and set themselves up to succeed for the next forty years of their lives.
Sport: Football Position: Quarterback, Wide Receiver, Running Back, Defensive Back High School: Curie Metropolitan High School ( Chicago , IL ) Graduation Year: 2012
Committed: University of Iowa
Christine Dailey
Sport: Women’s Soccer Position: Center Midfielder, Forward High School: Tesoro High School ( Las Flores , CA ) Graduation Year: 2012
Committed: University of Utah
Congratulations to both Maurice and Christine not only on their commitment for the next four years of their lives, but the next 40 years!
In this day and age of recruiting we see a lot of top student athletes de-commiting from the original school that they chose. There are several reasons for the increase of de-commits as of late, a major reason being that athletes feel pressured into making early decisions, the most famous right now being the #1 quarterback in the country Gunner Keihl. Gunnrt de-commited twice before finally deciding on Notre Dames football program. Scouting expert Tom Lemming and Randy Taylor give advice on how to handle the situation if you chose to de-commit.
Signing day is about a week away and many athletes out there are wondering what Coaches look for when they offer student athletes scholarships. Coach Bob Chmiel discusses the three things he uses to evaluate players. Coach Chmiel spent seven years as Notre Dame’s Director of Football Operations and Recruiting Coordinator/Assistant Coach. Prior, Chmiel was the University of Michigan’s Football Recruiting Coordinator, where he also served as an assistant coach. He was named one of the “Top 11 Recruiting Coordinators of All-Time” in Tom Lemming’s book Football’s Second Season: Scouting High School Game Breakers.
One of the reasons I encourage young people with the ability to be a College student-athlete to do so is so that they experience the amazing things that happen during those precious short years of their life. Things they will remember the rest of their life.
Like winning one for Grandpa Joe.
There has always been, “Win one for the Gipper!” Notre Dame Coach Knute Rockne once asked his team to rally to win one for George Gipp. They did.
The nation’s top high school quarterback, Gunner Kiel, recently made his third commitment of the recruiting season. His first choice was Indiana, but he changed his mind and switched to LSU. Then, just two weeks before signing day, he switched again to Notre Dame, leaving the Tigers’ 2012 recruiting class without a QB (to his credit, LSU Head Coach Les Miles had a respectful reaction to Gunner’s switch).
What happened? There’s been plenty of speculation about every factor from family to a desire to stay in his home state (he’s from Columbus, IN). Regardless of the exact details, it’s clear that Kiel picked schools without thinking enough about what he wanted and whether they could provide that. His example is a favor for every young athlete going through the recruiting process. If it can happen to one of the top recruits in the country, it can happen to anybody, so we’ve got some tips on how to avoid missteps when it comes to picking a school.
