Early College Recruiting: "It's Killing All Of Us"

Yesterday's New York Times ran a front page story that told readers what anyone involved with high level youth sports already knew: that colleges are reaching further and further down the grade levels in their recruiting.  It is must reading for any parent of a high school athlete who hopes wants to play at a high level in college.  Although the piece touched on a number of sports the focus was on soccer, and primarily girls soccer.

“It’s killing all of us,” said none other than University of North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance of the practice of committing scholarships to players as young as 9th grade. He is said that he is increasingly making early offers to players who do not pan out years later.  “If you can’t make a decision on one or two looks, they go to your competitor, and they make an offer,” Dorrance said. “You are under this huge pressure to make a scholarship offer on their first visit.”

While many are critical of the tend, an arms race mentality ensures it will continue.   Just as many big-time sports universities insist they have to pay their football coach more than the college president because if they don't their competition will, women's soccer coaches are afraid if they don't go after 8th graders - NCAA rules be damned - rival coaches will.

The Times piece features 15-year old Haley Berg of Celina, Texas, who committed to attend the University of Texas on a soccer scholarship before she started high school.  Ironically, Texas coach,“It’s detrimental to the whole development of the sport, and to the girls,” Haley’s future coach at Texas, Angela Kelly, who recruited Berg, said if they she did not do it, other coaches would, and would snap up all of the best players. Many parents and girls say that committing early ensures they do not miss out on scholarship money.  Virginia coach Steve Swanson said, “To me, it’s the singular biggest problem in college athletics.”

The sad part of this story is those athletes who rush into such an important decision years before they know what they really want and then find they do not like the school, or they just cannot play at that level but have passed up an opportunity to play at a lower level program better suited to their ability.