Amid pandemic, recruiting slows — but doesn’t stop

ROCKINGHAM — As the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed and shifted around the start of public high school sports in North Carolina, the recruiting process for athletes has also been negatively affected.

On Sept. 17, the NCAA extended its suspension of all in-person recruiting visits for Division I sports through Jan. 1. Coaches aren’t allowed to meet face-to-face with a recruit off campus or do any in-person scouting at high schools.

However, recruiting hasn’t stopped completely. Coaches and potential recruits can still communicate over email, phone, text and social media. For Division II and III schools, normal recruiting calendars have resumed.

Seniors who don’t have scholarship offers yet, who hoped their performance this year would garner them interest from colleges, have been most affected. For Richmond Senior High School, that includes seniors like Jaron Coleman, Trevor Moss, Tremel Jones, Mack West, Kaleel Brown and others.

“They have missed face to face contact in the spring, summer, and now game film in the fall,” said head coach Bryan Till. “The more times a college coach can see a player and have confidence in him the more likely he is to garner a scholarship offer.”

Surrounding states like Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia have played high school football this fall, albeit with issues like COVID-19 outbreaks within teams and game postponements due to positive tests. Athletes in those states have been able to film their game highlights and distribute them electronically to coaches who can’t see them in person.

Since North Carolina’s sports have been delayed. Its athletes don’t have the same opportunities to get game film to send out to Division I coaches or have Division II and III coaches come watch them play.

“The juniors and sophomores will continue to have opportunities, but the seniors will have a small window in the spring for any schools with scholarship opportunities that are still open,” Till said.

In order to help their players get their name out into the recruiting sphere and generate interest, Richmond coaches have been using highlight videos from last year and sending links of those to college coaches, along with GPA and test scores. Till said this is to show coaches that they have guys who can qualify academically, in addition to their football talents.

“I personally contact coaches through phone calls, text and emails,” Till said. “We also research camps where college coaches might be that could be going on during this time of year and let the seniors know about these. This is not normal, but it is a product of the situation we are in, so we must adapt.”

Other senior football players, who received scholarship offers last year as juniors, have already committed to colleges. For the Raiders, Dalton Stroman Jr. committed to Appalachian State, Jakolbe Baldwin and Jaleel Davis committed to NC State, Caleb Hood committed to UNC and CJ Tillman committed to Liberty.

Some sophomore and junior players, like J.D. Lampley, have been able to generate recruiting interest early on in their high school years due to playing time and attending camps.

For them, the pandemic won’t necessarily affect their recruiting as much because they still have one or two more seasons left to show college coaches what they’re capable of doing on the field.

“The seniors currently without offers will definitely be most affected,” Till said. “The juniors will still have an opportunity to be seen this year so those chances have just been slightly delayed, and may be better now that we will be playing in the spring and there may be more opportunities for them to be seen. The seniors have missed the most for sure.”

Other athletes affected

Football players aren’t the only athletes dealing with recruiting issues.

The spring girls soccer season being cancelled due to the pandemic really threw a wrench into senior Jayla McDougald and junior Kaitlyn Huff’s recruiting plans.

The Lady Raiders were only able to play five games until their season was cancelled back in March as the pandemic began to surge.

Junior year is just as crucial to recruiting as senior year, especially if an athlete plays a winter or spring sport like girls soccer.

“With only two good games of good game film, it was hard to hold coaches’ attention when there’s thousands more girls fighting for the same scholarships,” McDougald said.

Huff also said the spring cancellation prevented her from being able to generate game film highlights to send to coaches.

“The recruiting process heavily depends on film and highlights right now, and it’s difficult to record every good play you make rather than just the coach being able to come and watch those plays themselves,” Huff said.

McDougald has been in contact with The Citadel, Hampton University, Johnson & Wales, Shaw University and Jacksonville University in Florida, but has only one offer so far, from Johnson & Wales.

Huff said she’s been in contact with UNC-Charlotte, Western Carolina, UNC-Greensboro, High Point and a couple other school. She said the schools have asked her to complete questionnaires and that they told her they couldn’t contact her until Jan. 1 when the NCAA “hopefully” lifts its suspension on in-person recruiting activities.

However, playing on a travel soccer team has helped both McDougald and Huff when it comes to recruiting. McDougald plays with Charlotte Soccer Academy, while Huff plays for North Carolina Futbol Club 04 Elite ECNL in Raleigh.

They both drive all the way to those cities for all their team’s practices and games every weekend and several weekdays each week.

Huff said the coach and director of her travel team know a lot of college soccer coaches around North Carolina, and have been helping her connect with those coaches for recruiting purposes.

Travel team tournaments are starting back up and McDougald said as she plays in more tournaments, it’ll give coaches an opportunity to see her play and because of that she thinks her recruiting will improve.

“I’ve just been training hard every week and letting coaches know where I’ll be playing at, so hopefully I can get more chances and opportunities to show that I am ready to play at the highest level of soccer,” McDougald said.