While many Berkeley High School students spent their summers on vacation, some high school athletes were busy focusing on one of the most important seasons in the recruitment calendar, trying to earn themselves an offer to play at the collegiate sports level.
For a high school athlete who is determined to play in college, the summer is a crucial time for them to stand out. Many spend their offseason attending Identification (ID) Camps, going on college tours, and emailing college coaches in hopes of getting noticed by a program.
In the recruiting world, the rules on how a college coach can approach recruiting varies by division.
Division 1 and Division 2 have specific restrictions on when coaches can initiate certain communications, while Division 3 generally gives coaches more flexibility.
Junior year is an important point in the process because it is a time where many recruiting communication limitations end and opportunities open up for the student athlete.
BHS volleyball player and senior, Lili Sanger, who committed to Johns Hopkins University to play Division 3 volleyball, spent most of her high school summers reaching out to different schools and attending recruitment camps.
“I was emailing a bunch. I didn’t really know what schools I wanted. My parents have always been like, ‘you have to also prioritize academics’ so I just emailed a bunch of high academic schools, and made highlight reels,” Sanger said, “I was in contact with a bunch of different colleges, and then you start an email correspondence, and then you start calling. I went on a few official visits to some colleges to see if it’s a fit.”
Contacting college coaches is just the first step, yet a very important one. The recruitment proccess is both a collaboration between students and college coaches.
“A lot of kids are waiting on colleges to recruit them. But in most cases they’re waiting on the kid to put themselves out there too,” David Perry, BHS head football coach and PE teacher, said, “As important as it is for colleges to recruit kids, it’s also important for those students to go recruit those colleges and put their name out there.”
In the summer, most National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools offer College ID Camps where college level coaches evaluate high school athletes who are interested in playing at the next level with their program. Coaches are able to invite athletes to their recruitment camps, however, these camps often come with a fee for the athlete.
“At this San Diego Surf soccer showcase, there were these two agents that work for Bayern. They have a program out in San Diego, and they reached out to me to come down there … it was very expensive for not the best tryouts and most likely just a money grab, so I turned them down,” Oliver Sensenig, BHS varsity soccer player and senior, said.
Simply getting yourself in front of college coaches doesn’t guarantee an athlete a roster spot. At many of these clinics, hundreds of students from across the country are competing for the same goal.
For some, it can be stressful to not know where you stand on a coach’s list. For others, the competitiveness of recruiting feels like an opportunity rather than an obstacle.
“You have to be willing to get 100 ‘no’s’ to get one ‘yes,’” Perry said, “When you’re not getting the interest that you wanted, a lot of kids kind of give up. They have to push themselves out there, go after it, and go get it because there’s a lot of opportunities out there.”