Photo courtesy of Vas Konachenkov
The cancellation of sports seasons over the past year has left many high school athletes stressed over the college recruitment process. Dead periods, in which college coaches cannot host or visit prospective athletes, were extended for most sports due to Covid-19 guidelines. This put extra pressure on aspiring collegiate athletes who where unable to make in-person connections with coaches. Additional stress was added when the NCAA announced that collegiate athletes would be given an additional year of athletic eligibility, limiting many roster spots.
Fortunately for Choate students, some of this stress was alleviated when Choate announced that a limited spring sports season would take place this year. This is the first time Choate students will compete in interscholastic competitions since the winter of 2020. Though the season may look different than in years past, athletes are thankful and excited to be able to compete, especially those who are going through the recruiting process.
Dylan Allen ’22, Co-Captain of Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse, is one of many athletes at Choate navigating through this year’s unprecedented recruiting period. When asked about how athletes have been attempting to demonstrate their skills to colleges, Allen said that a lot of schools “care equally as much about academics as they do athletics, so this past year has been the perfect opportunity to focus on grades and other activities outside of your sport. A lot of athletes also took this dead period to work on building their strength, skills, and endurance.”
With games now being recorded, this season also gives athletes the chance to create highlight reels. Film has always been an important part of the recruiting process but holds extra weight this year because college coaches cannot watch prospective athletes in person.
Some sports, such as golf, have an untraditional recruiting experience as their film does not neccesarily have to come from a game. Co-Captain of Boys’ Varisty Golf Vas Konachenkov ’22 noted, “I usually send out emails to coaches with information about myself, impressive results from tournaments or competitions, as well as videos of my swing.”
This year’s extended dead period also posed challenges to athletes who had offers from multiple schools. Charlie Katarincic ’22, an offensive tackle on Varsity Football, recently committed to play football at West Virginia University after receiving offers from The University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, and Eastern Carolina University.
“Even though I could not do normal visits at schools, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted in college before the process picked up for me,” said Katarincic. “The schools also did an awesome job with virtual tours, and since WVU is close to home for me, I was able to drive through campus, which was super nice.”
Kataraincic’s advice to students still going through the process is to “trust your work ethic and know that recruitment will come if you are working as hard as you can, even if this year looks different.”
