Come back every Tuesday for Recruiting Horror Stories™, athletes' first-hand stories on what can go wrong during the recruiting process.
As many athletes know, nothing is guaranteed when you are first recruited. A verbal agreement does not set anything in stone and an offer can be lost at any time with or without reason, leading to a Recruiting Horror Story™ like this one.
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Committing Early
During his freshman year of high school, Chris (name changed for anonymity) was fortunate enough to commit to play lacrosse for the University of Virginia. He was among the first of his friends and other lacrosse players in Baltimore that had plans to play at a D1 University. Chris was a good student, a great athlete, and wasn't a troublemaker. To him, the thought of his scholarship being revoked wasn't even remotely on his mind. He had already gone through all the steps of touring the school and meeting with the coaches, and there was a mutual agreement that he was a good fit for the team.
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Losing His Spot on the Team
It wasn't until his senior year that UVA's lacrosse team completely wiped out their initial coaching staff and replaced it with an entirely new set of coaches. The head coach decided to completely redo any recruiting the previous coach had done over the past four years. The new coach did not personally reach out to Chris, so he had to hear the news from one of his future teammates. “One day I got a call right after school from one of the players that was a part of my recruiting class,” Chris said. “He started talking about how we were no longer going to play for them and how upset he was, and I was like, ‘What? I had no idea.'”
Related: Is My Athletic Scholarship Guaranteed? It Depends.
Chris said he struggled for a while in understanding what that conversation was about and eventually got in touch with the coach. After four years of thinking he knew where he was going to college, Chris had to begin applying to colleges as a traditional student, not a college athlete. It was already several months into his senior year and coaches were mostly finished recruiting.
Too Late to Reinitiate His Recruiting Process
Chris was fortunate enough to have had a decent GPA and ended up having several choices of where to attend college. Chris was admitted to the University Of Maryland, but unfortunately was never able to reinitiate his recruiting process. This change in coaching staff at UV had crushed his chances of continuing his athletic career in college.
Chris' story emphasizes how vital it is to have a backup plan no matter how convinced or set a student is on attending a university. The future remains unprecedented, reminding us that having a back-up plan and succeeding in the classroom is just as vital as on the field or court.
Have a horror story of your own? Email us at [email protected]
* Originally published on December 20, 2022, by Alexandra Swetz
