Come back every Tuesday for Recruiting Horror Stories™, athletes' first-hand stories on what can go wrong during the recruiting process.

Reese Dorsey is a goal keeper for the University of Ohio's Women's Soccer team. She worked really hard to get to where she is now but she also wanted to be different. Her two older sisters also attended Ohio University. They loved it there and brought Reese on visits but she wanted to set out on a path that her family hadn't seen before. 

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Reese moved and attended a small high school that didn't have a women's soccer team. So she continued to play club soccer in Columbus. As a student who wanted to be noticed by college coaches, this was a hard transition. There was no school team for her to have coaches watch. Reese describes this situation as incredibly stressful and difficult. “I wanted to play college soccer, but I was worrying that I wouldn't get recruited in time.” 

Spoiler alert: this horror story actually has a happy ending. By the time the end of Reese's junior year came around, the assistant coach from Ohio University came to watch another girl on her club soccer team. The assistant coach then noticed Reese and reached out to her. Before she knew it, she was being recruited and all of her worries fell away. “It just happened to be perfect timing,” Reese said of that plot twist in her story. 

Related: Recruiting Horror Story: Coach Quits After Freshman Year

So for all recruits facing doubts and bumps in the road during your recruiting process, take note! Sometimes when you think you're stuck in a horror story, you may actually be on the way to your happy ending. 

Have a horror story of your own? Email us at [email protected]

* Originally published on November 29, 2022, by Christie Ackendorf