Come back every Tuesday for Recruiting Horror Stories™, athletes' first-hand stories on what can go wrong during the recruiting process.
Going into her junior year of high school, Lindsey desired to play softball at the next level and knew she should start looking at colleges. Some of the schools on her list were Sullfolk, Nichols College, and Assumption amongst others. Lindsey went to look at those schools in particular because they were interested in her playing softball for them. Once she toured the schools and talked to the coaches at those schools, Nichols and Suffolk stood alone because they were most intrigued by her.
By the end of Lindsey's junior year, she ended up committing to Nichols College to continue her academic and athletic career. Her main reason for this decision she said was because the coach said she would have a spot on the softball team if she committed there. This strongly influenced her decision to go to Nichols.
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Here Comes Volleyball
Lindsey arrived on campus here freshman year for orientation excited to start her career as a collegiate softball player. She met other freshmen on the softball team during orientation and they all hit it off and had a great time during orientation, then things got interesting. Lindsey met the volleyball coach at orientation and he mentioned that the volleyball team could use another setter on the team. Intrigued, Lindsey gave the coach her contact information, and started to consider becoming a two sport athlete in college.
Access Denied
Excited about this opportunity, Lindsey waited for an email from the volleyball coach about when tryouts were. She never got one. Lindsey later found out it was because the softball coach told the volleyball coach not to contact her. The volleyball coach mentioned to the softball coach that Lindsey was interested in playing volleyball during the off season of softball and the softball coach said not to contact Lindsey for reasons we still don't know today.
Things Get Worse
After finishing the fall season for softball, Lindsey and her team were told by their coach that there were going to be cuts. Not too concerned, Lindsey brushed this off because of what her coach said when she committed to the school and thought her spot was guaranteed.
However, this was not the case–Lindsey got cut from the team at the end of the fall season and went from potentially playing two sports to zero.
The Silver Lining
After being cut from the softball team, Lindsey got back into contact with the volleyball coach to see if they were still looking for another setter, and in fact they were. Lindsey finished the season with the volleyball team playing in 7 of the games. When I asked Lindsey her thoughts on what transpired she said, “If I knew that was going to happen, I would've pursued Suffolk more.” She then went on to say, “I am glad I chose Nichols though, everything worked out in the end.”
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* Originally published on October 18, 2022, by Brendan Duffy
