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

This is a true story of how a selfish travel softball coach can change the course of an athletes recruiting process. Unfortunately, the anonymous player featured here was intentionally benched when potential college coaches took the time to come to watch her play. Read on to see how this Recruiting Horror Story ends.

In the world of travel softball, there are specific coaches on the team whose job it is to determine what college coaches will come to a game and who they will be watching. This is to ensure that the college coach or coaches will see the player they are looking for. This is where this recruit's story begins. 

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The recruit was in her junior year of high school, the most important year of the recruiting process for softball. She was at a Mammoth College showcase in New Jersey, and had already completed her prep work by emailing and talking to the college coaches about coming to watch her tournament. As game time got closer the recruiting coach asked the college coaches what players they needed to see at this particular game. After he spoke to all the coaches, he told the head coach of the softball team what coaches were there to see what girls. 

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One of these players was our recruit. She had as many college coaches there to see her play. It soon came time for the head coach to post the line-up. This line-up included all the players that had coaches there except for one: our recruit. As luck would have it, the head coach's daughter played the same position as our recruit, and this head coach wanted the college coaches to see his daughter (who was already committed to play at a small DIII school), not our recruit. His daughter would go on to play the entire game and our recruit lost multiple opportunities because of this selfish act. 

Luckily, this story has a happy ending. The recruit was recruited to an amazing DII school and she received a sizable scholarship. But it goes to show that even a single act of selfishness can derail your recruiting process. Be sure your coaches are trustworthy as you invite them along on your recruiting journey. 

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

* Originally published on September 13, 2022, by 2aDays Staff