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

Garrett Coe is a pitcher for the UConn baseball team. Standing at 6' 6” and 250 pounds, Garrett was a scout's dream in high school. Everything was going well…until an injury put a damper on his recruiting process.

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Starting Early

Garrett's recruiting process started earlier than most due to his size–he was already talking to some coaches and going on unofficial visits in eighth grade! This isn't normal for most baseball players at that age. He also attended some showcases that allowed him to meet coaches and talk about potentially playing for their program. Garrett's athletic ability was being noticed throughout high school as well. After talking with a family friend who was an MLB scout, he told Garrett that he had a chance to be drafted out of high school. Every baseball player's dream is to play in the bigs and Garrett was so close.

Related: Navigating the Baseball Recruiting Process

The Injury

Everything was trending up for Garrett after he talked to the scout and his confidence was at an all time high. Only a few weeks after that conversation, Garrett attended a camp at the University of Maryland. Garrett had felt that he had thrown a lot already that weekend but the coach asked him to throw one more time. In that session, he felt some pain in his groin that was originally thought to be just a sprain. He would later find out that it was a clean tear.

From the injury, his velocity dropped 10 mph which lowered his value for Division 1 teams. His contact with coaches went from constant to being non-existent. After one injury, everything changed. In one moment he was thinking of the MLB and the next it was the thought of if he was even going to play in college. Garrett didn't give up though.

Related: DI Athletes Talk About Injuries While Getting Recruited

The Comeback

Once Garrett got back to being healthy, he nearly had to start his recruiting process over. He spent nights driving to tournaments and even sometimes slept in his car, all for the love of the game and to play at the next level. The biggest support for Garrett was his mom and his teammates through these times. They reminded him how much he loved playing even when it was tough and were there every step of the way through his rehab and recovery process. He took time off from football to focus on baseball and get in shape and always believed that everything happens for a reason.

Garrett would go on to commit to play Division 1 baseball at UConn during his senior year. During the 2021 season he appeared in 8 games out of the bullpen, logging a 0.82 ERA, 12 strikeouts, and an opponent batting average of .158. Safe to say pushing through adversity paid off and was well worth it.

Photo Source: UConn Athletics
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* Originally published on June 21, 2022, by Grant Osborne