Come back every Monday for Coaching Staff's Advice on the college recruiting process, what they look for in athletes, and what to expect as a college athlete.
Reigning Commonwealth Coast Conference Coach of the Year, Tim Mayo is starting his fourth season as head baseball coach of the Nichols College Baseball Team. His team is growing in potential and is slowly getting his team's name on the map. In this interview, he talked to 2aDays about how he recruits–more specifically, how many trips he takes to recruit, the hardest parts of recruiting, his favorite part about recruiting, and more. He also shared his advice he has to incoming freshman college athletes, as well as his thoughts on NIL and scholarships for D3 athletes.
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Recruiting is a busy process not only for athletes, but for the coaches who recruit them. “From the end of our season to about the second week in August, I am traveling daily,” Coach Mayo said when asked about his recruiting schedule. He also mentioned that if he is not traveling to go recruit, he is on campus giving recruits tours of the school. Much of this effort is spent on athletes who don't commit to his team–he said that out of 100 athletes he tries to recruit, only about 10 of them will tour and of those 10, only about 2-3 of the athletes will commit.
Related: What Student-Athletes Need to Know Before Going on an Official College Visit
On top of that, there are other hurdles some coaches have to face in the recruiting process. “At Nichols, the field is a huge hurdle and the location isn't as good as (opposing schools),” Coach Mayo said. There's also the fact that D3 athletes do not get any athletic scholarship, even if Mayo disagrees. “I don't see why they can't,” he said when asked about D3 athletes and scholarship policies. “I don't see the difference between DI, D2, and D3 athletes… I think it would be a smart business decision [to give athletic scholarships to D3 athletes].”
Even so, there are many positives involved in the D3 recruiting process and plenty of information that recruits should be aware of. Find out more in the video attached.
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* Originally published on June 13, 2022, by Brendan Duffy
