Sue Enquist takes on early recruiting...

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
While I agree with Sue in some ways (though her proposed solution is very different to mine), she is the wrong person to be delivering this and talking about accountability, oversight and everything else to do with recruiting and scholarships.

Because I - and many others - remember when she and co-head coach Sharon Backus used a hired gun in Tanya Harding to win one national championship (a player who was literally at UCLA for the softball season) and was forced to vacate that same '95 championship because they were using soccer scholarships to get some extra money for softball players by listing them as multi-sports athlete even though they many had never even played soccer - and certainly were never on the UCLA soccer team.

Love the line "I am not perfect" and then uses a speeding example and brushes right over what her program did under her leadership (although I am sure she will use the 'not named in any allegations' defense' she was using back in 1995-1998)
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
Random comments:

Marriard, I sure looked at that video differently after reading what you posted. I didn't know any of that.

In 2006, Sue Enquist at UCLA was committing high school juniors. 10 years ago.

Sue is right that it's not the coaches, it's not the parents, it's both.

I am just a bit skeptical of the media "solving" any problem. Sue thinks FloSoftball should solve this? LOL. FloSoftball is awesome, I'm a subscriber but Flo and their lists are half the reason why some parents are so friggin crazy.

***Westwinds Opinion Only*** Early Commits are bad for softball. It is not possible to predict athletic or ACADEMIC performance at 12-14 years old. And I'm pretty convinced that some parents are pushing athletic performance at the expense of academic performance. (Shocker right?). Early recruiting drives this misguided baloney.

??? Which conferences are she talking about that treat the verbal as binding and which do not??? (More interested in which ones do treat it as binding, the other one is easier to figure out.)
 
Last edited:
Mar 20, 2014
918
28
Northwest
I personally know of 3 of DD's teammates that verballed as sophomores or juniors and then had to start all over as seniors. In two of the three, the coach left and in the third, the money was pulled to go to a new pitcher that the coach thought the team needed. Verbals favor the coaches so much because they can pull it for most any reason but if the verballed player even thinks about talking to another coach they are blackballed. It is crazy.
 

JAD

Feb 20, 2012
8,231
38
Georgia
In 2006, Sue Enquist at UCLA was committing high school juniors. 10 years ago.

The early signing period for softball is November of the players senior year, BEFORE their senior season in the Spring, so recruiting juniors is not unusual. In football the signing period is February of a players senior year, AFTER they played their senior season in the Fall.
 

JAD

Feb 20, 2012
8,231
38
Georgia
While I agree with Sue in some ways (though her proposed solution is very different to mine), she is the wrong person to be delivering this and talking about accountability, oversight and everything else to do with recruiting and scholarships.

Because I - and many others - remember when she and co-head coach Sharon Backus used a hired gun in Tanya Harding to win one national championship (a player who was literally at UCLA for the softball season) and was forced to vacate that same '95 championship because they were using soccer scholarships to get some extra money for softball players by listing them as multi-sports athlete even though they many had never even played soccer - and certainly were never on the UCLA soccer team.

Love the line "I am not perfect" and then uses a speeding example and brushes right over what her program did under her leadership (although I am sure she will use the 'not named in any allegations' defense' she was using back in 1995-1998)

I did not start following softball until my DD started playing, so Sue Enquist retired before I started paying attention. While I will not condone her actions, I am sure most "dynasty" coaches have some skeletons in their closet. I remember when Bear Bryant would put players on scholarship just so they wouldn't sign with Auburn.
 
Nov 26, 2010
4,784
113
Michigan
While I agree with Sue in some ways (though her proposed solution is very different to mine), she is the wrong person to be delivering this and talking about accountability, oversight and everything else to do with recruiting and scholarships.

Because I - and many others - remember when she and co-head coach Sharon Backus used a hired gun in Tanya Harding to win one national championship (a player who was literally at UCLA for the softball season) and was forced to vacate that same '95 championship because they were using soccer scholarships to get some extra money for softball players by listing them as multi-sports athlete even though they many had never even played soccer - and certainly were never on the UCLA soccer team.

Love the line "I am not perfect" and then uses a speeding example and brushes right over what her program did under her leadership (although I am sure she will use the 'not named in any allegations' defense' she was using back in 1995-1998)

I think she is the perfect person to talk about this. If you are an alcoholic and you need to stop drinking, do they send you to a group of people who have never imbided? Or do they send you to meet with a group of people who have done everything you have done and even worse to discuss the difficulty and the absolute necessity of changing your ways?

As for hired guns, players who are at a school only for softball purposes. I don't believe for a minute that isn't happening right now all over the NCAA.
 
Oct 2, 2015
615
18
You gotta watch this video!

Parents will agree with her 100%, and college coaches...not so much.

Thanks for sharing this video!
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
JAD- Maybe I misunderstood her, I took that to mean she was verballing them or talking to them in junior year.

I don't know of any D-1's in 2016 that have money left for the recruiting class that is in their junior year of hs. My 2020 is getting college interest but the big top program sb schools are supposedly done recruiting 2020's. Before my 2020 has ever been to a showcase. (First one in a few weeks). Are we talking about the same thing? Or have I been misinformed?
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
JAD- Maybe I misunderstood her, I took that to mean she was verballing them or talking to them in junior year.

I don't know of any D-1's in 2016 that have money left for the recruiting class that is in their junior year of hs. My 2020 is getting college interest but the big top program sb schools are supposedly done recruiting 2020's. Before my 2020 has ever been to a showcase. (First one in a few weeks). Are we talking about the same thing? Or have I been misinformed?

You have been misinformed in a way. If you think a D1 school is passing on a stud player who turns up in 16U or a player who suddenly grows 5" and is now +10mph as a pitcher because they are 'done' recruiting you are nuts. They will just let that 2020 they verballed go somewhere else. Verballing 2020's just allows colleges to stockpile talent and then choose which ones they want to keep as the NLI/LOI period becomes real. Parents are all like " My kid is verballed to school X" not realizing 15 other parents are saying the same thing - and they stop looking - which is exactly what the college wants. Goldfastpitch probably doesn't even have 25% of the verbals - and there are schools with 10+ recruits in certain classes.

As Sue says in this video - schools are offering the same scholarship to at least 5 different players really hoping one or two of them might work out.

If a D1 wants more money for a HS senior it is easy enough. They just wont offer one of their current scholarship players money for next year and reassign that to the new recruit. Or they will 'release' a player from their LOI (they can't force this, but they can certainly tell a recruit "You wont play because we are bringing in player X and we certainly wont renew you in year two. It is in your best interest to find someplace else to play"

I know she was the #1 prospect but Barnhill didn't commit until real late - and there were at at least 10 schools who were creating room for her if she said 'Yes'. One of FSU's pitcher was going to Maryland as late as during her senior season... but she changed her mind and 'boom' - money for the star pitcher magically appeared. They were both high profile, but it happens up and down the divisions.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,481
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top