The Future of Recruiting

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

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

Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
2020’s have had a pretty tough go of it. If you weren’t an early commit you had to deal with the recruiting rules change, the transfer rule change and now this.

There are some really nice players that are being overlooked. Yeah, you can “set your sights lower” and play softball somewhere or you can go get started on making your education and career goals happen.

I know mine is pretty sick of coaches empty lip service. This is probably the last nail on softballs coffin for her.
 
Oct 23, 2013
50
8
Chicagoland
My DD is a 2020. Interesting ride for her so far:
Got verballed just before rule change.
Coaching change drama @ start of last summer season.
Did get 2 official visits with multi-year classes - 2019&2020 and 2020&2021, which was awesome!

Now this eligibility stuff...

With a few seniors playing in her position, along with some freshman capable of, certainly a possibility of impacted playing time.

What if some current freshman stick around for an extra year?
What about scholarship money?
Adds some uncertainty for coaches and players.

Normally I would think a lot of Seniors would go out in the working world, but with this Corona stuff it might just be better to stay in school and wait for job market to improve. Some are talking 20% unemployment rate for the near future. Who knows how long it will take for stuff to get back to normal.
 
Apr 24, 2017
203
28
Georgia
I am worried about recruiting for my 2022 also. This is her last summer before she can talk to coaches in the fall and accept any offers. Now there are other players who have just gotten an extra year to stay and play and it will definitely affect scholarships available, players for her position, and "need". Not to mention you can only have so many on the roster or so many on the travel roster. Which means our 2022 are most definitely going to be affected. I believe more D1 potential kids will end up going DII, DIII, or Juco because of availability issues. And on another note, I was looking at some kids on baseball and softball rosters. Some of them are 6 year athletes ( red shirt year, medical red shirt year, and four other years). Do they get an extra year of eligibility as well? Does that mean there will be 25-26 year old women playing against 18 year old freshmen? I am really not clear on how that rule works here.
 
Dec 2, 2013
3,410
113
Texas
Most likely my college freshman won't be going a 5th year. Heck, I hope she plays 4! Get that degree and get a job!!!

Something to consider for players other than Pitchers only. Our DD's need to be able to play multiple positions if your primary position is clogged up. My DD primarily played Catcher, 1B in her last 3 years in TB. Once she got to college she split time between Catcher and 3B and played SS in her last series. Be useful and flexible! Coaches will fall in and out of love with players for various reasons.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
Well, it is going to be a mess and possibly for years to come.

At some point there is going to be a LOT of 5-year grads on the transfer market looking for 'one more year'... and that is is going to continue for a few years as the current freshman continues to be eligible to play through at least 2024.

Normally there is a large market for uncommitted seniors (i.e. 2020's) who can fill immediate needs - that may be tight as coaches can get stop-gap 5th-year players instead. And my understanding is that currently there are going to be no athletic dollars for these ' extra years' players so you can get a known quantity experienced stop-gap versus a borderline freshman for basically nothing against your scholarship budget.

For 2021-2023... well marginal players are going to find it tougher - some coaches will decide they really like the 1 year experienced rentals. I know I would. Give me a choice between known and unknown and I know which way I am going to lean when my job relies on me winning every season.

There are some really good players out there especially in lower divisions that have developed real well... For example, there is a local NAIA pitcher who wasn't all that good in high school, but has developed into a top 20 NAIA pitcher and is now graduating and is going to have an unexpected extra year of eligibility. If I was a solid D2 program that is an arm that looks REALLY good right now for next season. And the catcher at that program... yep... there are D1 programs who if they have a smart coach will be opening seeing what her plans are.

The good news for incoming players.... the senior class always has had a lot of attrition over 4 years so it isn't as big as other classes. I don't have numbers, but I expect that seniors only make up 10-15% of rosters. Most college senior nights seem to have 2-4 seniors from what I have seen. And not all will be looking for that extra year to play. So there are still lots of roster spots - for some though it may not be what they might have got.

------------
On the other side of this - DD's team has kind of the opposite issue for her college destination next year.... there is no grad school so the seniors if they do decide to play, won't be doing it there and it is not the sort of school where students transfer in. And there is only 1 junior this year, and frankly, only 1 - maybe 2 of this year's sophomore's were likely going to see time. There were already going to be at least 5 or 6 freshmen starting this season including ~95% of the pitching.

So next year, it is very possible they field a team with only 2 or 3 players who have any college experience at all and zero pitching experience. The sophomores probably haven't played a real competitive game in almost 2 years. It will be interesting
 
May 27, 2013
2,353
113
Ah yes! Didn’t even think of that! All of DD’s schools she’s considering don’t have graduate programs so unless those seniors want to take an extra full time course load to play softball again, they probably won’t be returning.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
894x1066.jpeg

Information on Juarez is interesting. Injury was never made public but she was used very little in the Spring.
 
Nov 18, 2013
2,255
113
My DD is a 2020. Interesting ride for her so far:
Got verballed just before rule change.
Coaching change drama @ start of last summer season.
Did get 2 official visits with multi-year classes - 2019&2020 and 2020&2021, which was awesome!

Now this eligibility stuff...

With a few seniors playing in her position, along with some freshman capable of, certainly a possibility of impacted playing time.

What if some current freshman stick around for an extra year?
What about scholarship money?
Adds some uncertainty for coaches and players.

Normally I would think a lot of Seniors would go out in the working world, but with this Corona stuff it might just be better to stay in school and wait for job market to improve. Some are talking 20% unemployment rate for the near future. Who knows how long it will take for stuff to get back to normal.

I wouldn’t worry about the plans of other players or who else might play her position. There’s so much turnover at with girls not panning out, quitting,, injuries etc. Once their on campus they’ll still have to adjust to future recruiting classes, transfers and coaching changes. Just have her focus on what she can control and it’ll all work out.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Just throwing this out there...
How about changing all College athlete eligibility to 5 years :)
Hmmmm? Help the graduation curve for athletes do to their extra dedicated time....


Screenshot_2020-03-19-09-22-42-1.png
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,477
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top