NCAA considers changing high school recruiting rules
August 26, 2010
By Dan Catchpole
NEW — 1:00 p.m. Aug. 27, 2010
Wildcats goalkeeper — and top college recruit — Ryan Herman blocks a ball during a game last season. After being courted by dozens of schools, Herman settled on Santa Clara University. (Photo by Calder Productions)
For top high school athletes, the college recruiting process is a high-stakes game that can put high pressure on student athletes, parents, coaches and even high school athletic programs.
The NCAA is concerned that the pressure is getting too high and is considering pushing back the date when Division I schools can offer high school athletes early scholarships. Some familiar with the recruiting process are worried that coaches are surreptitiously targeting younger and younger athletes, even unofficially offering middle school athletes scholarships. While such cases are rare, some high school coaches say the recruiting process is distracting.
The NCAA’s Division I Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issues Cabinet supported a proposal to ban verbal scholarship offers given before July 1 in the summer before a student’s senior year in high school.
The proposed change could be approved either in January or April, and would apply to all sports.
The NCAA did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Both sides motivated to talk
University coaching staffs push for early committals, because they need to find the best players they can before other schools lock them in.
Students want to commit early, because they don’t want to lose a scholarship spot to another athlete.
“The recruiting process overall has been bumping up earlier and earlier,” said O.D. Vincent, a senior associate athletic director at the University of Washington and former golf coach.
The process has sped up so much, that students are verbally committing before they make their first official visit, he said.
As a coach, he said, his primary motivation was to ensure that students received accurate information about the program and the school.
“You sure don’t want an athlete on your squad who doesn’t fit,” he said.
Both sides are eager to talk with each other as early as NCAA rules allow them to. Current rules permit universities to send only one e-mail each week to a student beginning Sept. 1 of their junior year.
“On Sept. 1 of my junior year, I got about 40 e-mails,” said Ryan Herman, Mount Si High School’s star goalkeeper.
He and his friends compared tallies. The 6-foot, 7-inch keeper received the most e-mails.
Herman, who will be a senior this year, didn’t mind all the attention.
“It was fun knowing that people were watching me,” he said.
Herman verbally committed Oct. 22 to Santa Clara University.
It was a relief, he said — “If I have a bad game, so what?”
However, a verbal commitment can be broken by either side.
Pressures and problems of process
Several Mount Si High School coaches agreed that the process puts too much pressure on students to make decisions early.
But plenty of things can change between when a student commits and freshman year of college.
“Sometimes, kids get to senior year and all of a sudden a (university) coach leaves or they find another school that’s a better fit,” said Bonnie Foote, a volleyball coach for Mount Si and club teams.
In addition, the pressure of the process can distract students from playing and studying.
“As a high school coach, if my best player is overly taxed by scholarships, he’s not fully preparing for the season,” said Charlie Kinnune, Mount Si High School’s football coach.
Technology changing recruiting
Recruiting of high school athletes has changed dramatically in the past 20 years. Social media and the Internet have drastically altered how universities and athletes learn about and contact each other.
“Twenty, 15 years ago, I knew exactly who was talking to my athletes,” Kinnune said. “Now, I find out from the kid who’s talking to them.”
Students can — and do — reach out to universities through e-mails, phone calls and highlight videos of them playing. Sometimes, with the coaches’ help, sometimes without.
“I can’t tell you how many YouTube videos I’ve put together” for players, Foote said.
Other coaches said that while they help their students make videos, they also have received calls from universities that got a video directly from a student.
Kinnune said he wants more regulation on the recruiting process, but he admits that it will be difficult to keep universities from contacting students too early. Even so, he wants the date pushed back for early commitments.
“I don’t think the universities will suffer one bit,” he said.
Dan Catchpole: 392-6434, ext. 246, or editor@snovalleystar.com.
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