Author: Gil Alcaraz
Recruitment can be an exciting part of any high school athlete’s life. Having been recruited to play at Oxy myself, I know first-hand the process and its effects on a student’s life.
Getting that first recruiting e-mail or phone call from your respective sport’s coach at a college or university can be exhilarating – motivating you to check your e-mail numerous times a day in hopes of finding yet another contact from a college recruiter.
Every time the phone rings, you hope that your mother or father is calling your name because it’s a coach on the phone asking for you. But apart from the self-satisfying knowledge that college coaches are calling because they want you to play on their school’s team, the recruiting process can be strenuous and often nerve-racking.
The first step for many college athletes is filling out questionnaires and sending transcripts and game films. Questionnaires can often be very time consuming, especially if there are numerous schools you are interested in.
Once the films are sent and the questionnaires have been filled out, it’s time to wait. The real fun of the recruiting process begins as more and more colleges find their way into your mailbox.
As letters, e-mails and calls flood in, and more colleges start to show up on your radar, you start to question which school would best suit you and your athletic as well as intellectual abilities, as I did when I was recruited.
And so starts the next step of the recruiting process: college visits. Many Division III athletes would consider this the most important part of the recruiting process.
At the Division III level, things such as a school’s academic prestige or the feel you get when first stepping onto campus can be much bigger influences on your decision than the prestige of the sport program you are looking to play for.
“Even though I was getting recruited at Oxy, when I visited the campus I just got a feeling that I was at home and knew Oxy was the place for me,” golfer Jamey Stambler (sophomore) said.
As opposed to playing for a Division I program such as USC or UCLA, school comes before sports at a college such as Occidental.
Whether it is planned out with a coach or you and your parents just decide to drive down for the weekend, a campus visit is scheduled, and soon enough you’re walking through the campus of what could possibly be your future home for the next four years.
During these visits, athletes have an opportunity to really get an in-depth view of the athletic department of their respective sport. Coaches plan out extensive schedules for athletes to visit all of the athletic facilities as well as get a perspective of the educational side of the school.
“My coach was really nice and made sure that I was well taken care of, the players were really friendly and everyone was warm and welcoming,” soccer player Andrea Loh (sophomore) said.
Once the visits have ended and the acceptance letters have hopefully come in from all the schools you are looking at attending, it’s time to decide where you will be in the fall.
Unfortunately this is where the folly of some student athletes occurs, myself included. It turns out that at the Division III level, these athletes discover that college athletics are nothing like high school athletics in the way of time commitment, pressure and amount of work that you must also balance with it.
All of these factors can make a sport lose its fun. Those who find themselves in this situation may ultimately decide to quit as a result of loss of interest or commitment.
This can leave them at a school that they chose mostly for athletics, which may lead an athlete to transfer or regret choosing the school that they did.
“I wanted to come to a school that had good football but also understood why I was really going to college and that was to get an education. The coaches at Oxy understand that and are encouraging,” Cole Roberts (first-year) said.
Deciding which college to attend can be hard, especially for student athletes. Making your choice for the right reasons when considering Division III schools is crucial to your happiness throughout your college career.
But regardless of where you end up, it sure is an exciting ride that not many college-going students have the privilege of experiencing.
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