Every high school athlete dreams of getting a chance to play at the college level. For many student-athletes, especially seniors, sitting at home and not being able to play right now has them stressed about getting that chance to get a college program to notice them.
“I feel bad for our seniors. Some of them were ready to have a breakout year and get some looks, ” commented Bishop’s baseball coach Kohl Simonds.
Even with an increase in digital platforms like Hudl over the past few years, so much of recruiting athletes is still done mostly in person.
“Usually I’ll be on the road more than half the year visiting schools,” said Danny Cuneo who works on recruiting across Southern California for Syracuse University lacrosse.
But now instead of watching games and practices in person, he is sitting at home and watching game tapes and highlights he is being sent.
“I’ve actually received more emails with links to player highlight tapes in the last week than I usually get in a month,” joked Cuneo.
While every school and program is trying to figure out how to adapt and keep moving forward, colleges still need to fill out rosters and high school athletes need to connect with colleges. Right now it seems like local coaches are rising to the occasion to use the downtime and be advocates for their players.
“Everyone please use this downtime to edit your Hudl tapes and send them to me so I can start reaching out to schools,” Crawford football and track coach Matt Maquez posted to his social media last week trying to keep his players college hopes alive.
“Keep an eye on my feed this week, I know it’s a weird time for recruiting but I’m making sure I do my part for the guys,” remarked Tyler Roach who coaches at La Jolla High School.
Some variation of this message is starting to be posted or shared by an ever growing number of high school coaches across San Diego as the the normal of social distancing begins to feel like a more long term reality.
While we may never know fully how many athletes are affected by this stoppage it is clear that the coaches across San Diego are doing everything they can to continue and support their students in whatever new ways that can find.
Leave a Comment