September 1st was a big day for a lot of athletes looking to further their abilities to the next level. On July 15th, D2 and D3 coaches were able to reach out to juniors in the 2023 class and contact them expressing interest. D1 programs were not allowed to contact juniors in the sports women’s lacrosse, men’s lacrosse, baseball, softball, women’s basketball, and football until September 1st.
Before coaches can contact players, there was a recruiting dead period instituted on March 13, 2020. In the dead period, no schools are allowed to contact players expressing interest or giving them an offer. The only thing colleges can do is email their club head coach expressing “general” interest in a player and email them information about one of their camps.
This period was created to give athletes time to think about schools they like and what they are looking for in a college before signing. This recruiting dead period was about five-six months long, which is longer than usual since COVID-19 effected both current junior and senior athletes- keeping them away from being able to travel and fly to visit schools and go to camps/tournaments.
The sports whose recruiting process started September 1st for the class of 2023 are women’s lacrosse, men’s lacrosse, baseball, softball, women’s basketball, and football. This means that any junior who plays those sports can communicate with other D1 colleges through text/call and email. At the same time, the seniors who are in the class of 2022 that are not committed to a D1, D2, D3 school, are also allowed to contact schools asking them about their timeline and their interest.
Some of the higher ranked D1 schools have already committed their 2022’s, so they are only focused on 2023’s. The schools who had that set back from COVID-19, who are still recruiting 2022’s, were not able to start recruiting 2023’s as soon as the high schools which puts the 2023 players and certain schools at a disadvantage in the recruiting process.
Not everyone’s recruiting process is going to be the same, it’s going to differ for 2022’s to 2023’s, not only that, but it will also differ from the type of schools the athlete is looking at (size, cost, major/minor, etc.) and their level of play. Just because everyone’s recruiting process is different doesn’t mean the athlete won’t find a school, so they should take their time and enjoy this process because they only get it once.
Carly Grey // Staff Writer
