Sports in college? How do I start?!
Stories of students and where they are in their personal recruiting process
Point Vikings. Maddie Iseminger, the only freshman on the Vikings volleyball team, blocks the opponent’s upcoming attack at the net. In the match against Kamiak, Vikings fought until the fifth set to claim victory. The energy each player emitted on the court upped the competition. “Maddie Iseminger, an actual BEAST on the court, but a sweetheart with a quirky personality off”, senior Kani White said.
October 24, 2017
Sweat coming down your face, heart racing to get that last point, the crowd goes wild, you can feel everyone’s eyes on you. Sports are a huge part of the world we are in today, but where does the real competition start? College. But to get to this point in their careers, many athletes struggle and ask themselves how do you get on a college team to begin with? How do you show off your skills?
Junior soccer player Ethan Anastasi explained how he’s showing off his skills to college coaches right now.
“I use NCSA, which is a recruiting website,” Anastasi said. It gives college coaches a way to see an athlete’s skills without actually being present. For soccer, coaches are not allowed to email student athletes about being on their college team until junior year, which is why recruiting websites like ncsasports.org is a great way to network.
But a website is not the only way to connect with coaches.
“I am a part of North Sound Elite, which is a club basketball team,” junior basketball player Thadeus Newman said. Being a part of a club team is another amazing way to be shown to college recruiters and coaches. Newman has known he wanted to be in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for a long time, so he started early in his recruitment career by joining a feeder team in the 6th grade. This is a basketball team which travels around states to participate in tournaments. College recruiters go to well known big tournaments and look for recruits for their team. Newman also went another step forward and went to multiple exposure camps. These are camps where college coaches come to one gym and watch students play, and get their information. It’s a very competitive and hard to be recruited by a college for the sport you love, but it is definitely possible.
Senior Varsity Volleyball player Lilly Eason achieved her dream of being recruited by many college coaches.
“I verbally committed to play volleyball my junior year on November 18, 2016 for Seattle University. I am so blessed to be given an offer to play the sport I love and admire for a college close to home” Eason said.
You have to put in hard work if you are wanting to play a sport in college.
“Start the recruiting process early,” Newman said.
It’s better to be early than to be late because your spot on a team could already be taken if you put off the process of being recruited. If you are looking to play a sport in college, put in your best and hardest work. Look into colleges early, see if your dream college has a team and work from there.
