Pete Flynn

The competitive careers of many student-athletes end with the last blow of the whistle during their senior year.

Only the athletes of the highest caliber aspire to play in college, many at the Division 1 level.

This process starts for many as early as their junior year.

According to NCAA regulations, colleges are allowed to contact recruits and begin to make scholarship offers starting the first day of July between their junior and senior year.

This contact may include letters, emails, telephone calls, scheduled meetings, and house-visits. If the student-athlete expresses interest in the college's athletic program before this date through email, letters, or campus visits, the college is allowed to send the student-athlete information. However, any sort of scholarship offer or contact before July 1 is strictly prohibited.

It is not uncommon for high school coaches to encourage athletes to contact colleges. It's important for kids to make contact with these coaches so that he or she knows your interest...and after all, when it comes time for the coaches to make their recruiting decisions, they are much more likely to recruit the kid that they know wants to come, said Athletic Director Jim Lindsay.

Coaches are responsible for making sure that both the student and his parents are fully informed about this process, and serve as "middle-men" between the family and the college.

A standard procedure for Mr. Lindsay when dealing with recruited students is ensuring that each student is permitted to play in the NCAA by following the eligibility guidelines for NCAA Clearing House. These guidelines prohibit the student from accepting bribes from coaches or earning money from their sport. Before committing to a D-1 college, each athlete must be cleared by the Clearing House.

Oarsman James Canning '05 felt this process start to take flight immediately following crew season in the spring of his junior year. He began to speak with an assortment of Ivy League crew coaches, and when July 1 rolled around, he scheduled his "official visits." Official visits are all-expenses-paid trips for priority athletes to visit the campus. Each athlete is allowed five official visits by the NCAA, but Canning only chose to take three.

After tours of his top three schools, he decided that Harvard was his first choice. Canning had several promising conversations with Harvard coaches. He sent in his early application and received a "likely letter" from Harvard in October, indicating that an acceptance letter was likely on the way. Indeed, it arrived in mid-December.

The relief he felt wasn't only that his college situation was finally definite, but also that this stressful recruitment process was over. "You've got to know your priorities," Canning said. "The coaches will put increasingly high pressure on you to commit to their school, so you have to know what schools are at the top of your list and which schools are closer to the bottom."

Swimmer Hope Chapman '05 had an experience somewhat similar to Canning's. At the end of her junior year, Chapman sent letters to a number of D-1 colleges. Coaches responded positively, and during the summer she visited many colleges and their swimming coaches until she had narrowed down her top five choices.

Chapman took her official visits this past fall, and decided that Brown University was her top choice. After being cleared by the Clearing House, Chapman applied early to Brown and was accepted. She, like Canning, was happy to have the ordeal behind her.

"Even though it's exciting, it's rough going to colleges virtually every weekend of your senior fall. It tires you out," Chapman said.

In addition to the physical stress that comes with these college visits, she was mentally worn out from the whole process. She referred to the contact with college coaches as a "game in which you are trying to maintain their interest but at the same time not commit to a certain school too early."

Chapman said that she would like to see the colleges and NCAA give the student-athletes more time to make their decision, instead of being rushed into applying early for scholarships.

Girls' varsity hockey goalie Molly Schaus '06 is already getting her recruiting process underway. She has emailed a number of coaches expressing her interest in their hockey program and has included her '04- '05 game schedule.

Schaus has visited a few schools already with hockey in mind, and though no offers have been made, she says that her communication with coaches is beginning to pick up. I still have to see whether I am focusing on playing on the D-3 or D-1 level," said Schaus. "But as of now, the colleges that interest me the most are Dartmouth and B.C. We'll just have to see what happens."

Lacrosse Captain Josh Lesko '05 feels the most relief that his college situation is in place. Lesko, like many high school lacrosse players, has gone to camps and played in a variety of' college-sponsored tournaments over the summer since his freshman year.

Attending athletic camps offered by the college is another effective way to get the attention of coaches. At a camp that Lesko attended his freshman year, he was approached by a coach, and they began talking about the school's program and his interest in playing college lacrosse. The coach soon found out Lesko's age and was not allowed to initiate any contact or make him any offers. Lesko began to face pressure front college coaches at a much younger age than he was technically supposed to. However, when the appropriate time came, after making his official visits and passing the Clearing House, Lesko committed to his first choice college, Princeton University, in July.

He was annoyed and stressed that the coaches gave him a "now or never" ultimatum. He referred to the same "game" description as Chapman, saying that He did his best to keep the coaches interested until he could decide on his first choice.

"I would just hope that they [colleges] would give the kids some flexibility and let the kids make their own decisions as to what college is best for them." Lesko said.

Mr. Lindsay echoed Lesko's comment about the pressure put upon high school students. "The biggest problem about this whole process is how accelerated it's gotten. A lot of kids across the country who are still in their sophomore or junior year are being pressured into making their decisions now. Does a 16-year-old sophomore really have enough information and guidance to make their decision on where they go to college? I don't think so," Mr. Lindsay said.

Another concern of Mr. Lindsay's is the way the recruiting process affects the student-athletes participation in other sports. Recruited athletes will sometimes give up on their other sports to focus on their big college sport and to avoid serious injury. Overly-involved parents always pose a problem. "[They] are detrimental to their kids, and their over-involvement doesn't do much good anyway."

Ideally, the college recruiting process would go back to the "simpler times" when kids could focus on academics and contribute to their teams all the way through their junior spring, then focus on taking it to the next level. But the fact of the matter is that college sports have become a business. Coaches are intent on getting the athletes they want to make a successful program. As the intensity level of college athletic programs continues to increase and grow ever closer to the professional level, athletes find themselves under great amounts of pressure. And it all starts here.