My boss, who lives in Atlanta, has a son who is going through the recruiting process. He verbally committed to UMass. They are really pressuring him to sign on early signing day. I was just speaking with my boss (the mom). She is telling me that she thinks this early signing period is the worst idea ever. Her son is going through finals and he doesn’t need this pressure at this time of the year. She also thinks social media has totally ruined the experience. Between the early signing day and social media, all of the excitement and surprises are gone. She said it’s like having all of the presents under the Christmas tree unwrapped.
1 Like
I tend to agree that coaches should leave these kids alone during finals time, but I’m not following about the social media aspect. If she or her son don’t like surprises being ruined by social media, there’s a really simple solution to that problem.
As someone who was certainly never recruited as an athlete and solely from the perspective of being a fan, I like early signing period. These kids don’t have to sign up early, but they are taking a risk if they don’t. Also helps coaches lock in on who they have to concentrate on going forward. That frees up resources and gives kids who did sign early the freedom to finish their HS careers without being pestered by coaches. There’s a trade off for everything in life. I see no harm in HS kids getting a taste of that.
1 Like
Early signing day should be August 1
5 Likes
The horror of knowing early your childs education is payed for…must be hard to bear.
11 Likes
That would definitely shift some of the risk to the school. Coaches wouldn’t be able to see a kid’s senior year and a freak injury could cause a waste of scholarship.
Honestly, I wish we could just get rid of verbal commitments. They mean almost nothing these days.
1 Like
I may not have painted the picture correctly. That comment was about the fan experience. We pretty much already know who is going to sign due to social media, ESPN, sites like this, etc. It’s like having all of the presents under the Christmas tree unwrapped. Sorry for my poor story telling.
2 Likes
That makes sense. It could be that I’m getting older, but the commitment videos I see on Twitter are annoying. Just a bunch of prima donnas begging for attention. So if the concern is that the kids are being scooped on their commitment announcements, it’s hard for me to sympathize with that. If you want to shock everyone, don’t issue a verbal commitment, video commitment or anything else. Just send in your signed NLI on signing day.
2 Likes
You have to explore all the schools during the summer before senior year and then pick amongst the offers in the fall. If his best offer is UMASS and he’s trying to play it off of some others, well, he could run out of time.
My daughter is trying to walk on at a D-I track program and was told that unless she’s close to the qualifying finals time she won’t be in consideration. My nephew is a 6’4" 255 junior OT and hopes to go D-1 too. No offers yet.
Someone might bite but you have to cast a rather wide net. Unless you’re a star, it takes a good bit of work. Even if you’re a star, there’s always something better unless you’re a fan of a particular school.
I have three friends who’s kids were recruited for sports at a D1 level, not football or basketball. It was a lot of work for the kids and parents to negotiate the best deal for their kids (partial scholarships). It ends up being a scramble at the end, like musical chairs and they hope their kid ends up with a seat.
I have known a few football kids being recruited it was a circus but was before early signing.