Recruiting During a Pandemic

SMC's empty football field during COVID-19 Quarantine. Tuesday, March 31, 2020. Los Angeles, Calif. Alex Ramirez Canales/The Corsair

College athlete recruitment is yet another process significantly impacted by COVID-19. Coaches have had to change the way they recruit for their teams. 

Coaches now have to talk to athletes via Zoom, or on the phone, instead of meeting with them in person. Some of the actual scouting is difficult also, as most coaches have to watch past high school games and practices through websites like Youtube and Hudl.com, which offer athletes the opportunity to upload their game highlights for coaches to view.

This pandemic makes it challenging for coaches to scout, and for athletes to be scouted. The lockdown makes it difficult for athletes to fully showcase their abilities for the coaches whether it's at a sports camp or a live game. So, for the first time, athletes may have to reach out to coaches instead of coaches reaching out to them. It feels as if the recruitment system has been turned upside down.

Even those who were already enrolled in college athletic programs are affected by the pandemic.

Aaron Laguan, a fire science major at Santa Monica College (SMC), said "Pre-COVID swimming was a much more intense work out for me. High School had easier sets, and we'd practice once a day, but at SMC, things were much harder. The workout was longer and the amount of times doing it increased. But now, I have dry-land workouts that I have to strictly follow on the team. I don't even swim." Dry-lands are intense workouts outside of the water which build and tone muscle, but these cannot fully replace water workouts.

 Contact sports at the collegiate level in many areas are not being played due to COVID restrictions. This change is happening all across the country, and makes athletes’ lifestyles much more difficult. 

As of now collegiate sports in California have no plan of returning until 2021 according to a statement made by the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) earlier in July. 

“They’ll start practice in mid-January and begin competition in February along with basketball, football, soccer, women’s volleyball, water polo and wrestling. Badminton, baseball, beach volleyball, men’s golf, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, and men’s volleyball are scheduled to start practice in late March before commencing competition on April 10.” said the CCCAA.

Many schools have shut down their sports department for the rest of the year. Some of them also lost funding, which is another reason for the shutdowns. Athletes all over the country are being overlooked by scouts and may go undiscovered. This can affect a student athlete's chances at a scholarship and a higher education.

Although the recruitment process has become difficult for both the coaches and players alike, they are working to adapt to the circumstances and rely on technology to replace in person scouting.