Sweeping reforms to girls' college recruiting
Contributed by ESNN (Elite Soccer News Network)
Friday, 27 February 2009
Last Updated Friday, 27 February 2009
In the midst of a lot of hand-wringing, politically correct comments and ignoring the problem, a major proposal is
emerging as a possible solution to the issue of the recruiting process on the girls' side of youth starting earlier and earlier.
University of Florida head coach Becky Burleigh has drafted the proposal after discussions with some of her colleagues,
and is now working on using it as a platform for continued discussions with more than 300 DI coaches around the
country. Last week's adidas ESP event provided the occasion for further talks, and more meetings will be held in
upcoming events on the coaching calendar including the Texas Shootout at the end of May.
We'll discuss the proposal in detail below, but the main points of it are as follows:
1. Players would not be allowed to have contact with coaches before the summer between junior and senior years of
high school. Emails are permitted but any unofficial visit to a campus cannot include meeting with the coach.
2. Verbal commitments would also not be permitted before then. Offers of scholarships would not be permitted to club
coaches, parents or other parties.
3. Coaches would not be permitted to coach ODP, club teams of UI4 and older or any other select team other than
ins***utional camps (theirs or another's).
Eventually, Burleigh hopes to see the proposal considered by the appropriate NCAA Committee, but first she must build
consensus among a large group of soccer coaches.
And that consensus is not there yet. The issue is that college recruiting, especially for the top college programs, is now
directed primarily at freshmen and sophomores in high school, with verbal commitments typically secured in the junior
year of a player's high school tenure, even in the early part or before the junior year. Players, parents and coaches seem
to agree that it's too early, but the process continues to start and end earlier.
"The reason it's not ideal for the prospect is the early pressure they have on them. It's much earlier for them than their
peers in terms of picking schools, and they're often not ready to make that decision, but there's pressure to make it
because they feel or their parents feel the money will dry up," Burleigh said. "The reason it's not good for coaches is that
we are having to make decisions on kids who probably will go through more peaks and valleys before they go to college,
and that's a little scary. Plus we don't really know our needs for kids because we have to project so far in advance."
Burleigh shared one instance where an uppercl***men on her Gators' squad was injured early in the season. Had she
applied for medical hardship to be eligible for another season, Burleigh would have been in a major jam because that
scholarship money was already committed to a future enrollee.
"All I could think was ‘Oh my goodness, we've already spent that money.' Here she is with an opportunity to come
back. Obviously I want a proven player back but at the same time, one of the commitments is going to lose out. I'm not
sure how we would handle that."
As it turned out, the injured player was able to return to action, but the predicament Burleigh describes is illustrative of
the potential problem. She cites several others that arise from the current emphasis on early commitments.
"Right now the system is very economically biased because we're operating on the basis of unofficial visits, which of
course are paid for by the prospects. Some players can't afford that. This also makes recruiting more regionally biased
based on which recruits can and can't pay for a visit," she said. "Having a lot of upper-middle cl*** families is one reason
why we've gone down this road with less trouble than other sports, since our official visits (paid for by school) now are
almost all used for kids who have already committed, the financial burden is placed on the prospect."
Burleigh's proposal for fixing this is sweeping.
Find out what the proposal is all about - Continue to Part 2...
TopDrawerSoccer.com
http:/
Contributed by ESNN (Elite Soccer News Network)
Friday, 27 February 2009
Last Updated Friday, 27 February 2009
In the midst of a lot of hand-wringing, politically correct comments and ignoring the problem, a major proposal is
emerging as a possible solution to the issue of the recruiting process on the girls' side of youth starting earlier and earlier.
University of Florida head coach Becky Burleigh has drafted the proposal after discussions with some of her colleagues,
and is now working on using it as a platform for continued discussions with more than 300 DI coaches around the
country. Last week's adidas ESP event provided the occasion for further talks, and more meetings will be held in
upcoming events on the coaching calendar including the Texas Shootout at the end of May.
We'll discuss the proposal in detail below, but the main points of it are as follows:
1. Players would not be allowed to have contact with coaches before the summer between junior and senior years of
high school. Emails are permitted but any unofficial visit to a campus cannot include meeting with the coach.
2. Verbal commitments would also not be permitted before then. Offers of scholarships would not be permitted to club
coaches, parents or other parties.
3. Coaches would not be permitted to coach ODP, club teams of UI4 and older or any other select team other than
ins***utional camps (theirs or another's).
Eventually, Burleigh hopes to see the proposal considered by the appropriate NCAA Committee, but first she must build
consensus among a large group of soccer coaches.
And that consensus is not there yet. The issue is that college recruiting, especially for the top college programs, is now
directed primarily at freshmen and sophomores in high school, with verbal commitments typically secured in the junior
year of a player's high school tenure, even in the early part or before the junior year. Players, parents and coaches seem
to agree that it's too early, but the process continues to start and end earlier.
"The reason it's not ideal for the prospect is the early pressure they have on them. It's much earlier for them than their
peers in terms of picking schools, and they're often not ready to make that decision, but there's pressure to make it
because they feel or their parents feel the money will dry up," Burleigh said. "The reason it's not good for coaches is that
we are having to make decisions on kids who probably will go through more peaks and valleys before they go to college,
and that's a little scary. Plus we don't really know our needs for kids because we have to project so far in advance."
Burleigh shared one instance where an uppercl***men on her Gators' squad was injured early in the season. Had she
applied for medical hardship to be eligible for another season, Burleigh would have been in a major jam because that
scholarship money was already committed to a future enrollee.
"All I could think was ‘Oh my goodness, we've already spent that money.' Here she is with an opportunity to come
back. Obviously I want a proven player back but at the same time, one of the commitments is going to lose out. I'm not
sure how we would handle that."
As it turned out, the injured player was able to return to action, but the predicament Burleigh describes is illustrative of
the potential problem. She cites several others that arise from the current emphasis on early commitments.
"Right now the system is very economically biased because we're operating on the basis of unofficial visits, which of
course are paid for by the prospects. Some players can't afford that. This also makes recruiting more regionally biased
based on which recruits can and can't pay for a visit," she said. "Having a lot of upper-middle cl*** families is one reason
why we've gone down this road with less trouble than other sports, since our official visits (paid for by school) now are
almost all used for kids who have already committed, the financial burden is placed on the prospect."
Burleigh's proposal for fixing this is sweeping.
Find out what the proposal is all about - Continue to Part 2...
TopDrawerSoccer.com
http:/
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