Praise and hallelujah! Ding dong, the witch is dead, which old witch, the early recruiting witch!
What and/or who killed early recruiting? That’s an interesting question.
“Early recruiting will end when it no longer helps the big schools!”
That’s right, I said it! And I meant it then. And I mean it now.
Something amazing happened. The big and powerful schools have come to a very clear and profound conclusion. They never really needed to commit middle schoolers anyway because no matter when they show interest in a player, that player and her parents are going to be interested back.
We all know the big schools are loaded with advantages that make the recruiting business very lopsided. They have the facilities, money, exposure, money, great coaches, money, reputation, money, history and, of course, money.
They also have a big leg up on the rest of the programs in Division I because some of them have some of the brightest stars committed out to middle school. They in effect, now have their cake and get to eat it too.
So now that the big schools have committed most of the great young players they are being so magnanimous as to change the rules so that they can “not communicate” with those young players who are committed to them while guaranteeing that no one else can contact those same players!
Wow! Think about that for a second. They have their kids lined up for years and now have made it a violation for anyone to speak to those kids. Of course, they “can’t communicate,” with their own recruits but we all know how that will play out. There will be so many wink, wink, nod nod moments taking place that your head will spin.
There is no doubt that early recruiting had gotten to the point of craziness but I still have one question:
“Why did the big schools that so adamantly fought against early recruiting at the convention come home and commit so many, very very young, kids?”
Simple, hunting season was coming to a close and we had to get our limit!
About the Author: Tory Acheson brings a wealth of knowledge to the Fastpitch Prep staff. He has coached at all levels of the game, including the last 25 years at the college level at the University of Wisconsin – Parkside, Tennessee Tech and Kennesaw State. He began his coaching career at the high school level spending 9 years Whitnall High School in Greenfield, Wis. and is now working as a professional softball instructor.
