When getting recruited by a school to play sports there is not a lot of people realize the behind the scenes work a player has to do in order to get on the team and stay on the team. Two girls from Mount Si High School got recruited by Bellevue College to play soccer. Sophie Rockow is going to play goalie while Laura Barnes will be playing forward and or midfield. The girls went into detail about the behind the scenes work they had to do in order to get recruited.
In order to get recruited some people make highlight reels of them playing to send off to schools to show them their talent and others have people come to games and watch them play for scouting.
Laura Barnes is one of the players who made a highlight reel but she said she never used it. She said that once she got an offer from Bellevue College and decided that Bellevue would be the best choice for her. She did say that Coach Tao came to a couple games of hers that made her stress out a little more.
The people getting recruited have to maintain a certain standard level GPA in order to keep playing at the colligate level. Recruiter’s don’t want someone that will perform badly in their classes so that it’s a waste of money to even pay for their college tuition.
They don’t want a bust, so they want to the players to be smart. Barnes also agrees ans says “we must keep our grades [up.]” Players that sign to play for Bellevue College have to meet a certain GPA requirement without failing any classes.
Signing a letter of intent is the biggest thing or step you can make in order to get recruited. Athletes that sign letters of intent are saying that they are very interested in the offer they have made for them and most likely be going to go there. It doesn’t happen to often but sometimes players will go against their letter of intents to go somewhere else, especially if they get an offer from a better school.
“The letter of intent is a letter that you have to sign in order to play. I think it’s basically just saying that you only intend on playing with the one team that you sign for¬¬, ”Rockow said.
One thing that happens to athletes that are going to be, or are getting looked at by schools to be recruited for sports is they get nervous. Being recruited is very stressful because you never really know where you going to end up until the end, you realize how big of a commitment it is.
Never the less it’s a lot of decision making happening in a relatively short amount of time. “The amount of time I need to commit to the team is pretty scary said Barnes. “Not only do we have practices everyday but we have two practices a day for a while, starting at 6:00 in the morning,” said Barnes. With two practices a day, balancing her teenage life is hard she said. “It’s just a huge commitment,” said Rockow.
But at the same time players get really excited and happy for the accomplishment they have reached. Playing collegiate sports is a big deal sports and not a lot of people can reach that level. “Yeah it definitely does feel good. Especially since I’d only played one year at the varsity level in high school due to an illness my freshman and sophomore year,”
Rockow said. “I thought it would be pretty much impossible to get recruited, so this really was a great surprise,” Rockow said.
With Rockow only playing one year of soccer in high school, getting recruited by Bellevue came to a great surprise to her.
“I wasn’t even stressed, because I didn’t think I was going to get recruited anyway so when I started talking to the coaches I wasn’t stressed at all,” Rockow said.
The process, in which an athlete goes through, is extensive and sometimes the players won’t decide until last minute where they end up. Watch the lady bulldogs start their season, with scrimmages this summer and going through fall quarter!