Conflicting Opinions Emerge Surrounding Sept 1st. Contact Date Between Coaches and Prospective Recruits During Covid-19
Every year, September 1st is an important day for the lives of high school men's and women's lacrosse players. This is because the first of the month marks the first day that college coaches can contact players directly who they are interested in recruiting. Many offers get made within the first few weeks after September 1st.
However, this year, in the weeks leading up to September 1st, there was a lot of controversy surrounding whether the date should be pushed back amidst the pandemic. There were a few primary reasons why certain coaches wanted to push this date back.
First, the NCAA had been in a dead period since March, and it was continuing to get pushed back every month. According to the NCAA, during a dead period, "a college coach may not have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents, and may not watch student-athletes compete or visit their high schools." This means that all Division 1 coaches were not allowed to attend summer tournaments in person to watch prospective recruits.
The issue this poses is that college coaches would then be expected to recruit players who they had not seen play in person any time recently. Sure, they had highlight videos of the players to go off of, but how representative are those videos of the players' talent? It's hard to say.
Additionally, many colleges were not having students visit their campuses because of coronavirus. This presented an issue on the players' end. The players would be expected, at 16 or 17 years old, to make a decision about where to attend college without ever taking a tour of the campus. It's not an easy decision to begin with, but that certainly makes it harder.
The reasons mentioned above are what ultimately led to the controversy, and subsequently, the IWLCA Division 1 coaches voting in favor to move the September 1st contact date. According to Inside Lacrosse, 87% voted for some type of change, and 76% voted to push the date back to July 1st, 2021. However, despite the overwhelming majority of Division 1 coaches who wanted to push the date back, the NCAA did not approve the request.
As would be expected, there were some Division 1 coaches who were very disappointed by the fact that the NCAA did not approve this request. With the majority of the votes by the IWLCA facing one way, it came as a shock to many members that the NCAA did not comply with the request. Danielle Spencer, the head coach of Stanford, voiced her disapproval of this decision on twitter, and the IWLCA retweeted her tweet to show they were in agreeance with her.
While there was a lot of disapproval surrounding the NCAA's decision, most of this disapproval came more specifically from Division 1 coaches. That is because many of the rules that are put into place (such as the dead period) only pertain to them. So, where did this leave Division 2 and Division 3 coaches?
For Liz Beville, the head coach of Lemoyne College (a Division 2 school in upstate New York), the decision by the NCAA to leave the September 1st date actually helped her more than it hurt her.
One of the biggest reasons why is this: if athletes are getting Division 1 offers, many of them will try and pursue those first. This means that for coaches of Division 2 schools, like Liz Beville, recruiting can be a bit of a waiting game. Beville, in some cases, has to wait for players she is interested in to go through the process of being recruited by Division 1 schools. If those don't work out for whatever reason, then Beville will go after these players for her team. Because of this style of recruiting, the date remaining at September 1st will actually help Beville recruit kids at a faster rate.
"If they had pushed the date back, we would have kids holding out on whatever Division 1 school [hoping to get an offer] and we could be waiting until the spring [to recruit players]," Beville said. "Whereas now, they [players in the class of 2022] are going to get offers [from Division one schools] or they're not...and [then] we can hopefully get them committed on to our programs."
Another element that works to Beville's advantage is that she is allowed to bring kids on to campus for visits, whereas Division 1 schools are restricted from doing that until at least October 1st. Whereas Division 1 colleges can not show kids their campuses or get to know who the players are off the field, Beville can.
"Right now I'm recruiting a 2022 player who is getting Division 1 offers, but I can work to get her to campus and give her a great visit," Beville said. "If I can give her a great offer, now I have an advantage possibly above the Division 1 schools because they have to wait until September is over to get somebody to campus."
The September 1st contact date remaining will give Beville a shot at kids that have the potential to go Division 1 schools, but do not want to wait to be able to step on Division 1 campuses and make this decision.
"I'm recruiting a very high caliber kid who could go Division 1, but I'm gonna do what I can to get her to campus and try to commit to us," Beville said.
Liz Beville coaching her Lemoyne players during a scrimmage.
The last aspect of the September 1st date that Beville points out is that if the date would have been pushed back, it would have made it more difficult to recruit the next incoming class: the class of 2023.
"The class of 2023 contact date wasn't going to change," Beville said. "So now coaches would be worried about making offers and committing 2022 players next summer on top of getting 2023s on their radar."
Beville acknowledged that even if the date had been pushed back, most coaches felt that they could handle recruiting two classes simultaneously. She said the real issue lies in the stress that pushing the date back would cause for the athletes in the class of 2022.
"I think from the player's perspective, you know I think the class of 2022 thought they were going to get overlooked," Beville said. "Because, you know, they just felt like if they weren't at the top at that one tournament where a coach could get to see them play, then they [coaches] were going to be moving on to the next class or the next kid. The timeline of it was where the concern came in, and it really put more stress on the kids."
Did the NCAA make the right decision in keeping the September 1st contact date, or would it have been better to push it back? The answer: it's hard to say.
However, despite the IWLCA's disapproval of the NCAA's decision, they made an effort on their twitter to support the athletes when September 1st did come around, posting tips and wishing athletes good luck via twitter.