It All Works Out

The college recruiting process is very difficult on a player. Its hard to know if you are skilled enough for the schools you are reaching out too, if they will ever notice/ get back out to you, or if you even want to go to a school that wants you. It will be stressful and scary journey. I witnessed all of this first hand this summer.

This summer was extremely busy and involved. I played on two teams with a total of 4 tournaments. Even before this I had a very good perception of what school I wanted to go to, but did not know how to get there. It became an issue because I could not get a reply. I tried to contact every single one of the coaches and it was a dead end. I felt lost, but I could not feel that way. I had to find more schools with my intended degree and reach out. I hoped that this one school would get back to me, but all I could do was wait. I was so lost with keeping track of all the schools, and where in the journey I was with them. By the end of the summer I had a few schools that were interested and I was interested in. Still no news from that one school.

I remember sitting in my room mindlessly scrolling on my phone when a notification popped up. An email from one of the coaches, asking me to get on a call with him sometime. I was elated, I immediately jumped out of my chair and went to tell my mom. She must have been more excited than me because I had to read it multiple times for her to understand all of it.

It seems that in that moment all the stars aligned, everything was perfect. After talking with coaches from the school, it seemed to be more of a fit then I thought. Right after that call, I set up a plan to visit and meet with coaches. All I remember was falling in love with the campus and the facilities. It was beautiful and definitely a place that I felt I belonged in.

Then came more struggle. It was my job to let other schools know I had made my choice and it was not them. This was very heavy on me, as I did not want to feel that I let someone down, or even worse, made the wrong choice. I remember how nervous and scared I was to turn down other schools, I was worried I would let then down. It had to be part of the process to get where I wanted. Thankfully after it was all done I felt much better about the whole situation. A huge burden was lifted.

Now sitting at the end of this process, I like to think of the highs. The fact that coaches reached out me in the first place, the opportunity too play on teams and meet new people, and most importantly how big that smile was on my mothers face when I signed my national letter of intent. This long process has been so rewarding, and has left me with so much to look forward too.

“Lacrosse in the Northwest” by M I K E M O R R I S is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

“Conant JV Lacrosse against Fremd” by H. Michael Miley is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

“STA08002-1” by starkephotos1 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.