Imagine if kids who were poised to be the valedictorian or salutatorian of their high schools started getting “accepted” or “recruited” by colleges at the beginning of their 8th grade year- five years before they would actually go to that school. The parental community would not stand for this. It is neither healthy for these kids to think about college this early nor sane that an admissions officer would “recruit” at such a young age potentially altering these children’s physical and emotional development. So why are student athletes treated differently? As a former athlete and friend to many who went on to a play sport in college, I have personally witnessed the detrimental tolls early sport recruiting has had on these young individuals crippling both their self-esteem and love for their sport. The practice of early sports recruiting has been seen to lower athlete self-confidence and add to athlete stress level yet has been occurring more rapidly over the past ten years and at this point in time, shows no signs at stopping. After seeing the detrimental effects on my friend’s lives, I believe there is a strong correlation between the growing rate of early sports recruiting and the high stress level of these athletes and something needs to be changed in order to keep some sanity in the college recruiting process.

While early sports recruiting wasn’t prevalent until 2010, competitive athletics has been around since the beginning of the modern world. However, it wasn’t until 1972 when Title IX of the Education Amendments Act revolutionized the world of athletics surging participation. Title IX stated that “the athletic interests and abilities of male and female students must be equally and effectively accommodated” thus causing a sharp increase in the number of D1, D2, and D3 intercollegiate athletes interested in playing a sport, and increasing the number of individuals who begin playing sports as children. While Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 has provided a number of significant opportunities in both athletics and education, the effects that result in the form of early sports recruiting is one of its few major drawbacks. Since 2013, early sports recruiting has been occurring in many sports, including volleyball and has increased exponentially. Taken from a graph from recruiting specialist Hank Kern, the practice of early sports recruiting for women’s volleyball players in 2013 was only about 50 athletes, but in 2014 it rose to 100, in 2015 it rose again to 200, and in 2016- 400 volleyball players had been reported as early commits (Kern). This graph helps display how the recruiting process is like a domino effect and if it is not stopped soon, athletes will keep getting younger and recruited earlier. Athlete age decrease can be seen as a result from the number of early recruits rising because coaches will have to dive into younger age groups due to the fact the needed age groups were already recruited and committed in previous years and they want to get ahead of the game to acquire the best recruits. It is visible that this is a problem because early sports recruiting has not only rushed a lifelong decision, but also takes an emotional toll and can lead to a physical strain on the athletes and we must do something to solve it. Each year, the athletes recruited for college sports like soccer, lacrosse, and volleyball get younger and younger preventing kids from just being kids and experiencing a normal high school experience. The practice of early sports recruiting has led to increased anxiety, decreased self-worth, and lifelong problems for these young athletes causing athletics to no longer be enjoyable. I believe that early sports recruiting is detrimental both physically and mentally to the lives of these young athletes limiting their overall potential. While the process of recruiting is a necessary evil, this speedy decrease in age is avoidable and needs to be slowed down and regulated more by the NCAA and college coaches.

Beginning around eighth grade, athletes start getting “looked at” or recruited by colleges leading them to change the way they think and act because they believe everything is based off “how soon” and “whom” they get recruited by. Since they compare themselves to their other athlete friends, this acts as a factor towards lowered self-esteem adding more stress than a normal high school or middle schooler. These athletes have certain expectations and dreams to go to certain schools and when that doesn’t occur, the stress that this leads to causes these young individuals to not only stop enjoying school, but also the sport which they spend all their time and once fell in love with. Starting sports recruiting in eighth or ninth grade can lead to lowered self-confidence and decreased self-esteem on these exceptional athletes due to the fact that it is all they focus on spending countless hours checking their emails and phone for “that special call” from a coach that they may or may not receive. It has been said that the beginning of high school is a difficult time for young men and women to find themselves and discover who they truly are and many sport and behavioral analysts, including Mirin Fader from ESPN, believe that the fact that the recruiting process occurs around this same time has been seen to act as a catalyst for decreased self-esteem and lowered self-worth since they are now not only comparing themselves to each other’s appearance but also comparing themselves based on the offers they get. If this process occurs around this young age it can lead to lasting mental effects on these individuals because after many athletes were interviewed by the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Association in a video regarding the need to stop early sports recruiting and by ESPN at a softball recruiting tournament, the consensus displayed how most athletes “based their self-worth off of if they were committed or if this college was looking at me.” (Fader) causing many to believe that “as a high schooler, you should be focusing on your grades and your social life and making sure that your athletics are going well and that you're working hard.". Both of these surveys and interviews were taken from athletes who were in the position of being recruited early displaying how due to the fact early sports recruiting has impacted their lives so much that they're not afraid to speak up about it. These quotes help display how young men and women use the athletic recruitment process as a way of validation as both a player and a person and how this can lead to a bad mental state, decreased self-worth, and lowered self-confidence. This lowered self-confidence and self-worth is detrimental to the lives of these young individuals changing the rest of their lives and the decisions that they make, and affecting not just the future but their lives right now.

Most adolescents aren’t fully matured until at least their junior or senior year of high school, so by recruiting this early not only their self-esteem is affected but also their sense of maturity and decision making confusing their inner self. Just because these children might seem physically ready to play a sport in college and their athletic capabilities may be stronger than the average 14 or 15 year old, does not coincide with the idea that their emotional and intellectual development will be just as high (Petersen). That being said, this means that at that point in time, these young athletes do not have the proper capacity to make one of the biggest decisions of their lives yet. By starting the sports recruiting process this early, these young individuals are forced to focus on a decision that they won’t see for another four to five years, most likely unknowing about what they want to study or if they will still like the school when they go there. How can you expect these young athletes to make the right decision based off truly what they want and nobody else’s choice if some don’t even know where they’re going to high school? Or even don’t know what they want for dinner? Asking somebody to make a decision that early is not only not a good idea because it is a huge decision but also because nobody in their sane mind would be able to make such an important decision so young. These young individuals focus too much on winning games and getting recruited and not enough on getting good grades and the academics right in front of them because they are blinded by this huge decision and all that accompanies it. A four year progression of recruiting and waiting until senior year to commit to a school allows these young individuals to be fully formed thinkers, learners, and an athlete all at the same time knowing what they want to do with their upcoming future.

Not only does early sports recruiting create lasting mental effects on the athletes, but it also can lead to lifelong physical detriments. Early sports recruiting has been seen to lead to earlier and earlier sports specialization, which has been known to cause lifelong physical injuries to an athlete during their career and even when it’s over. Due to the fact that athletes are starting to enter the recruiting game younger and younger, instead of playing multiple sports, children are forced to specialize and focus on becoming exceptional at one sport instead of having fun enjoying their childhood thus causing the number of childhood multi-sport athletes to “decrease by 5% in the past 10 years” (Wiersma). Early sports recruiting has led to a frenzy among athletes and their parents because it had led them to believe that the only way to get recruited is to specialize in one sport and spend all their time practicing and traveling for that sport, in one sense it has become a business and not pleasurable activity. In a paper from the American Academy of Pediatrics, it was stated that early sports specialization can lead to “physical, social, and emotional risks for children who specialize too young” (O’Sullivan) helping display that due to this frenzy to recruit, many bad things can occur from one of the effects of early sports recruiting. Many sports, including soccer and basketball, require daily practice in order to become exceptional, yet these daily practices put strains on the muscles in the body since they are usually combined with weight or strength training 3-5 mornings a week. While it is argued that non-stop practicing is what creates the best athletes, this level of intensity can cause athletes to push themselves too far and lead to career ending injuries and there is evidence from the Loyola University doctors displaying that athletes “who specialized were 70% to 93% more likely to be injured” compared to an athlete who grew up spending time between multiple sports. Without early sports recruiting, early specialization wouldn’t have to occur because there would be no rush to become good at a sport but instead fall in love with a sport then decide to stick with it and attempt to play at the collegiate level. In order to stop these injuries and the rushed practice of sports specialization, the recruiting process needs to become a four-year journey allowing kids to do more with their lives.

While early sports recruiting has many pitfalls, it does open up many doors for athletes allowing a plethora of new opportunities for these young individuals. Early sports recruiting has helped athletes gain more scholarships, attend the best schools, and act as a de-stressor once an athlete is committed.  As stated in an op-ed article from David Frank, the vice president of prominent recruiting network Athnet, many people recruiting should start during the beginning of freshman year in order for an athlete to maximize their opportunities with the expectation of being committed around or before September 1 of their sophomore year. Parents want the absolute best for their children, and in order to give their children “the world” or the best opportunities, many believe they must start the early sports recruiting process as a freshman in order to guarantee that. As stated in this article, if an athlete waits too long to be recruited, they will receive no scholarship money and will lead to a large amount of money and time wasted. Many people use sports as a gateway to gain scholarships in order to attend a college that they might not have been able to get into before, therefore by starting to recruit early they have a higher chance of getting more money from a school since there are more spots still available on the roster. Also, in sports like basketball, golf, and soccer an athlete has to start recruiting early in 8th grade in order to receive more college offers and make the best decision in the end run due to the fact that there are so many good athletes and a limited number of spots on a team and or teams overall. Also, by recruiting early, student athletes who commit to a school earlier are then able to focus on being studious and living a “normal” high school life instead of being consumed worrying about the pressures that come along with the recruiting process. But, even though those getting recruited claim that they have less stress once they pick a school and believe that starting the recruiting process early was beneficial, many forget to realize that the entire practice of early sports recruiting is like a domino effect and will continue to start earlier and earlier leading to a frenzy among all sports and their athletes. Sooner or later, the athletes will keep getting younger and you will hear of a 3rd grader starting to be recruited and committed. Also, while many athletes believe that they will get more scholarship money for committing earlier, it’s not based of the time that you commit but instead mostly based on financial aid and there is always scholarship money available in one form or another. If there is a push across all sports to end early sports recruiting then a four year progression would occur allowing athletes proper time to make a well thought out decision and each athlete will not be overly stressed about worrying about college as a high school freshman but instead just having fun playing the sport that they love.

       

Many coaches, athletes, the parents of the athletes, and sport psychologists would agree that the idea to halt early sports recruiting is a universally accepted idea and would have a positive impact on all athletes. With more restrictions and regulations placed on the process of recruiting and push from the coaching community at large, the progression of sports recruiting can be slowed down and these young children with be able to live their lives enjoying a normal childhood. Not only can the NCAA stop the recruiting, but a push from college coaches would help too because they are the ones directly doing the recruiting and need to acknowledge the problems that are occurring. If we were talking still about salutatorians and valedictorians getting recruited early for school and there was even an inclination of detrimental effects, stricter regulations would’ve been enacted almost immediately because the parental community would be able to notice how there are so many kids affected since there are many different schools. So again, I ask the question: why are these athletes treated differently? They are not only students (maybe not their class valedictorian or salutatorian) but also young individuals who want to have a future in a sport that they love. If each case of early sport recruiting was thought about as a valedictorian or salutatorian being recruited, maybe the process would be slowed down by now. Let’s lower the number of stressed out teenage athletes, sports related injuries, and help these young individuals continue to love the sport they play by taking action for the young people and stopping the runaway train known as early sports recruiting right in its tracks. 
