The Handbook / Chapter 5

Athletics

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CHAPTER 5 | Athletics

Colleges love sports. One college I can think of fields 42 sports teams (both men’s and women’s), more than any other. That distinction belongs to athletic powerhouse—surprise!—Harvard College. Maybe not the place you were picturing? There may not be as many national titles these days but there’s a game to attend pretty much any day of the week. And if a college cares enough to carry a team, they care enough to fill it with people who know how to play. Which means they might be doubly interested in you.

Full disclosure: I was a recruited soccer player to Harvard or I’m quite sure I would never have been admitted.

For the last three years, college athletes have been legally able to receive payment for their services from companies and booster clubs while maintaining their amateur status. I am not sufficiently knowledgeable in the workings of this world to offer much of an opinion. At this early point in its history, and given its purposely opaque inner workings, it’s possible no one person does. If you are a high profile athletic recruit headed to top program in a major conference, I wish you well and regret I have no worthy advice to offer you.

If you play a sport, or enjoy it as a spectator, and plan to continue in college without remuneration, what follows is for you. If not, feel free to ⇨ 🕰⇨ and we’ll catch up with you. Or stick around, this won’t take that long.

Let’s start with a brief discussion about recruitment. Over the years I’ve had students tell me they were being actively recruited by a coach. They were understandably excited at the prospect. We would nonetheless go through all the steps in applying and later come to discover they were not, in fact, being recruited, at least not when it mattered. They could be forgiven for having misinterpreted a coach’s initial interest as having meant more than intended. Who wouldn’t want to believe their chances had been upgraded from little to likely? Realizing they had misled themselves, they were embarrassed and crestfallen. Being rejected from a college is never fun. Getting rejected when you thought you had the inside track is worse. I have since tried to spare students similar indignity.

Colleges do recruit athletes. Coaches follow the progress of high school talent coast to coast, across the pond and beyond. Their initial list is very long as it’s difficult to predict who might accept an offer of admission a year or more in the future. If you’re a high school basketball player with designs on the NBA, you have ranked the colleges interested in you by the visibility they will confer. And you will wait out the matchmaking mayhem until you receive a firm offer of admission. Over the months, one athlete’s commitment leaves a hole in other colleges’ wish lists, causing mass reconfigurations. Athletes move up, over, and out. In the summer, admissions committees look at the coaches’ roster of remaining recruits and decide if they are otherwise suitable for acceptance. Most are approved but not all. Each coach has a maximum number of slots, determined by the NCAA, and once that quota has been met the team must look to walk-ons and tryouts to complete their roster.

A recruited athlete will have been informed by the coach of their status. There can be no doubt as to the coach’s or athlete’s intentions when a likely letter is sent to the athlete informing them of the college’s intentions. The word likely is used to protect the college from anything untoward that might occur between receipt of the letter and move-in day. If the student happens to find themself in the back of a patrol car staring down a grad night DUI, their matriculation suddenly becomes far less likely.

Athletic:

1 All-American and/or recruited athlete

2 State or county honors. Potential varsity player.

3 Participated in school sports. Club level

4 Non-participant

5 Physically unable to participate

A likely letter is a commitment from the college confering admission to the athlete so long as academic status is maintained and any moral or ethical lapses are avoided. In return, the athlete must commit to the college.

Let’s conclude with those athletes whose talents might take them on to varsity teams but are not recruited. Your best way forward is to make your abilities known to the coaches of each of your potential college teams. Phone camera technology has made the creation of effective video montages quite simple. Having shot and edited your highlight reel, send it to coaches and have them ready to meet you upon your arrival. You do not need an invitation to send on a package and put yourself forward.

Choose the campus most likely to fulfill all your expectations assuming you end up playing at the club level. It is hard to know in advance the level of excellence you will encounter on the college playing field. In my experience, it was beyond what I had imagined. My team looked like an international under-21 Olympic development squad. I barely kept my head above water. But it was great fun.

For the majority of college students, athletics will be enjoyed on the intramural or club level. It would be wrong to assume that competition is any less fierce when the playoffs will determine freshman yard bragging rights rather than an NCAA champion. And as to which is more fun, why bother comparing? Loser buys!