Recruiting amid coronavirus: How disruptive is the pandemic’s timing for prep athletes?
Just weeks ago, Winthrop head baseball coach Tom Riginos was “really close” to finalizing his 2021 recruiting class.
Now, he waits.
Riginos, like the hundreds of other college coaches and the countless college athlete hopefuls around the country, has had to adjust his recruiting plans amid the threat of coronavirus.
COVID-19 has caused a few minor changes when it comes to college recruiting. Among them, the NCAA has instituted a “dead period,” in which college coaches across sports can’t sign players or take in-person visits with recruits until April 15, a date that’s subject to change.
But the pandemic has also set the stage for the unprecedented: On Monday, the NCAA will vote on if it will give an extra year of eligibility to D1 college athletes who participate in winter and spring sports.
Riginos is aware of the consequences of both potential results: He said he thinks the NCAA will do “the right thing” and grant the eligibility relief, ensuring that the athletes aren’t robbed of a year playing in college. He also knows that with an extra year of eligibility comes a limit in scholarship availability, and thus complicates the plans he has for his future recruiting classes.
So, in the meantime, Riginos is waiting. Monday’s decision will inform his next moves, Riginos said.
“That’s going to throw a little bit of a monkey wrench into what I call our roster management, and how we go forward with that,” Riginos told The Herald in a phone interview earlier this week. “But I also think that’s a good problem.”
As much as it complicates his own plans, Riginos said he knows it’s affecting the players he’s recruiting — as well as all other athletes across different seasons who haven’t committed anywhere yet.
His main message to these high school athletes? The pandemic’s timing is disruptive, yes. But as things are right now, there’s still time to be recruited.
“What’s going to happen is just everybody’s time frame just gets pushed back,” Riginos said. “Everybody gets a little unsettled because everyone wants a decision to be made. Well, you’re just going to have to be patient. That decision just can’t be made right now.”
Coronavirus and high school spring athletes
The cancellation of the South Carolina spring sports season seems inevitable.
Just over a week ago, the South Carolina High School League announced that it would suspend its high school sports through April 6 and said it would reconvene on April 2 to see if the spring sports season should resume.
On Tuesday afternoon, though, S.C. Governor Henry McMaster announced that public schools will remain closed until the end of April, effectively halting spring sports until May. The SCHSL announced via a release that it will still meet via teleconference on April 2 to discuss whether or not the season can be salvaged.
As of Friday at noon, South Carolina’s total confirmed cases of the coronavirus is at 456, and the U.S. has more confirmed cases of COVID-19 than any other country, per data collected by The New York Times and other national media.
The likelihood that the spring sports season will be cut short has distressed players, coaches and fans alike.
Coronavirus’ timing is most disruptive, perhaps, at a school like Legion Collegiate Academy. The school in Rock Hill is the area’s newest public charter school, and it has had athletes — ones enticed by the school’s shorter school hours and emphasis on athletics training — transfer in from schools around the Tri-County.
“The crazy part about it is, with the expectations with the new school, and having all those guys over and them being excited about playing with each other — I mean, I felt we were just starting to get where we were catching our stride,” Lancers coach Devin Lowery told The Herald. “(We were) swinging the bats better and playing a little better defense. And the guys on the bump, on the mound, they were throwing strikes…
“It seemed like we were getting ready to take off. But then (we had) to pump the brakes.”
A truncated spring sports season means fewer times to play in high school, which is disheartening in its own right.
But it also affects recruiting: After all, generally speaking, less playing time means fewer opportunities to be seen by college programs.
Lowery acknowledged that as true, and he validated the anxiety certain players have about thinking their recruitment opportunities are being cut short. But Lowery — the former MLB player who was drafted out of South Point High School in North Carolina — also emphasized the importance of the summer season for prospective college baseball players.
“The summer season for travel baseball has gotten so big, and it just makes so much sense recruiting-wise,” Lowery said. “I mean, you got a PBR (Prep Baseball Report) tournament, and you have over 500 players at this tournament, for a college coach it makes sense.”
Lowery — who had four of his team’s five seniors sign to play at the next level before the season began and said is “working” on finding his fifth senior a home — said the summer is when the bulk of a pitcher’s innings are going to come, and is when most of your at-bats are going to come as a position player.
Winthrop’s Riginos, who frequents summer tournaments with his staff, agreed with Lowery’s sentiment: The spring season is important for recruiting in baseball, and thus is affected by the cancellations caused by coronavirus — but the summer season is the most important.
“Let’s hope the virus is settled down by May, so you’re going to still have the full summer,” Riginos said. “Summer is very important to baseball. It’s very, very important.”
Coronavirus and football recruiting
College sports recruiting across all seasons are affected by the timing of coronavirus. But each sport is affected differently.
Is it conceivable that the recruitment cycle in some sports isn’t irrevocably derailed if coronavirus cancellations subside by the summer? Perhaps. After all, universities around the country host Track and Field camps over the summer, which is where a lot of coach-player interactions happen. Lacrosse and softball camps take place on college campuses in the summer and fall. AAU basketball tournaments normally last until June or July.
That said, one sport that is particularly affected by the pandemic’s presence in the spring, as far as recruitment goes, is football.
Devonte Holloman, former USC Gamecock football player and current head coach at South Pointe High School in Rock Hill, said the month of March is normally vital for football recruits.
“Kids aren’t able to go and see as many spring games and be on campus as much as they normally would be,” Holloman told The Herald. “Also, some big-time camps have been canceled, including the Rivals camp, which is one of the leading (football recruitment) sites, and Carolina Xposure, which is a local group that does a lot of good work for our kids.”
In May, South Pointe begins spring football, and deeper in the summer, the school will begin its 7-on-7 season.
“You can’t only look at it from a football standpoint,” Holloman said. “You gotta look at it from a school standpoint. We gotta figure out how these kids in the class of 2020 are going to graduate…
“There is no perfect time of the year for anything like this to happen. But football-wise? I’m a football coach, that’s my world. Every time of the year is important.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2020 at 2:53 PM.
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