Rhonda Revelle was a Top Coach guest back in episode 273. It was one of the most delightful and insightful conversations I’ve had in a long time. She is another of the majority of coaches who’s definitely in this for the right reason.
In this article she talks about the effort the curb early recruiting — an effort spearheaded by National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) and being voted on by the NCAA.
Rhonda Revelle was ready to make her recruiting pitch, but hesitated once she heard the tone of the player’s voice. The Nebraska softball coach could sense something was wrong.
The recruit seemed stressed out and unhappy. She was trying to make a major life decision at a much younger age than most kids. She didn’t know what she wanted, but feared the scholarship offers wouldn’t be there if she waited.
Revelle asked the player if she ever got tired of dealing with the recruiting process.
“I remember her saying — and it broke my heart — ‘Yeah. Sometimes I just want to take a break,’ because she was playing all year round and getting phone calls from coaches,” said Revelle, in her 26th season at Nebraska. “These kids don’t even know what they want for dinner at this age and we’re asking them to decide where they want to go to college. It’s too much, and it’s only getting worse.”
With some recruits giving commitments when they’re as young as 11, coaches say they see player development slipping, the number of transfers increasing and passion waning. Many coaches translate that as a breaking point, and want to restore health to the sport by putting an end to early recruiting.
The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) announced in January that its Division I membership had asked for all recruiting contact to begin Sept. 1 of a prospective student-athlete’s junior year of high school, similar to the legislation that was passed last year to end early recruiting in NCAA lacrosse.
The NCAA Division I Council and the Student-Athlete Experience Committee are meeting Monday through Wednesday in Indianapolis to discuss and vote on early recruiting proposals.
The SAEC is proposing potential rule changes that include aligning unofficial and official visits to both begin on Sept. 1 of the junior year, and not allowing recruiting conversations to take place at camps or clinics before the junior year.
If the legislation is approved by vote, it will be sent to the NCAA board of directors on April 24 for ratification. If ratified, the rules would be effective immediately for all sports outside of football and men’s and women’s basketball, which have separate oversight committees, according to Brandy Hataway, the NCAA director of academic and membership affairs and staff liaison to the SAEC.
Read the entire article at ESPNW.
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