Recently the NCAA made the decision to extend the Dead Period through the end of the year. The Dead Period prevents college coaches from recruiting at tournaments and does not allow in-person contact such as a meeting when a student-athlete is visiting campus. While this continues to make the recruiting process difficult for all parties there are still some ways to remain active. Also, keep in mind, DII, DIII, and NAIA programs are not under this Dead Period rule.

If you are pursuing opportunities at DI programs then you need to both remain active but also patient. As long as you are being realistic with the programs you are contacting, then you need to continue to update the coaches and try to provide more visual updates via video and social media. They can’t actually see you in person right now so you need to try and give them as much insight as possible.

It is very difficult to navigate things right now bc coaches are handling this much differently. Some are willing to take a chance on players without seeing them play, but others are willing to wait until springtime to do their recruiting if necessary. Some don’t want to take the time right now to even chat with a recruit that wasn’t on their list before all of this started, while others have taken this downtime to consider more recruits than they normally might take on.

Be sure you are not staying to narrow on your options, if you don’t have some really good traction going with several coaches then consider reaching out to more. But keep in mind, as I mentioned above, some coaches aren’t willing to consider new recruits until the dead period gets released and they can get out to watch you play. So it may mean that you have to be patient and hope they are still recruiting throughout the spring.

It’s been a tough year with a lot of adjustments so remember that in order to give yourself the best chance of finding options to play college golf you have to adjust your approach and be willing to do things that may not be typical of the normal recruiting process.

 

Written by: Brandi Jackson, RecruitPKB College Consultant

For more information about college recruiting, please contact Brandi at bjackson@pkbgt.org