Women's Watch: International college recruiter 'nervous' for business' future

It was an ambitious dream.

It was a dream realized.

And now, like so many others out there, it is a dream deferred.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit last month, Rachel Galligan was a fast-moving, globe-trotting 30-year-old who was combining her love of basketball and coaching and travel ... and essentially, living the dream.

Galligan, a native of downstate Bloomington and a well-known player in the world of women's college basketball, took a calculated leap three years ago when she saw a need and started her own international scouting business.

Now, with the world slowed to a snail's pace, she's hanging on like the rest of us, hoping that her risk wasn't too, well, risky.

"I love what I'm doing, no day is the same and this business is mine. It's my baby. It's fun, it's what I've always dreamed of," Galligan said. "But right now, I'm nervous. This (COVID-19) has complicated everything. This changes the game in a big way and all I can do is hold out hope that the summer will still be OK. The summer is a big time for me."

Galligan played basketball at Eastern Illinois after graduating from Bloomington Central Catholic in 2005. She then became an assistant coach at her alma mater for the coach she played for there, Brady Sallee.

Sallee wanted to get into international recruiting and put that task squarely on Galligan's plate. She educated herself about it, and worked to recruit international players, mostly Europeans, to Eastern Illinois. Those efforts intensified when Sallee got the head coaching job at Ball State and took Galligan with him.

As Galligan learned more about Europe and the recruiting game there, she fell in love with the process of connecting aspiring players overseas with their dreams of playing college basketball in the United States.

So Galligan left coaching to start her own scouting and recruiting service, Go Global Recruiting, and she has spent the last couple of years seeing the world. Until now.

"I've been to (14) countries, mostly in Europe, since I started this and normally, I'm going over there for a month at a time, going to tournaments, meeting with players, and creating databases with scouting information for my clients (in the United States)," Galligan said. "Now, I'm at home like everyone else. There are a lot of European tournament games in the summer and that's really where I spend my time watching players. Those are big for me. I rely on those heavily. I'm just hoping those events still take place."

Galligan lives in Denver. But during the height of the summer tournament season in Europe, Galligan moves her life there, using Barcelona as a home base, and travels by rail and car from country to country seeking out the best new talent.

"There is a lot of talent in Europe and a lot of players there who are built for college basketball here," Galligan said. "There are players there that would be gobbled up by the big schools if they lived here, but since they're coming from Europe, there are smaller schools, and mid-major schools that have access to them and that level of talent."

Go Global Recruiting is approved by the NCAA and charges a yearly subscription fee for access to its database and expertise. Galligan is essentially a one-woman army who does all of the scouting and written analyses herself.

College programs then pay the fee and have unlimited access to her website, which includes notes and vitals on some of the top European prospects.

Entering her third full year, Galligan is working with 28 subscribers, a majority of which are mid-majors. She placed 15 European players in college programs last season.

"When I was at Ball State, I saw the success of bringing in players from overseas," Galligan said. "I saw it was possible for us to get a caliber of player that we couldn't necessarily touch here.

"Part of my job now is to really educated the girls there and their families about what American basketball is all about. I feel like part of my job is to help them understand what they are getting into. And I'm trying to be really honest with the coaches about these players and how they would fit into their particular programs."

For both sides, the risk is high. For the players, it's being far from home, perhaps with a language barrier. For the coaches, it's investing a lot of money in a player that they may not have ever seen in person."

"It is risky," Galligan said. "But it can really work. I want to be a great bridge between players and coaches and I think I'm doing that. I have a strong understanding of both sides of this."

• Twitter: @babcockmcgraw