How high school recruits can keep getting their names out

The five-star high school recruits out there probably aren't sweating it.

It being the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has wreaked havoc on the high school calendar, spring sports and club and travel schedules.

So many events have been canceled. So many more are hanging in the balance.

For high school athletes in every sport, junior year is the most critical in the college recruiting journey. This is when their skills are the most scrutinized, and their abilities to fit into a college program are the most contemplated by college coaches.

Juniors such as Max Christie, a basketball star at Rolling Meadows who is ranked by 247Sports as the 13th-best junior in the country and the No. 1 recruit in Illinois, will still have cream of the crop scholarship offers when COVID-19 is well behind us.

But what about all the juniors out there who are talented and have college potential but who aren't as highly touted and were counting on the spring and the summer to really make a statement, to significantly improve their stock, to give that over-the-top effort that would push them to the front of the line with recruiters?

Now, they're just sitting at home, watching those opportunities for showmanship slip through their grasp with each passing day of this lockdown.

There's work to do

"It's easy if you're a top kid, even a top 100 kid. Those kids are going to be fine," said Montini girls basketball coach Jason Nichols, who is a national evaluator for Blue Star Basketball, a girls basketball recruiting service. "But if you're a fringe kid, if you're a 125 to 300 kid and a little bit under the radar, and there are a ton of other kids out there just like you, then you've got some work to do.

"You have to be in contact with college coaches. They are sitting at home too. Make a call, send an e-mail. Communicating is key."

Mary Kate Fahey, a junior point guard at Hersey, just had a call with coaches at the University of Chicago earlier this week. She has some Division II offers but is starting to hear from schools in the Ivy League and the Patriot League and was hoping to use the spring and summer AAU seasons to firmly push her way into the Division I pool. Since she can't showcase her game right now, she is doing the next best thing. She is making personal contacts with college coaches a high priority during quarantine.

"I'm doing Zoom calls with coaches, talking over the phone, whatever I can do," said Fahey, who averaged 12.8 points and 4.6 assists this past season and was named third-team all-state. She also broke Hersey's assist-to-turnover ratio record (2.16). "Since I can't go on visits, since I can't meet anyone in person and since I can't play to show them what I can do, I have to just try to build relationships right now. I have to be flexible and be extra open on phone calls.

"I'm definitely expanding the list of coaches I talk to. I'm trying to talk to and meet as many as I can."

In this age of texts and e-mails and direct messaging through social media, recruiting experts are encouraging athletes to take advantage of every possible method for staying in communication with the coaches they have had contact with before, or even establishing new relationships with coaches.

Videos more important than ever

There are other things to do too: namely with film.

"The Hudl videos are really the calling card for football guys and I would tell guys that they need to go through those videos and have a coach watch it and re-edit it to really make sure it's the best video possible for them," said Tim "Edgy Tim" O'Halloran, a football evaluator for Rivals.com. "I know kids who have good video, but it comes across in such a better light once they have a coach look at it and they re-do it. Maybe you also include some plays that you wouldn't normally think of. Maybe not every play has to be a touchdown, but maybe you made a really good block. That shows you doing something else that is valuable."

Nichols recommends that recruits send out film that shows them doing all kinds of valuable things, across a complete game.

"Some kids do only highlight videos, and while that might pique interest, that is a mistake," Nichols said. "I was just talking with Samantha Williams, the head women's coach at Eastern Kentucky, and she said she gets so annoyed to get only highlight tapes. She wants to see a whole game. She wants to see a kid's motor over a complete game, she wants to see if a kid plays defense for seven, eight possessions in a row. She wants to see how a kid runs the floor and how she is around her teammates.

"Coaches have nothing to do right now. They can sit there and watch a lot of film, more film than they ever have before. So send everything you have out there. Let them see you in a complete game. And if we get to play in July, they will already have a really good idea of who you are."

Use all avenues available

So how does an athlete know what coaches and programs are best to target in these uncharted times?

Bill Conroy, head of the Beverly Bandits, one of the most successful travel softball teams in the country, has already helped all but three of his juniors secure scholarship offers with commitments. For those who are still looking, he suggests zeroing in on the NCAA's transfer portal.

Find programs that are losing players to transfers and contact them.

"They will have open roster spots, they will be looking for people," Conroy said. "Get your video and schedule to these coaches, make calls."

And in the meantime, Conroy says that athletes should be doing the obvious: working out.

"Because summer will come, and hopefully we'll all be playing and you better be able to show that you haven't been sitting on the couch eating bonbons and watching every episode of 'The Walking Dead,' " Conroy said, with half a laugh. "There will be a time when we are out there again and you better be able to hit the ground running when those coaches are there watching."

Fahey says that it's been awhile since she has done meaningful shooting. She has a hoop in her driveway at home, but the driveway is on a slant, so shooting there is not ideal.

But she is doing anything else she can think of to be ready to show her stuff once life, and recruiting, gets back to normal.

"I just did a ball-handling workout with my trainer on FaceTime," Fahey said. "I'm trying to keep my skills sharp just in case we get July. I know I have improved since AAU last year with ball-handling and basketball IQ and being a leader on the court. I'm looking forward to playing again in front of the coaches and showing them what I'm doing now."

Improving your stock during quarantine? It's possible.

Here's a punch list for college recruits, courtesy Edgy Tim (Rivals.com), Jason Nichols (Blue Star Basketball) and Bill Conroy (Beverly Bandits)

1. Communicate: Don't be shy. You have a phone. Use it. Call coaches. Text them. E-mail them. Direct message them via Twitter. Stay in touch regularly. College coaches are sitting at home just like you. They have the time now to communicate with you and get to know you.

2. Video doctor: Give your videos a thorough wellness checkup. Are your highlights really your best highlights? Do they portray you as versatile and a good teammate? And don't stop with highlights. Coaches want to see a full body of work, too. Send videos of full games so that coaches can watch you work from start to finish. They are looking for skills, but also intangibles like motor and leadership.

3. Target transfers: Be opportunistic. One athlete's entrance into the NCAA transfer portal could be an open door for you to a program that suddenly has an open roster spot it needs to fill. Send your videos and make your calls to programs you know for sure have a need.

4. Get your team together: Call on your travel and club coaches and your high school coaches to advocate for you. Have them make calls on your behalf. Have them send out letters of recommendation listing all of your accomplishments. They will be happy to help, but you need to ask.

5. Tweet, tweet: Make sure your Twitter profile is sharp and professional and includes contact information such as your e-mail address.

6. Grades matter: Don't forget about the academic side of this. If you can get your hands on your transcript and test scores, do so. Even if you have just a snapshot on your phone of those official documents, you can easily get that information to coaches when they ask. That will move you way to the front of the line.

7. Keep sweating: This quarantine is not a vacation, or a license to watch endless hours of Netflix. Eventually stay-at-home will be lifted. Eventually, college coaches will be able to evaluate you. Be ready by continuing to work hard now even though conditions are not ideal. Every little bit helps.