Recruiting: Did Some Elite 2021 Grads Get Contacted at Midnight on September 1? Absolutely!

Nervous excitement among the nation’s top 2021 softball prospects had been building for weeks leading up to Labor Day weekend with the Day 1 of recruiting approaching on Sept. 1.

Under the new recruiting rules for softball—which had turned into a nuclear arms race in recent years with top recruits committing to colleges in junior high/middle schools— players aren’t allowed to make verbal contact with coaches until their junior year in high school.

So it’s understandable why there was a high level of anticipation heading into Saturday evening, the eve of first contact, as midnight approached. No one really knew what to expect when the clock struck 12 am and college coaches were allowed to be in touch.

So what did September 1 bring? For some elite high school juniors, it was what everything they had hoped it would be.

“Day 1 was amazing,” said Stevie Hansen, a talented right-hander from Norco High and Athletics-Mercado in So Cal. “I was so nervous in the hours before midnight from anticipation of who was going to call. It was crazy to think that schools that I grew up watching on TV and at tournaments here in California could possibly want me to go to their school and be coached by these amazing people.”

Hansen didn’t have to wait long for her first call, from Tennessee, just after midnight. Calls and texts from more SEC and Pac-12 teams followed on Sunday.

“It was so amazing talking to the coaches that did call because they were very easy to talk to and made it as easy as it could have been,” Hansen said. “I had gotten a lot of calls and texts and some emails on camps and information about schools and their campus and things like that.”

She wasn’t the only big-name player to field calls and electronic messages into the night.

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