With about 24 hours separating us from yesterday’s announcement that the NCAA had approved several changes regarding Early Recruiting, we now are starting to see some of the impact of those rulings.
For example, with the big change of no contacting by college coaches until Sept. 1 of the recruit’s junior year, we’re seeing a flurry of verbals coming in “under the gun,” which is not surprising.
We’re also starting to get club coaches and event directors providing feedback and we’ll start with two that are representative of the general feeling so far….
CLUB COACH REACTION:
Jay Roberson is a long-time coach in the Birmingham Thunderbolts organization and also runs the Bolts 5-Star Events among others. He wrote Extra Inning Softball this morning saying:
“My phone has been ringing off the hook from our Bolts coaches and other travel coaches looking for advice regarding the new rule. Below is a blanket email I sent to all of them…”
Coaches,
College coaches will continue to spend the majority of their time, for now, at the 14U fields. They have none or very little money remaining to offer for kids in 16U. A couple of years from now you will see them start to spend more time at 16U games.
This doesn’t mean they will stop going to watch 14U games, but it will be a little more balanced. Right now, I would say they spend 75% of their time at 14U games and that will continue for the next year or two because they don’t have any or very little money to offer 16U age kids. Two years from now I see them starting to split their time between 14U and 16U evenly. 14U to evaluate and 16U to evaluate and offer.
Also, college coaches can still give travel coaches info on your kids they just can’t talk about offers. They can tell you that they like a kid, what they think they need to work on, ask about their grades, etc… They just can’t talk about anything involving an offer.
You can also still take an unofficial visit to a campus. It just can’t be based on recruiting or an offer. You can set up a campus tour and gather info on academics. However, the days of the unofficial being based on softball and meeting with the coaching staff at end of visit is over unless you are a junior.
Do not put college coaches in a bad situation by trying to get them to talk to you about offering a kid that is younger than a Junior. They will be watched very closely in the beginning of this and the NCAA would love to make an example out of someone right away to show that they mean business with this new rule.
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Randy Gale heads the Firecrackers-Gale program based in Colorado and contacted us today about one of his players who committed just last night (see below). We asked his thoughts on the ruling and he said:
“As a travel ball coach with a team filled with 2020’s, and 2021’s I have mixed emotions on the ruling. I personally wish it would have been Sept 1. of the sophomore year. I think that would have been a better decision.
I feel like it is going to very hard to make sure these girls that were looking forward to a very successful year of recruiting this summer, now have to wait an additional two summers to find out where they really stand with the schools that are interested in them.”
“But, I get the overall decision and agree on something needed to be done about not putting pressure on the girls/families, and coaches. I do believe the power 5 schools will still always get who they want and puts the other schools at a bit of a disadvantage.”
“I have a couple other girls getting serious interest right now from some high-level schools so I am interested if this will push offers to them in the next week, or set everything back. So much to talk about here!”
“Change is hard to get used to, and for those of us that are used to the current way need to learn and adjust. In the end, I think this will be better for the future of the sport and save some money for the younger teams. Now maybe organizations can put those extra funds in clinics and bring in alums to really focus on the fundamentals of the game.”
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Before and after the Early Verbal legislation news came out yesterday, there’s been a lot happening on the recruiting front… here are some newsworthy notes before we run our list of the 50 new additions that have come in over the last two days!
RECRUIT NEWS:
Nebraska picked up two talented players from the Corona Angels 04 team coached by Ondra Carter: 2022 OF Dakota Carter (coach’s daughter) who was ranked in the Extra Inning Softball Elite 100 and 2023 1B Cheyenne Castille, one of the fast-rising 7th graders on the West Coast.
What makes this a nice story on both sides is the players have been best friends since they were six or seven years old.
We’ll let Michelle Carter, Dakota’s mom, pick up the story from here…
“They have played together every year since Coach Carter (my husband, also know as Ondra, pronounced ‘Andre’) started coaching a 10U travel team and Dakota and Cheyenne got a roster spot by default! Ondra was the manager/coach and Cheyenne had an older sister on the team too.”
“Ondra had coached Cheyenne’s older sister Chachera as did Marty Tyson when she was little, so when it came time for her sister Camryn to go travel her father, Charles, (Ondra’s best friend) asked him to start coaching again after he had stopped when our daughter Nicole made Larry May‘s team Gordon’s Panther’s team and went to college.
Cheyenne’s father who was a sheriff and passed away a few years ago. Before Charles’ passed away, Ondra, who grew up with Marty, asked to bring his team into the Angel’s organization.
Tracy, Cheyenne’s mother, said that Coach Tyson “began a softball father to her and helped Cheyenne in the recruiting process with Nebraska because he had his own daughter play there and felt comfortable with her going there.”
Adds Michelle Carter, “One of the reason’s we were so comfortable with Dakota’s choice of Nebraska is because of all the Corona Angels that went there. We were able to ask the hard questions like, ‘Were bench warmers treated any different than All-Americans?’ and ‘Do the coaches keep promises?’ And ‘How are the academics, graduation rates, etc.’ Every Angel family whose child went there has had nothing but glowing recommendations.”
“Bottom line is that Coach (Rhonda) Revelle and her staff have the integrity that we as a family were looking for. They have the second highest amount of Academic All-Americans in the country and the community stands behind the university and their sports programs, men and women’s. At Nebraska, Dakota will get the true college town experience in an environment that reflect Midwestern values and our own.”
The two athletes themselves are excited to continue their friendship on and off the field in the Cornhusker State:
“The idea of being able to keep playing softball with my best friend is amazing,” says Dakota. “I wouldn’t have realized that we will have played 10 years together once we finished high school if my mom hadn’t pointed it out!”
Ondra, their coach and Dakota’s father, add: “Those two work hard outside of practice and don’t complain. When they’re not at hitting lessons, fielding lessons, doing agility /strength classes and working on speed training, they’re at the local cages getting extra cuts in or in my garage hitting off the tee. When they’re not doing that, they’re having sleepovers and staying up all night giggling. They’re like sisters.”
“They love to sit and watch college games on TV to the point where I know Dakota knows the stats of a lot of the teams that come on ESPN. I would say that makes them students of the game.”
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Scott Smith’s Texas Bombers 14U Gold team is loaded with talent and is ranked in the Elite Club 50 Team Rankings as one of the top dozen teams favored to win a National Championship this summer.
That talent includes five players headed to Texas A&M and Jo Evans picked up two outstanding players two days ago in 2021 catcher Emma Humplik and 2023 infielder Isabella “Isa” Torres.
Coach Smith today told us, “Isa is the absolute best middle infielder in the 2023 class in the State of Texas. I know that’s high praise, but her skill set is not normal.”
“She swings it from the left side of the plate and can do it all: hit for power, slap , bunt… you name it! Isa is as good of a young player as I have ever had the opportunity to coach. In addition to her talent, her softball IQ is crazy good. She has a level of confidence and moxie that a player of her age is not really supposed to have already.”
Here are the five A&M commits from the Bombers 14U Gold team:
- P Brenom Brown (2023)
- IF Isa Torres (2023)
- IF Kelsie Kelso (2022)
- OF Keely Williams (2022)
- C Emma Humplik (2021)
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It’s been a good week if you like Orange: the Beverly Bandits at the 14U level saw a pair of Elite 100 players in the 2022 class came off the “uncommitted” boards and verbal to Syracuse.
Lauren Vaughn, an outfielder/shortstop with Cray Allen’s Bandit’s team and ranked #63 in the Elite 100 and Sydney Doloszycki, a middle infielder who plays for Ramsey Harkness’s team, and ranked #93, both verballed to Syracuse.
Vaughn is athletic with good speed and a strong bat and and Doloszycki is a line-drive hitter who also has excellent speed.
They are two of four 8th graders on what is a strong team built on top 2021’s like Auburn-bound MIF Rose Roach and IF Grace Nieto, a Northwestern commit.
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We quoted Coach Randy Gale earlier in the article; he wrote us last night to say that his talented 2020 right-handed pitcher Hannah Farley had committed to Colorado State.
“Hannah is a very strong pitcher who last year hit the 800-strikeout mark in her third year with me and she has almost 1,000 K’s now,” Gale noted. “She is obviously a power pitcher with a great rise ball, and very good curve. Hannah is the type of kid that wants to play the best and not just play them but has that burning desire to beat them.”
“She committed this evening after having a few offers from a couple other DI’s. Given the new rule passing, we figured she had at least until the 24th of April to make a decision. However, she has grown up loving CSU so the new rule will really not have an effect on Hannah other than not being able to call Coach (Jen) Fisher.”
“However, she will be a junior this coming year so there is really less impact for her.”
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Dave Lotti, the head man for the Rhode Island Thunder, has had a trio of players commit recently in a pair of 2019’s—infielder Abbey Lamson to UMass and pitcher Kelsey Majkut to Quinnipiac.
Also verballing recently was 2020 Jenna Bradley, a pitcher going to Hofstra.
Says Coach Lotti: “Jenna is a kid who made our #2 Gold team at tryouts and moved quickly through the ranks and joined us by mid-fall. She had great performances at the Diamond 9 and Early Thanksgiving tournaments and progressed much faster than expected.”
“Jenna trains with Jen Balint, Maggie’s mom, and is a tireless worker with just an incredible work ethic which is why she moved through our system so fast. It’s going to be a big test for her this summer, but I believe she will be up for the challenge and by her junior year she should be able to get us over the top.”
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We finish with one of the biggest commit groups in the 2021 class as P/IF Katie Brooks became the 3rd pitcher and 8th overall prospect to verbal to Florida State when she committed recently.
Here’s what her club coach, Ryan Taylor of the DeMarini Aces, said of his prize pitcher:
“Katie has had an exciting two years with the Aces,” Coach Taylor begins. “It started for her last fall at the D9 Sun Classic and continued through Georgia. After the fall tournaments she took visits to Oregon and Washington. As Katie prepared throughout the spring her velocity continued to rise into the 62-63 range. She dominated the competition striking out 66 batters in 45 innings.”
“Katie was a big part of the 14U team’s run at Boulder IDT finishing 5th. As she rolled into the fall, the interest continued to rise with her getting additional offers. Initially she had planned to wait until August of her sophomore year to make a decision, but with the new recruiting rule coming in and having 15-plus offers, she felt too far along to wait.”
“Katie was humbled by the interest and the quality of coaches and programs that recruited her. In the end it came down to Kansas and Florida State. Both coaches did an excellent job and made her feel like there wasn’t a wrong choice.”
“She’s so excited to play for Lonnie (Alameda), one of the best pitching coaches in the country. Katie is one of the most competitive kids I’ve been around and she will also roam the middle for us this summer and hit in the heart of the lineup. She’s currently second on the team in home runs and has her pitching speed to 63-64 mph.”
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