The year is officially in full swing, and we are getting closer to the start of the collegiate season with each week! Hopefully, everyone is settling into a routine with managing new classes, living on their own, and going through all that preseason throws at you. Even if this first month has felt overwhelming, we can’t forget that getting to this point was everything you wished for! Beginning recruiting in the early years of high school, these four years are consumed with making yourself stand out amongst thousands of other athletes. Now, you are finally in the spot you always wanted to be and are just three months out from competing as a part of a collegiate team!
But, let’s back track a little bit.
Gymnastics recruiting starts early. When I was looking for my perfect school, there were girls around me committing as early as seventh grade, and I felt like I was late committing my sophomore year of high school. Even with the recent rule changes over the past couple of years and the official commitment process starting in your junior year, you still have to market yourself early on, so that when it does come time, there is the opportunity to go where you have always dreamed of.
Finding your perfect school is such a layered process; you have to make decisions early on about what you want in a school, what you might want to do with your career down the line, and then look and see if there is actually a place on the team you could fill. Some rosters fill up quickly, so even if you have dreamed of going to one place since you started thinking about doing college gymnastics, for some reason, maybe that wasn’t the place for you at that time. That’s why it is so important to keep an open mind because the perfect school might not have been what you originally thought it would be, but can end up being everything you needed.
So how do you find this perfect match? Everyone always says ‘it’s just a feeling,’ and it is, but what actually is that feeling? Recruiting now on social media has been something of a guessing game; top athletes tease where they are going, showing the different visits they have taken, and ultimately, making that decision after assessing all their options. There is no perfect number for how many official visits to take, sometimes you might just know after your very first visit. Usually, however, in the past couple of years, we typically see recruits go on a handful of official visits, get the whole weekend experience, meet the team, and then decide.
When making this decision, there are so many aspects to take into consideration. You have to see if this is the type of campus you can see yourself on and feel safe at for the next four years. Did you always imagine going to a smaller school with a 25:1 ratio in a classroom, or did you want to go to a bigger school where your first intro to psychology class is you and 300 other people in an auditorium? Have you dreamt of being in a city or being in a college town? Do you care if you have to buy a heavy-duty winter coat if you are going North, or get adjusted to a new time zone when you go West?
Being a student-athlete, the student comes first and you have to make sure, what you want to do in the future, or if you have a couple ideas of what you want your career to be, are even available at that school. When I first started looking at schools and decided I wanted to go into teaching, not every school I visited had a Secondary Education program, and when making my final decision, this was at the top of the priority list. Most schools offer additional academic support to student-athletes, but it is always something to ask about when going on visits. Looking at if schools have tutors as you get into more of the niche classes in your upperclassman years, if there are mandatory study hall hours and how does a specific program class load interfere with practice are all things to look at when making this decision.
All of these aspects are things to heavily consider when the time comes, and now adding in all of the pieces surrounding gymnastics. One of the things that has always stuck with me when I was a recruit was how did the overall vibe of the team feel? You have to feel like these are people you can see yourself growing up with over the next four years, in regard to not only the other athletes, but the coaches as well. Talking to the other girls, asking them about their likes, their experiences, how they adjusted, are all going to help you make your decision, but in the end, you really have to determine if you would be happy in this new place. One of the biggest, most important pieces of advice I could give would be to make sure if you weren’t going to be doing a sport, would you still be happy at this place? Injuries happen, retirements are common at this level, and ensuring that you would still be just as happy at this school is certainly one of the biggest aspects to take into consideration.
When I committed to the University of Bridgeport, I did get that homey feeling that that was where I was supposed to be, but honestly, I didn’t think that it would ever happen for me. I came from a club gym where I was one of two level tens, so having college coaches come in and watch us practice was not in the cards. There are a lot of big-name club gyms that produce handfuls of high-level USAG and elite athletes that have college coaches come in and watch their athletes to keep them on their radar, even if it’s not time for them to commit yet. For the athletes who might be their gym’s first level ten athlete on the college path, that is something to absolutely be proud of, but it just means they have to work a little harder to connect with college coaches to stand out.
I really didn’t think that getting on a collegiate team would be a possibility for me, and a lot of that came from rejection early on; but looking back on it, it wasn’t rejection, just redirection. I am a true believer that when the time is right, everything will align and fall into place, and that is exactly what happened when I got recruited and committed to Bridgeport. I met my best friends, my fiancè, had the best freshman year, and got to live out my dream of competing as an NCAA athlete. When I transferred to Temple during COVID, I got this same feeling. Again, I didn’t believe that I could get on another team, but I was given an opportunity to compete after I thought I was done with gymnastics, and those three years were all I could have ever wanted.
One of the biggest aspects of recruiting is believing in your capabilities and knowing that there is a place for you, even if it feels like there might not be. Keeping an open mind, being your own biggest advocate, and knowing your priorities when choosing a school are the greatest pieces of advice I received during my time. It really is a gut feeling when making this decision, and all the pieces do fall into place when the time is right. While one door may be closed, maybe the perfect opportunity opened somewhere else, and it was the right path the whole time, you just didn’t see it yet.
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Article by Julianna Roland
