Young players part of new trend

January 10, 2008

Players choosing colleges before finishing their junior seasons

Large room. Big table with inquisitors sitting on the other side. Bright lights.

"I never talked," Annick McBryar said. "My mom was doing all the talking."

Duke University, however, was not looking for a confession from McBryar during her unofficial, look-around trip this fall to the school's campus. Well, make that looking for a traditional confession of guilt. They sought a confession of intent, however. Was the Atlantic Coast Conference school the one McBryar wanted to wear a soccer uniform for?

"You shouldn't be pressured like that," McBryar said.

Like it or not, McBryar had become stuck in the swirl of NCAA Division I women's soccer recruiting. A junior at Satellite High, McBryar is a 16-year-old midfielder/sweeper. Before she had played more than a month of her junior scholastic season, McBryar had made her choice of college program, giving Florida a verbal commitment in November over Duke and the University of California.

McBryar is hardly alone on the Scorpions, who begin defense of their Class 5A state title with next week's start of district play. Junior forward Allison Griffin, for instance, has issued a verbal to the University of South Florida. Griffin received her scholarship offer despite missing this season because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament sustained in September.

Another Satellite forward, junior Tishia Jewell, also expects to issue a verbal commitment this school year. She is trying to decide between numerous schools, including Florida, UCF and East Tennessee State.

"I want to see everything I can," Jewell said following Tuesday's Satellite practice. "Every school tells you, 'We're so good.' This is the time to (decide). If you wait until your senior year, you'll be in trouble. There will be no (scholarship) money left."

Talent-rich Satellite is obviously an exception in terms of quantity of girls being asked to make college choices before their final years of high school.

Yet the situations for McBryar, Griffin and Jewell illustrate a trend in Division I recruiting: wrap up identified talent sooner. Stories periodically surface of basketball players giving verbal commitments in their sophomore, even freshman, seasons.

One reason this occurs is that traveling club teams make better players more visible to college recruiters. Another is the internet with its scouting/recruiting sites and services.

This means talented players like McBryar are almost being forced to choose a college as many classmates are thinking about little else but what movie to watch or what to listen to on the iPod.

Making the decision-making tougher is colleges cannot directly contact high school juniors by phone until they are seniors. E-mails and regular mail are permitted. Often a college coach will tell a player's club coach of that school's interest, then wait for the prospect to contact the college.

Griffin said she realized last year that the time for pondering her future was rapidly approaching. She saw teammate Ella Stephan, a year ahead of her in school, commit to Florida State as a junior.

"Since Ella lives so close to me, once she made a decision, it was an eye-opener for me," Griffin said. "I saw her put a Florida State sticker on her car."

Not a poor choice for Stephan, who graduated a half-year early from Satellite to join the Seminoles' program this month. By enrolling early -- a la quarterback Tim Tebow at Florida -- Stephan will have eight months to train with FSU's program before her first college season. Yet by doing so, she did not complete her senior season at Satellite.

The trend's risks and question marks, of course, are many. For instance:

Can a school get burned if a player who commits gets hurt or fails to improve as a senior?

Can an athlete want out of the non-binding verbal commitment, but not do so out of obligation?

Will a better opportunity bypass an athlete because he/she committed early?

Nothing in this game of grab-a-scholarship-while-you-can is binding, of course, until a letter-of-intent is signed. For the Satellite trio of juniors, that cannot occur until February 2009.

"You can always change," McBryar said.

As can the school, although that would be poor public relations if it reneged on an offer. It happens nonetheless.

So let the recruiting games begin -- even if some of the participants have only been driving a few months (or can't yet even -- one club teammate of McBryar's, a freshman from Orlando, has given Florida State a verbal commitment).

"I think we should be able to wait," Griffin said. "We shouldn't be forced to make an early decision. It's kind of like a domino effect. I wish we had more time, but that's not the way it is anymore."

Contact Cherry at 242-3684 or mcherry@floridatoday.com