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Extended Dead Period Impacts Recruitment

April 15 …. It was the day “normalcy” would return to recruitment. High school baseball players - some just beginning their season and others already in mid-season, depending on where they live - could once again be seen in live action by college coaches.

It was going to be the end of …. THE DEAD PERIOD.

But that all changed once again last week when the NCAA elected to extend the recruiting dead period through May due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a follow-up to a November decision to have the dead period remain in place until mid-April.

It’s been almost a year now since recruits were permitted to take on-campus visits. E-mail, mail, private messages, texts, phone calls and social media remain the only way recruits and coaches can communicate at the Division I level.

While coaches can still actively evaluate recruits online by watching film and researching databases, the NCAA is attempting to take coaches off the road. Additionally, coaches can not host or attend camps on college campuses during the dead period.

According to the NCAA website: "During a dead period a college coach may not have face-to-face contact with college-bound student-athletes or their parents, and may not watch student-athletes compete or visit their high schools.”

By the time June comes around, it will have been 14 months since official campus visits or in-person contact with coaches were permitted. The NCAA instituted a dead period last March to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and extended it through the fall and winter … and now spring.

PROS AND CONS

While sometimes difficult to see, there are pros and cons in the NCAA decision according to Shooter Hunt, Prep Baseball Report National Crosschecker.

“First and foremost, I'd hope that the NCAA is doing this to try and help stop the spread of Covid and to help protect the players/coaches on campus,” Hunt explained. “That seems like the biggest ‘pro’ to help provide for a more normal summer recruiting period. Beyond that, I think the dead period should help the coaches/recruits continue to foster relationships via phone calls/texts versus just watching in person.

“It will also help elevate platforms that are able to host live-feed games and advanced analytics (Trackman). The industry (MLB and college included) favors the metrics so heavily that much can be done simply from streaming a game with data, and we saw that last summer with our Trackman roll out as coaches tuned in to the PBR Future Games and were able to commit players from all across the country.”

But there are cons when it comes to players not being seen live by college coaches.

“The value of seeing a player in person is immense, and the vast majority of college coaches want to see a player multiple times before committing them,” Hunt explained. “It's a big part of the evaluation part (being there in person), and actually ties in very strongly to our rankings process. There is so much more to a player's game than the statistics, and you have to be out at the game to understand it. This has changed in the Covid era, but I'm sure that they all want things to get back to normal as soon as possible. For an uncommitted 2021 player it is heartbreaking because so much of their recruitment is now predicated on the spring high school season.”

VIEW OF PLAYERS

Spring baseball. Memories are made while players participate in the game they love, many with their best friends from their childhood days.

It is also a time for those thinking about playing at the next level to get seen by college coaches. It is time to make an impression. But that is not the case this season, at least until June 1 due to the extension of the dead period.

That is something not being taken lightly by high school baseball recruits.

“I always looked at recruiting as so many coaches would come out and watch,” pointed out Bedford (Mich.) High School junior Chace Cinglie. “When the virus settled in it’s not normal anymore. It’s hard to become personable with coaches over the phone. Who knows if I’ll ever meet my college coach until I commit? We definitely got the short end of the stick when it comes to recruiting.”

Justin Colpack, an uncommitted junior from Easthampton, Ma., sees it the same way.

“I feel it hurt me not being able to be in the right place at the right time,” explained Colpack, the third-rated 2022 first baseman in New England. “I wasn’t able to be in front of the right coaches and showcase how good of a baseball player I am.”

Peyton Rose, another uncommitted junior from Massachusetts, agreed.

“It’s had a big impact on me,” the Noble & Greenough High School 2022 related. “I was really looking forward to last spring. As a freshman I played a bit, but was really looking forward to my sophomore year to see where I was at. Coaches really wanted to see me play in person.

“It’s sort of weird since now I’m being recruited with nothing in-person and traveling is hard. It slowed down the process which is probably the biggest thing that’s taken place.”

Even committed players like Lane Rhodes, a senior who recently committed to Youngstown State - less than a half hour from his Salem, Ohio home - saw an impact in the dead period.

“It was definitely weird,” Rhodes said of the change in the recruiting process once the coronavirus hit and the dead period was put into place. “I started to get interest the winter of my junior year and was planning on taking some visits, but with a snap of the finger it didn’t happen. A lot of interest went away.”

Rather than in-person contact with coaches, players must now rely on video in addition to phone conversations. But that can have problems in the eyes of some.

“Video can only show so much,” Cinglie pointed out. “Any player can take 50 swings and cut in the best 10. There are showcase players and game players and the game players are struggling. These mentally game-tough players are getting overlooked like crazy.”

Caden Bates feels that was the case with him.

“The virus made it tough on me,” explained Bates, an Alliance, Ohio sophomore who recently committed to Bowling Green. “It changed the way recruiting was done and what I thought it would be, especially for me. I’m not a showcase guy but believe I can bring a lot of other great qualities. The virus definitely gave me a disadvantage when it came to that, but I stayed to my grind and got an opportunity out of it.”

Others have lost opportunities along the way with the dead period extended.

“Covid put a stall in my recruitment,” pointed out Ethan Henry, a sophomore at South Christian High School in Michigan. “I wasn’t able to play in big tournaments I was going to go to in the summer. Since scouts weren’t coming, our team cancelled and it cut Michigan and Kentucky off. They’re not going to pull the trigger on a 2023 they haven’t seen in person and say he’s our guy.”

Fortunately for Henry, a connection was made with Oakland and the top-ranked sophomore left-handed pitcher in Michigan is off the recruitment board.

Luke Walton, a junior at Perkins High School in Sandusky, Ohio, is another that has made a commitment during the dead period.

“I know about roster sizes and how much harder it is now, I just had to keep doing what I was doing,” the University of Toledo commit said of working through all the problems created in the recruiting process. “I felt I’d eventually get my offer and commit somewhere.”

But other players, such as Kyle Remington, are still in search of that opportunity.

“I had some plans before covid, I just had to pivot and adapt,” noted Remington, an uncommitted sophomore at Grand Rapids Christian High School in Michigan. “I researched some schools online and I’ve done some virtual tours and also got on campus at some schools with my parents. I’m planning more on spring break. What I’m really looking forward to is when I can meet coaches on campus.”

But that won’t happen any time soon. Those like Logan Van Sickle, a Waterford Kettering uncommitted junior, have tried to make the most of it.

“I feel it was a blessing to get shut down so now players had free time to work,” the fifth-ranked 2022 catcher in Michigan explained about last year when the season was cancelled and the dead period implemented. “It’s not altered my improvement, it’s helped me. I’ve shut myself in my home with weights and balls and gotten better.”

Better, yes, but unfortunately there is nobody able to see it when it comes to in-person recruitment.

“I had a lot of big colleges wanting to see me in the spring but with the dead period they’re not going to be able to do that,” Cinglie summarized. “So I’ve been sending everything I do to them. I want to let them know I’m working and that progress is being made. If they want to take a shot at somebody, make it me.”

Still, there is that desire to talk in-person to coaches and to see a school first-hand. Many recruits see that as a priority when it comes to making a college decision.

“I want to get on campus and make sure my new home is right for me and my family, so getting on campus is a must,” Remington said. “Right now I’m keeping my options open. Each program is different. When I get on campus it will just click.”

SCOUTING DIRECTORS

Nobody has a better inside look at the subject than those that are involved in recruiting for a living - scouting directors.

“Covid has created some really difficult situations and problems for both players and coaches,” explained Jordan Chiero, PBR Ohio Director of Scouting. “We are just trying to do our best to provide coverage and help both players and coaches during this difficult time. We’ve seen over thousands of players this winter and are planning to cover a record number of games this spring.

“At the end of the day, you have to control what you can control. Players must continue getting better and college coaches doing the best that they can to recruit, whether that’s in person or not. We will continue to do our best to bridge the gap now more than ever.”

Aaron Wilson, PBR Michigan Director of Scouting, understands the difficulty the dead period brings from both sides while giving advice to players in the midst of the recruiting process.

“We are facing unprecedented times where there is a lot of uncertainty,” WIlson said. “We will get through this together and always be an outlet to help promote players to colleges of all levels. Keep working hard, stay patient and you will receive your reward.”

Trevor Brown sees PBR as a tool that is out there to use at this time.

“The extended dead period allows student-athletes to get ready from being in such limbo all year, with quarantine,” the PBR director of scouting for Connecticut and Rhode Island said. “From a coaches perspective, PBR will continue to aid in their ability to follow players through the website and social media.”

Dennis Healy, the PBR scouting director for Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire, points to what the dead period is doing to the high school athletes as a major downfall in the decision.

“I believe the kids are suffering from this,” Healy noted. “They have put in countless hours, made sacrifices and want to put forth their best effort in front of college coaches. It has been tough on them.”

But Healy understands the problems it causes for college coaches as well.

“As for the coaches, they are in an extremely difficult spot, making decisions based off of live stream video and youtube. I’ll tell you what, that is not easy. Hopefully, this summer we can get back to some sort of normalcy.”

THE FUTURE

But is normalcy really in the future?

Could this be the start of what is to come?

Is this the new way of recruitment?

“I think there is a happy medium to all of this, and I am a big believer in the Bell Curve,” explained Hunt. “When the dead period ends - and it will - coaches are going to be desperate to get back on the road. However, their time is the most valuable asset, and they only have so much of it. Because of this, having more background information on players is of vital importance (data, analytics, video). College coaches won't be able to ‘waste’ days going to see a player without having a trusted source vouch for them, and combining the use of the analytics with video prior to going to see them in person will be standard practice moving forward.”

That is where Prep Baseball Report can come into play according to Hunt.

“PBR's commitment to advancing the use of data/analytics, and placing them directly in the hands of college coaches is immeasurably beneficial to prospective student-athletes,” Hunt said. “But perhaps even more so, the relationships that college coaches have with our ‘boots-on-the-ground’ staff allows them to trust our evaluations which helps provide even greater confidence in recruiting a player that they cannot see in person.”

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