Anon College recruiting question

[Anonymous (ad85)]

This might be a dumb question. Has anyone heard of a gymnast getting abruptly blackballed from a college team due to politics or a bad recommendation from a former club coach? I’m guessing this is not totally unheard of.

 

[FlippinLilysMom]

A bad recommendation from a club coach could definitely impact recruiting.

 

[Anonymous (13d5)]

Definitely heard of it, one of the girls at my old gym very talented, national placements in top 10 etc. but had very strong political opinions on social media. B/c of her racism and overall derogatory behaviors she expressed online she wasn’t even offered to visit many colleges except low level D1s when she probably had the potential for a top 20 team.

 

[Anonymous (ad85)]

A bad recommendation from a club coach could definitely impact recruiting.

We are trying to make sense of weird experience. Daughter was in very regular communication with a team over the past year. She just went for a visit, did photo shoot, etc. Everything went fine during the visit. Her former club coach was involved in some very high drama last year that resulted in my daughter having to move gyms senior year. He was fired and we made our displeasure with the whole experience known. He’s very tight with a fifth year on this team and knows the coaches. All of a sudden the team has no spot for our daughter ever and the explanation had nothing to do with her gymnastics. She has an offer elsewhere at a program she loves, but it was very weird and made no sense to us. We need to let it go.

 

[Anonymous (ad85)]

Definitely heard of it, one of the girls at my old gym very talented, national placements in top 10 etc. but had very strong political opinions on social media. B/c of her racism and overall derogatory behaviors she expressed online she wasn’t even offered to visit many colleges except low level D1s when she probably had the potential for a top 20 team

Ok, so this sort of thing does happen. I figured. In our case, daughter didn’t do anything as far as we know. We think former coach gave her a bad recommendation

 

[Anonymous (58ed)]

We are trying to make sense of weird experience. Daughter was in very regular communication with a team over the past year. She just went for a visit, did photo shoot, etc. Everything went fine during the visit. Her former club coach was involved in some very high drama last year that resulted in my daughter having to move gyms senior year. He was fired and we made our displeasure with the whole experience known. He’s very tight with a fifth year on this team and knows the coaches. All of a sudden the team has no spot for our daughter ever and the explanation had nothing to do with her gymnastics. She has an offer elsewhere at a program she loves, but it was very weird and made no sense to us. We need to let it go.

Let it go and move on and be very glad she has somewhere else to go. Thank goodness! There is a reason for everything, and if your daughter is happy that is all that matters.

 

[gym_dad32608]

Did they offer a scholarship and then pull it? Or were you going through the recruiting process (the calls, the visits, etc) and then they suddenly went cold? If so, then that happens all the time. I would tend to lean on the "normal recruiting behavior from colleges" than the "some mysterious entity blackballing recruit". Of course college teams are going to vet recruits regarding politics and such, but more for fit with the culture of the team than any political preference. If they had her for an official, then all that vetting was done. It might surprise you but college coaches talk with other college coaches about the same athlete that they both might be recruiting. They also talk with club coaches too, anything to give them insight into what a target recruit might be thinking or leaning. They might have gotten word that she had another offer and that she loves that program and decided that best to move on to another target before they might lose that one. The later in the recruiting season, the tighter the windows and the more extreme the actions from programs (hot to cold). Either way, as others have said, just move on.

 

[Anonymous (ad85)]

Let it go and move on and be very glad she has somewhere else to go. Thank goodness! There is a reason for everything, and if your daughter is happy that is all that matters.

Agreed. She is very blessed to have another opportunity elsewhere. We were worried in the moment that the coach might do further damage, but as far as we know, he doesn't have any ties to the other program. Thank you