If you are looking to play a sport in college, recruiting is a big part of your college search experience. I am a junior, swim year-round for a club team, and represent Freedom Swim Team, and starting on June 15th, 2020, I started getting emails and phone calls from colleges who wanted me to swim for them.Though it was a lengthy process…about 7 months, I am now, recently, committed to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill-go tar heels!!

In the beginning, I had no idea where I wanted to go. I talked to 33 schools and was reached out to by about 100 in total, ranging from NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division Ones to NAIA (National Athletic Intercollegiate Association) schools. At the start, I was really overwhelmed; a lot of big-name teams were reaching out to me, and it was a lot to handle.

In October, it had been about four months since recruiting started, and a lot of people had already committed, and in a normal…non-pandemic… year, I would have likely already taken my recruiting trips and decided on a college. However, with COVID, I was unable to take any recruiting trips, instead opting on family trips. We started visiting the campuses I was really interested in. My family and I ended up visiting nine schools, and along the way visited some for my brother (he is a senior this year). It was a lot of fun to take trips to see campuses, and I would recommend to any student that if you can, visit a school that you might want to attend! It really allows you to get a feel for whether you would be comfortable spending years in that environment or not.

In most cases, I had met some of the swim and dive team members along with the coaches-though not in person per the NCAA’s rules. In December, I had gotten back from my last of 4 trips and had begun getting scholarship offers only a couple of weeks before. After that trip, I had it narrowed down to my top six schools and was quickly on my way to having a top three.

After the New Year, I was officially down to three, and decided to have a couple last calls and to go with my gut, as only so many pros and cons lists can be made. Exactly seven months after recruiting started, I made my last official “no” call to my second choice, then not an hour later, made my final recruiting call, and by far the best. Committing to be an athlete in college is definitely stressful, but it’s going to be so worth it.