OHIO — The pandemic has placed an incredible amount of pressure on student-athletes, their parents, and coaches. Campus tours have been replaced with Zoom calls and many athletic recruits are feeling the strain of signing up for a four-year college before they’ve ever even stepped on campus.

What You Need To Know

  • The pandemic has put major stress on student-athletes and the colleges that recruit them because of restraints made on visiting college campuses and the like

  • Since COVID-19 broke, virtual campus tours have replaced on-site visits

  • For recruiters, the live talent analysis from the sidelines has since been reduced to analyzing hours of game tape

  • Athletes and recruiters say the entire recruiting experience is not the same because of the boundaries

“It’s kind of turned it upside-down for the potential student-athletes and the college coaches,” said Doug Matthews, head tennis coach at Xavier University.


For athletic recruiters and student-athletes alike, this has been a summer without showcases due to COVID-19. Since the pandemic broke, virtual campus tours have been replaced with on-site visits.

“Normally, the recruit’s visit to the college campus is such a massive part of the decision-making process. You can see if it’s a fit on your side and the potential student-athlete can also see if it’s a fit on their side,” Matthews said. “Just as much as we are evaluating them, they are evaluating us on the visit as well. We’ve had to rely more on contacting their private coaches, in contacting them about their character and whatnot.”

Coach Matthews says the typical live talent analysis from the sidelines has since been reduced to hours of analyzing game tape, which doesn’t make for the same experience on either side.  

If coaches want to meet the recruit and parents on college grounds, it can be done, but usually only through Zoom.

“When you can’t go to the campus, the colleges doesn’t sell itself as much. College coaches have to sell a little bit more than normal because the campus can’t sell itself if the recruits can’t see it,” Matthews explained.

Zach Branam, a high school football player for one of the area's most competitive athletic schools, La Salle, is currently in the process of being recruited, and he says it’s not an easy one.

“What’s different this year compared to other years is how COVID has stopped me from going to campuses, which is obviously a big part of recruiting. This year, the colleges have been making contact with me through Zoom,” Branam explained.

Now Branam worries that the inability to tour college campuses could set him back on making the right next step.

“What I’m looking for personally is challenging because I might not get to see what I want and I might decide against a school even though they could be perfect for me, so it’s been difficult to navigate,“ said Branam.

But Branam and thousands of other student athletes throughout the country will still continue on the path to their athletic futures that they once thought was sure-footed.