With the start of the school year, seniors have many things to look forward to. Although a long and heart-wrenching development, the college process can determine the future for many Staples students. For some of those college-bound students, the process is very much a different one.
A small number of Staples students will face a hard, but seemingly rewarding process: Recruitment. Students outside of Staples will see recruitment as a life or death situation, where they need to perform to their all-time best or else they will not be attending college. Staples students have the luxury of help from teammates, coaches, peers, and family that makes this extremely competitive process not as hard as it seems.
“I acted on it pretty quick. I realized I loved football and wanted to play in college and talked to Coach P and we got my recruiting started,” said Ryan Fitton ’17, a member of the Staples wreckers football team, who has committed to play football at the University of Connecticut, a big-time division 1 school. “Having such a great person to turn to for recruiting [Coach Petroccio] helped me figure out ways to get recognized and get in contact with college coaches”.
Staples athletes still have to work extremely hard to get recruited. “If a player really wants to play in college, they have to work for it and go to tournaments, play on club team. I think it is all up to the player and what they want because your recruiting process is in your hands, you make the most of it that you can and show the coaches the type of player you are,” recalled Meghan Johnson ’18, a Staples lacrosse player and recruit for the University of Delaware.
Many people see this commitment process as unfair.. It may be seen as “cheating” the system, but many students use their athletic ability to allow them to get accepted into a better quality school academically. “…and perhaps place you at an institution that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend,” articulated Julian Ross, another member of the Staples football team, who plans on playing football in college, but has yet to decide where he will be playing.
So far 14 members of this years senior class have committed to play a sport in college, along with many juniors. Countless others will be in the future. Committing in Staples is a very big deal, however, our athletes are given lots of assistance which creates a great opportunity for them succeed and it proves to help these athletes thrive at a college level.
