Jon Rodriguez

🗣️T&F recruiting for HS athletes just got harder! 9th-11th grades just became more important. “Roster spots are MORE valuable than the money we use to fund them” - multiple national championship winning T&F Director said to me last week. Now the NCAA has removed the mid year transfer window (March). How does this impact a HS athlete? 1. All NCAA track athletes will enter in the same period (May/June). If they didn’t enter in the Dec window. 2. Now, coaches won’t know if they have spots freed up until late spring. So they are keeping HS athletes warm “just in case” a roster spot opens up. More HS athletes will be panicking in the spring because they are waiting. There will be LESS signings DURING the HS season. 3. Now, coaches have to ask themselves “with the limited roster spots I have, do I sign this developmental HS athlete DURING their senior season or wait to see what the portal looks like when it opens?” 4. This panic will also lead to more HS athletes (out of fear), signing with programs they really don’t want to. Now those roster spots are gone too… to athletes that don’t really want them, then struggle to buy in because they don’t want to be there and often times end up running poorly as a result. Now they feel forced to stay because they don’t have the times to feel confident in the portal. Now the coach is stuck with them too and ends up recruiting less HS athletes and waiting more on the portal because of the negative experience. HS/Club/Private Coaches must understand and adapt to these evolving dynamics in how you train, prepare, and educate athletes. Athletes, and parents of HS athletes, you MUST ensure you do what’s best for YOU! Don’t play around with YOUR future. *This will not impact the HS US top 20 athletes. Most of them sign in the fall anyway because they had strong junior seasons.