The camera flashes capturing a moment of idolization when Team USA softball player, Kaitlin Cochran, poses with one of her campers after finishing the second day of her fundamentals camp at Mickelson fields in North Fargo on Aug. 25 and 26. Cochran played division one softball at ASU under head coach Clint Meyers and assistant Scott Woodard, but the road of getting noticed by division one schools was unpaved.
“My freshman and sophomore year in high school is when I started sending letters to schools, just because they are recruiting so much these days,” Cochran said. “I wasn’t on the most prominent travel team but I did well against some of those better teams and that made me stand out.”
Cochran said to send out your game schedule to all of the schools that spark personal interest. Colleges have seen many recruiting opportunities based on videos on the internet and YouTube in these past few years as well.
“You don’t need a fancy video,” Cochran said. “All you need is someone out there with a regular video camera taking a video of you showcasing your skills in the game.”
Scott Woodard, Assistant Softball Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Arizona State University, said that there is basically two ways that they recruit. The first is by going to numerous tournaments throughout the year and watching thousands of girls play. Second, is through the four camps that ASU organizes throughout the year.
“We recommend anyone interested in our program to attend [the camps] so that we can assess their talents on a more individual basis,” Woodard said. “We do have a lot of young ladies that reach out to us, however, this is by far less effective than the other two ways because there is no possible way for us to see all players from all of the country.”
Colleges need to feel comfortable when recruiting that their players will be responsible and are ready to take the next step of being on their own; they want to see a professional.
“Make sure your demeanor on the field is always the same, whether you’re up 10 nothing or down 10 nothing,” Cochran said. “They [college coaches] don’t want to see you pouting and pulling yourself away from the team. They want to see a selfless player.”
Cochran said to send out emails regularly, even if it seems annoying to them they will know your name that way and will eventually go out and see you. She said that two of her teammates got discovered at camps and ended up getting scholarships because the coach saw that they had the talent he was looking for.
“Wherever it is you’re interested in going, make sure they know who you are,” Cochran said. “You never know who is going to be there watching you. Honestly, you seriously never ever know.”