While most of their classmates spent the previous year worrying about the ACT and finishing that night’s Gary Nash reading, four senior athletes found themselves travelling across the country visiting schools, pasting together videos of their best plays, and, most importantly,  seriously thinking about where they wanted to go to college.

Most recruited college athletes know where they will be spending the next four years long before the May 1 deadline. Senior Pilar Grover was recruited to play volleyball at Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN where senior Joey Stern was also recruited to play soccer. Senior Dylan Jung was recruited to play soccer as well at Bard College in Hudson, NY, and senior Danielle Slazas was recruited to field hockey at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.

Stern and Jung shared similar processes. By the time they entered their freshman year, they knew that they wanted to continue playing soccer in college.

“I had to get in touch with a recruitment coach who helped me navigate the ways of getting in touch with coaches, trying to get myself noticed,” Stern said. “There are thousands and thousands of players across the country who are trying to play college soccer, so it’s really hard to make a name for yourself and try to get noticed by a coach.”

The process picked up speed in the later years of high school Jung noted. “As I got older in high school,” Jung said, “I started to talk to more coaches via phone, email, or camps.”

While she received emails of interest from coaches during her freshman year, Grover officially decided that she wanted to continue playing volleyball in college during her sophomore year. It was then that she sent out videos of herself playing and emails to college coaches.

“I was invited to my first college visit in the spring of my sophomore year,” Grover said. “Junior year I was invited to two more. One of them was Macalester, and I knew when I got there that I wanted to go to school there.”

Slazas, however, had a late start. During her junior year she started to consider playing field hockey in college. It was then that she joined a Windy City travel team, and she started to attend showcases and tournaments more rigorously.

“I was still iffy if I wanted to play because I really love the sport, but it’s really hard going into the recruitment process for college when you haven’t been going to these showcases since you were a freshman,” Slazas said.

Although the recruitment process varies from sport to sport, there are some similar aspects that can be found in each student’s process. For example, Slazas, Jung, Stern, and Grover attended camps over the summer which were designed for high school students recruited in college.

“I think the biggest thing that we learned from that soccer camp over the summer was that you have to be able to make a name for yourself and stand out,” Stern said. “You can’t just go along and be another one of those players who stands in the background and doesn’t take risks and goes out of their way to impress a coach and talk to a coach or make that connection.”

Grover agrees. “You can’t expect things like emails from coaches or school visits to fall in your lap,” Grover said. “You need to make the name for yourself. Tell the coaches how great you really are.”