Bitterness, depression, anger—not the first feelings you’d attribute to athletes who have committed to college on a sports scholarship or commitment. But before the celebration, the relief and the accolades, there is a long and difficult road most committed athletes have to journey during the recruiting process. Three committed athletes share their stories.
Austin Vasiliadis: When injury struck, he struck back
When senior and Johns Hopkins basketball recruit Austin Vasiliadis sealed his agreement last spring, he felt relieved. “I thought I could take it easy.”
But taking it easy would carry a whole new meaning come September. While making a cut at the Marshall game Vasiliadis, varsity football quarterback, slipped on the wet turf, his ankle locking into the ground.
He had hyper-extended his knee and torn his ACL—an injury that meant he would be out for the rest of football and most of basketball. “It was pretty depressing. I was sad for football too, but basketball…”
“The injury was devastating to him, me and our team,” said Langley basketball coach Travis Hess.
But throughout the entire turn of events, both Coach Hess and Vasiliadis’ future Johns Hopkins coach have been very supportive. Out for most of the season, Vasiliadis will serve as a captain and an assistant coach. As far as adapting to his position off the court, “Like anything else, it takes time. The surgery and everything has made it difficult. The more practices that he comes to, the better he is going to settle into that role,” said Hess.
By senior night, Vasiliadis hopes to dress out, maybe even see some action on the court. “I may not be able to do much, but the key is to keep looking on the bright side.”
Holliday Shuler: MIT came calling, but she followed her instinct
A lot oft of red flags shot up the minute Massachusetts Institute of Technology started courting Holliday Shuler.
“To be honest, I didn’t know they had a soccer team. I didn’t know they had sports. They’re engineers…let’s put it that way,” said Shuler.
But after her dad mentioned the school, Shuler decided to give it a chance. Lucky for her, the soccer coach decided to give her a chance too-a big one; he had never even seen her play.
Apparently, Shuler was their number one recruit, but it was all based off academics, the probability that she would get in, and the reputation of her club team. She said it was all very strange to her, but it only got weirder.
On a weekend trip to the school with 13 other recruits, Shuler was supposed to be staying with the MIT players. That’s not what actually happened.
“They told us—on a Friday night—that we should go wander, because they had to do their homework,” said Shuler.
The fourteen girls got lost in the city and kept getting sent to voice mail when their hosts wouldn’t answer their phones.
“At that point, I didn’t like the other recruits, I didn’t like the way the MIT players were treating us, and I actually called my brother and told him, ‘I want to go home.’”
After that trip, Shuler decided it just wasn’t worth it. She told the MIT coach that the school was still an option, but not her first choice.
In the end, sans recruitment, Shuler said, “I decided I just didn’t want to commit. I’ll probably walk-on wherever I go.”
Brad Dotson: Despite illness, he was determined to fight discouragement
Junior lacrosse player Brad Dotson never thought he would feel so lax. But mono does that to a person. Unfortunately, this person was trying to get noticed in the peak of the recruiting season.
After overcoming his illness and jumping back in the game, Dotson found himself rejected. When he couldn’t perform for his top schools, he got to feeling low. Low enough that come August, he wanted to quit the sport he had been playing since eighth grade.
“It was when the very competitive schools I wanted to go to—Duke, UNC, UVA—stopped showing interest in me because I got mono earlier this spring and played poorly when I came back after six weeks of being sick. They didn’t know I had mono, they just thought I had gotten worse,” said Dotson.
It took a while for Dotson to recapture his love for the sport. “I knew I didn’t want my lacrosse career to end in high school and I wanted to play at the highest level possible.”
In early October, Dotson committed to Bucknell University. “It took me until I was committed to start wanting to play again, but I’m still kind of bitter about the whole thing.”