Future college athletes across the country have seen their recruitment come to a near standstill in the last couple weeks, and it’s taken a toll on some recruits from the Central Coast as well.
“They want to see you face-to-face, and not having that has been pretty difficult,” Landon Nelson, a junior football player at San Luis Obispo, said about college coaches in his recruitment process.
For juniors like Nelson, the process has become somewhat of a hassle: No official visits, no camps, and no in-person interaction with college coaches.
“The whole point of these college camps is so the coaches can coach you in-person,” Nelson said. “They want to see how you react when you lose a rep or slip in a change of direction drill. Stuff like that, you can't get in film.”
With all the setbacks, Nelson is doing all he can in this uncommon recruiting process to put himself in the best position possible.
"Because I can't go to the school (college campus) and watch spring ball, I've been talking to them a lot more on Twitter and phone calls,” Nelson said. “I'm doing everything I would do when I'm there, except over the phone."
Gannon Gibson is a dual-sport athlete for SLO: baseball and football. Gibson, a junior, wants to play college baseball, but he’s in the same situation.
"For baseball, a lot of the recruitment is during the summer: A lot of people host camps then. Right now, the college coaches are focused on their college baseball season, not necessarily recruiting,” Gibson said. “Not having a season where you play live games, going into summer and live games unprepared, not seeing live at-bats, you might be a little rusty and not be able to perform as well."
Resources are limited right now, but athletes are doing what they can to get in midseason shape.
“Whether it's doing home workouts or hills; doing something to stay active because in a situation like this, everyone is going through it, even our opponents,” Nelson said. “If we work during a time like this, that's when we're going to be ahead of the pack."
