Sidelined: A Peripheral View of the College Recruiting Process

part 3

Young athletes and their families, coaches and recruiters, and whistles and cheers from one of ten different courts. Young women exhibit speed and strength and skill on every court. Teams from SoCal like Cal Sparks, Cal Stars, Cal Storm, Cal Swish, but also teams from Arizona, Oregon, and Washington. So much talent. So much to take in.

We were there to watch Nicole. She was playing for a new club team, or an old club team, revived by Coach Lindsay Strothers whom had been the coach at Westview when Jamie Nared was there. Even though Coach Strothers left Westview, he continued to work with Nicole since middle school. Now, with Nicole recovered from her torn Patella, she was showing hustle on both sides of the ball. She looked good on the court, but amongst the masses? With all of these girls and all of these schools and all of these coaches? She knew she wanted to play college, so we were just there, back on the sidelines, waiting to see where she would land.

Schools from the East Coast had shown interest in Nicole, so that summer she visited schools in Boston and New York, but she came home certain she wanted to stay on the West Coast. Offers came in from University of Portland and Eastern Washington, but Nicole held on to Pac 12 dreams and was considering walking on at Washington. She wanted to wait; we waited with her.

Going into her senior season, Nicole's best friend, the girl she'd grown up playing hoops with, the girl who carried the team while Nicole was injured, blew out her knee. This season-ending knee injury changed the trajectory of Nicole's senior year considerably. She still played hard, had coaches looking and a few visits and offers coming in, but without Kam, the likelihood of a playoff run diminished.

The season was coming to an end, and Vermont came to watch a playoff game. Tulsa came to visit. They had posters and fancy DI offers to make. So, as her senior season came to a close, Nicole scheduled official visits. She went to Vermont and Tulsa, and she came to LA. She stayed with us as she visited Cal State Northridge and Cal State LA, Cal Baptist and Cal State Bakersfield. And then she started to lean.

It wasn't about PAC 12, or DI, or a poster of her in a big arena. It wasn't about east or west coast or Nike or Adidas.  What it came down to was a coach and a place. Nicole didn't just have a 4.1 GPA. Nicole was smart. She liked one coach, one program in particular, and felt this was the right fit. She went on her official visit, and then, just as if it was the easiest decision she'd ever made, she committed to Cal State Los Angeles.

Aaaaaahhhhhh!!! Yes! My niece is coming to LA, and our family is thrilled. Coach Tornio at Cal State LA coached former students of mine at Palisades High, and on Nicole's visit, Skai Thompson, who played for Emerson and Pali City Championship teams, looked on. Cal State LA felt like family, and Nicole found her home.

So, that is how Nicole's recruiting ends and where her college journey begins. As she graduates from high school, we are proud of this Golden Eagle ready to take flight!

Sidelined: A Peripheral View of the College Recruiting Process

Part 2

My sister in her high school days. 

The fall of Nicole's junior year, she came down to LA for a visit, as she usually did around her birthday. One morning, she came with me to workout in my school's gym. My students watched her shoot as I rebounded. She shot, worked on dribbling, step-backs, and shooting from range. My students watched as she put in work, just like she did on so many mornings before school when she was at home.

Nicole was excited going into her junior year of high school. She had played well under the new head coach her high school hired and had shot well that summer with her club team despite limited minutes.

But it was starting to get hard in terms of recruiting. Girls in her class were getting looks from D1 schools. She dreamed of going PAC 12, but she wasn't getting any taller, and she wasn't putting up consistent numbers on her high school or club teams. She was drawing the attention from some schools after hot shooting at the Boo Williams showcase, but playing in front of coaches and recruiters means schools see you; it doesn't mean offers come, and Nicole was still holding onto PAC 12 dreams.

Nicole: sidelined. 

This was the point when I actually first started writing this blog. I hoped to write, in real-time, about my niece's recruitment journey, but then, she finally had an MRI on a knee that had been diagnosed as patella tendonitis years before. The results shocked us all. Nicole had been playing on a partially torn Patella tendon. Doctors said it wouldn't get better unless she stayed off of it, or possibly after surgery. This season-ending diagnosis hurt, not just because Nicole wouldn't get to show what she could do that season, but it was reminiscent of my sister's high school journey.

Western Oregon NAIA Champs!

When I was in middle school, my sister was a dominant high school athlete. Like Nicole, she made the varsity basketball team as a freshman, but she also played volleyball and track. Until she developed a stress fracture in her foot. That stress fracture benched my sister during her crucial junior year too, and kept her from playing volleyball or running track. She was forced to the sideline. In that time, she dreamed of moving to Portland for her senior season, so she could get more exposure than our small town provided, but, she stayed home, had a decent senior season, and made her way to Western Oregon to play basketball and win an NAIA Championship.

But my sister had bigger hopes for Nicole. And despite the injury, Nicole couldn't wait to get back on the court. We were all waiting, but now we were all sidelined and left hoping this injury wouldn't mean the end of Nicole's college-playing dreams.

Westview seniors see off Nicole on senior night. 

Sidelined: A Peripheral View of the College Recruiting Process

Small-kid Nicole on the great wall. 

Part 1:

My niece is a basketball player. She's a really good basketball player. We (her mom and I) didn't think she would fall in love with hoops, but when she moved back to Portland, Oregon after three years living in China, she found comraderie on the court.

Those first few middle school seasons were rough. We watched and wondered if she would stick with it. My husband and I cheered maybe a little too enthusiastically back then, yelled at a few officials, screamed a little too voraciously, but eventually we put ourselves more appropriately in check. We realized this was Nicole's journey; we were sidelined.

Over time, Nicole also started putting things in check. She developed solid skills: a beautiful three-point shot, solid handles, a step-back jumper, a Euro-step, and she had tons of support. Her mom played college hoops and wanted to provide all that Nicole wanted in order to meet her goals. But skills and support can't make you love basketball.

Nicole and Jamie, back in Jamie's high school days. 

Before she started high school, she made her way through the Westview development program, and she followed the Westview varsity team faithfully. She became friends with players and found role models who showed her what going-to-college-to-play-ball looked like. Jamie Nared, a senior when Nicole was in the seventh grade, went to play at Tennessee. Watching this top recruit, Nicole was able to see what hard work on the basketball court looked like and some of the rewards it could bring.

I watched all of this from a distance, as Nicole joined club teams and played under new coaching staffs. She made varsity as a ninth grader, and I heard updates from Nicole and my sister about how her team was doing and how Nicole was playing. Toward the end of the season, she started getting more minutes, but it wasn't until her sophomore season that she started putting up impressive numbers. She also kept looking up, now at college programs and players she admired, most notably Oregon State, where she watched and developed friendships with dominant guards like Sydney Wiese.

Nicole and the PAC-12 three-point record holder.  

The summer after her freshman year, she came to Southern California where my family could finally watch her play. Her new club team had some amazing athletes, one being Bendu Yeaney, who ended up at Indiana. Nicole played alongside Bendu and other great players. She watched and learned, but also during this time, Nicole stopped growing. There was some height on her dad's side of the family, so we hoped, but Nicole plateaued at about 5' 7". We knew this meant that if Nicole wanted to play at the next level, she would have to stand out in other ways. And then, during her junior year, when recruiting was just starting to heat up, something shifted.

Nicole and Indy-bound Bendu.