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DILEMMA TO DECOMMIT
Since January 29, 2020, there have been 50 football players in the U.S. who have decommitted from their respective schools. Each athlete has a di erent reason for wanting to play at a certain college, sometimes it is the program itself and other times it is the environment in which they will be living in. Often times, a talented player will have colleges scouting them from an early age and making them o ers as soon as they can. The problem with this, however, is that the athlete begins to believe that there will not be more schools looking for them later on in their high school or travel career and they make the decision to commit early. Two things can happen with an early commitment: a player may fail to improve and will part ways with the program or they can outgrow the program and look for better-suited options for them. “I chose to decommit from Indiana Wesleyan University because I personally felt like I could compete at a higher level,” senior basketball player Jackie Maulucci said. “IWU has a great program and coaches, but it was not for me and my goals for my college basketball experience.” Another reason a player may choose to decommit from a school is because they never actually visited it when they were going through the recruitment process. While this situation is common among younger players, it can still happen to older athletes who have already seen the campus before. “I chose to decommit from Otterbein University because when I went back this fall, the campus life was di erent than what I had previously seen,” senior soccer player Brianna Straus said. “There were a lot of commuter students for a small school and I felt like that environment [was not the right fi t for me].” With colleges trying to recruit players at a younger age than they have before, an athlete must be mindful of whether or not the college is the best fi t for them because after all, the only person who truly has the fi nal say is the athlete themselves. Story by Jamie Whitesell. Information from ESPN.com, 247sports.com and NCSA DILEMMA TO DECOMMIT WHAT DRIVES CHOICES TO DECOMMIT FROM UNIVERSITIES
Committing Process Step 1: Initial Letters Step 2: Preliminary Evaluations Step 3: Visits, Calls and In-Person Evaluations Step 4: Extend Verbal Off ers Step 5: Sign with College
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ROYAL PODCASTS
Newly introduced to the student body, HSE News has started to launch a series of school- and non-school-related material in a series of podcasts. The podcasts were created with the purpose of reaching a broader amount of students. Southeastern Insider is an informative and entertainment-based platform which covers school and local events, along with episodes related to student activities and pop culture. Episodes are made and produced by students in Mass Media and the Student Media sta s. In addition, there is also a podcast for Southeastern Sports Network, named the Southeastern Sports Insider. According to anchor.fm, “the show covers both school and professional sports news in a laid back, fun environment.” The Podcast is produced and created by the SSN Podcast team of Mitchell Brooks, David DeSplinter, Connor Kelley and Zack Vance. Students can access either podcast series everywhere you fi nd podcasts, from hsenews.com and the QR codes.
