The Commitment Is Not The Finish Line
===
[00:00:00] Committing to a college is not the finish line, and in the current landscape of college athletics, I'd argue that what you do after you commit is just as important as everything you did to earn that commitment in the first place.
Welcome to the SLAPYOUniversity Podcast, where athletes, parents, and coaches come to learn the game, challenge their mindset, and elevate their approach. I'm India Chiles, co-founder of SLAPYOUniversity, and alongside my co-founder, Ashley Chew, we're here to share the lessons, experiences, and strategies we've learned from playing, coaching, and teaching this game.
Because at SLAPYOUniversity, we believe the best investments you can make is in you. Let's get into it
Let me start this episode with a message specifically for high school athletes. Your verbal commitment is not the finish line. I'll say it again. Committing to a college is not the finish line, [00:01:00] and in the current landscape of college athletics, I'd argue that what you do after you commit is just as important as everything you did to earn that commitment in the first place.
Because college softball is changing. The transfer portal's changed it. Eligibility rules are changing it. Roster management is changing it. And all of those things are creating something that I think I know high school athletes need to understand. You cannot afford to stop competing just because somebody told you they want you.
There's something that happens in recruiting that pains a lot of college coaches. Student athlete commits during her junior year. Everybody celebrates. The recruiting process is finally over. The pressure's gone. The family can breathe again. And then the college coach gets a message that sounds something like this.
"Hey, Coach, I just wanted to let you know that I'm switching travel ball teams for my senior year. [00:02:00] I'm gonna play for a team that's more local, so we don't have to travel as much, and my family can save money." And listen, I understand that. Travel softball is crazy expensive. Flights are expensive. Hotels are expensive.
Rental cars, tournament fees, it all adds up. So I understand a family saying, "We did what we needed to do. She got recruited. Now, maybe we don't need to spend all this money traveling across the country." But here's what I want athletes and parents to understand.
The concern for your college coach isn't necessarily that you switch teams. The concern is what happens to your level of competition when you do. College coaches are strategic about recruiting. Everyone has a recruiting budget. You can't just fly all over the country every weekend hoping to stumble across someone good. Coaches want the most bang for their buck. So they're looking at their recruiting database and saying, "Where are the athletes we're recruiting going to be?[00:03:00]
Where can I watch five, ten, fifteen, maybe twenty athletes on my list in one weekend?" And naturally, those tend to be highly competitive tournaments filled with highly competitive teams and highly competitive players. That's important because they're not just recruiting your statistics. They're evaluating you against competition that they believe gives them some indication of how your game might translate to college softball.
And when they recruit a freshman, they're not recruiting her because they're hoping she'll sit on the bench for two years. They want her walking onto campus ready to fight for a position. Does that mean she's gonna beat out an upperclassman? Maybe. Maybe not. But they want her good enough to make that upperclassman better.
They want competition at every position because competition makes the entire team better. So then you get the golden ticket. Here's where I think the mindset can change. For two or three years, recruiting feels [00:04:00] like this enormous pressure cooker, right? You're emailing coaches, you're going to camps, you're playing in front of coaches.
You're wondering who likes you. You're wondering who doesn't like you. Every coach seems to have a poker face. You're watching other players around you commit. Your parents are stressed. You're stressed. And then finally, you get the golden ticket. You commit. And psychologically, something super impactful can happen.
You exhale, which is understandable. But sometimes that exhale becomes, "I made it." And "I made it" can quietly become, "I don't have to push quite as hard anymore." So maybe you switch teams. Maybe you stay on the same team, but stop attending every tournament. Maybe you're not training with the same urgency.
Maybe you're not putting yourself against the same level of competition. And I'm telling you, that is exactly when you should be [00:05:00] pressing the gas pedal harder because you haven't made it. You earned the opportunity to make it. And those are two very different things. Your first college fall is coming.
Ask almost any college softball player about fall ball. It's tough. That first fall especially can feel like boot camp.
Everything is faster. The expectations are higher. You're lifting, conditioning, practicing. You're learning systems and adjusting academically. You're competing against women who have already been in a college strength program for one, two, three, sometimes even four years.
And that fall matters because although every program operates differently, coaches are evaluating constantly. So by the end of fall, they're developing a pretty good idea of who may be in that competitive group when the season begins. So then December comes. Finals, winter break, everybody gets to go [00:06:00] home.
You return in January, and suddenly you're playing. There's not some magical six-month runway for you to get ready anymore. And many programs open the season against really good non-conference competition. So if you arrive on campus thinking, "Now I'll get ready," you may already be behind.
Your senior year of high school is part of your preparation for your freshman year of college. Treat it that way. So now let's add in the transfer portal, right? Athletes have more freedom of movement than previous generations did. There's positives to that, but there's also consequences to it.
I've heard college coaches describe the current environment as feeling like they're constantly looking over their shoulder. Have a great season, and your top players might decide they wanna transfer somewhere else. Have a bad season, and your players might decide they wanna leave. This [00:07:00] feeling is the same after a win or a loss.
Some coaches feel like they can't come up for air. At the same time, coaches can look at the portal and see experienced college players who've already proven they can perform at this level. And that's the part I need high school athletes to hear.
You're not necessarily competing only against the other high school players in your graduating class anymore. A college coach filling a roster also has access to players with college experience. Think about that. You're seventeen years old, graduating from high school, and somebody else may already have two, three years of college strength training, college practices, and games on their resume.
So what's your response gonna be? Take your foot off the gas because you verbally committed? Absolutely not. You need to be preparing to compete. And now eligibility rules are also evolving, including changes affecting how long D one and D two athletes have to use their [00:08:00] seasons of competition. Without turning this into an NCAA legislation class, here's the part that matters for the high school athlete.
College coaches have more roster management decisions to make, and experienced college players can become part of those decisions. That makes being college-ready even more important. A coach is evaluating, do I bring in another freshman or do I retain an experienced player? Is there somebody in the portal who's already demonstrated that she can perform at this level?
That's the environment you're entering, and we've already seen how quickly recruiting situations can change when roster circumstances change. So I don't want high school athletes hearing, "committed," and translating it into, "finished." I want you translating it into, "phase two starts now." Sometimes people hear transfer portal, scholarships, and NCAA [00:09:00] eligibility changes and assume we're only talking about Division I.
We're not. Division III athletes need to understand this mindset too. D3 athletics doesn't operate through athletic scholarships in the same way D1 and D2 do. You're admitted to the school, and separately, you're competing for your place within the athletic program. And once you're on campus, you still have to compete, you still have to develop, you gotta earn opportunities, you still have to be ready.
So imagine taking your foot off the gas during your senior year. Then you arrive for your first college fall at the D3 level. The game is still gonna speed up. The athletes are still stronger. Practice is harder, expectations are higher, and suddenly you're trying to recreate the competitive edge you voluntarily turned down six months earlier, putting yourself at risk of being cut.
Why do that to yourself? And I wanna make something really clear. I'm not [00:10:00] saying families should spend money they don't have. I'm not saying you have to fly across the country every weekend to become a college softball player. That's not the message. If changing teams makes financial sense for your family, I understand that.
But if your travel schedule changes, your competitive mindset cannot. Find great competition. Train with purpose. Challenge yourself.
Get stronger. Get faster. Improve your softball IQ. Put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Play against athletes who expose your weaknesses. Don't spend your senior year protecting your confidence. Spend your senior year preparing your game, because the college game does not care that you were committed at sixteen.
When you step between those lines your freshman fall, everybody is wearing the same practice gear. Now you've gotta compete. Keep fighting. So here's my message to every high school athlete listening. Keep fighting [00:11:00] for your roster spot even after you've committed. Fight during your sophomore year.
Fight during your junior year, and when you commit, you keep fighting. Fight through your senior fall. Fight through your senior summer. Fight until you walk onto that college campus, and then you fight again because that commitment did not promise you a starting position. It did not promise you any playing time at all.
It gave you an opportunity, and opportunities are what you make of them. The landscape of college athletics is changing. Athletes have more options. Coaches have more roster decisions. The portal has changed recruiting. Eligibility rules continue to evolve, and there are experienced college players competing for opportunities alongside incoming freshmen.
You cannot control any of that. But you know what you can control? How ready you are when your opportunity comes.
So don't let [00:12:00] getting recruited become the reason you stop doing the things that got you recruited. Finish your high school career the same way you started it: hungry, competitive, focused, and fighting.
Because nothing about your college story has been written yet. You earned the opportunity to write it. Now go make sure you're ready when they hand you the pen.
If you found value in today's episode, I'd love for you to subscribe, share it with another athlete, parent, or coach, and explore everything SLAPYOUniversity has to offer. Until next time, keep learning, keep competing, keep creating opportunities, and remember, your next level is waiting. I'm Coach India Chiles, and I'll see you on the next episode of the SLAPYOUniversity Podcast.
