This is a recruiting horror story of how a selfish travel softball coach can change the course of an athlete's recruiting process and their future. Unfortunately, this player was intentionally benched when the recruiting coaches took the time out of their busy schedule to came to watch her play. I mean, what coach would do this to a young adult who worked so hard to be able to have the same opportunity as everyone else to play a college sport.

In the world of travel softball, there are specific coaches on the team whose job it is to determine what college coaches will come to a game and who they will be watching. This is to ensure that the college coach or coaches will watch the athlete that they think would be a good fit for their college team. This is where this crazy story begins. The recruit we had on our team was in her junior year of high school, the most crucial year of the recruiting process, for softball. She was at a Monmouth college showcase in New Jersey; she completed her prep work by emailing and talking to several college coaches that were making plans to come to see one of her tournaments.

As the tournament grew closer, the recruiting coach asked the college coaches what players they intended to come to watch. After the travel coach spoke to the coaches who were coming to the tournament, he told the head coach of the softball team what coaches were there to see the players that they were interested in. One of the players was our recruit. She was an outstanding player, and she had many college coaches there to watch her play. It soon came time for the head coach to post the line-up. Everyone was excited and nervous all at the same time. Names were being called; it seemed like forever, I wondered why our recruit/teammate was not being called. The line-up included all the players that had coaches there to see them except for one, our recruit.

As luck would have it, or not, the head coach's daughter played the same position as our recruit, and this head coach wanted the college coaches to see his daughter play (I must add that she was already committed to play at a small DIII school), and not our recruit. I mean what grown-ass man does this to a kid, we are all kids compared to him so that I can say that. This coach kept his daughter in for the entire game, and because of this selfish act, our recruit lost multiple opportunities. I mean, I know things happen for a reason, but it's not the point.

Coaches are supposed to be fair, especially in high school; coaches are supposed to help athletes get fair opportunities. This coach only thought himself and his daughter. The lesson here is do not play on a team where a coach's daughter or son is on it. I'm banking on they will get better treatment than the rest of the players. Luckily, this story has a happy ending. The recruit was recruited to an amazing DII school, and she received a sizable scholarship.

Updated November 11, 2018

* Originally published on October 31, 2016, by LRT Staff