With COVID-19, many things are different, including college recruitment. For a lot of athletes, gaining a scholarship or recruitment is the only way for them to get into college. With a global pandemic, some athletes have to live with the uncertainty of whether or not they will get into a school that’s right for them. 

 Will Esposito was able to sit down with PG Brett Karkus and get to know more about how his recruitment process has been affected by COVID-19. Brett, who started playing basketball from a young age alongside his brother and father, went to a public school for the last four years. He came to Berkshire to see what new options he may have and to develop not only as a player, but also as a person.

 Last year, he said, college coaches were able to go to games and see first hand how high school athletes performed. This also gave opportunities for players to talk to coaches. This year, with none of these options, it feels like, “what’s the next step?” On top of that, many college programs are not playing this year, causing athletes to use their extra year of eligibility. This causes athletes to stay in college longer keeping roster spots filled.

 Athletes are also transferring to different schools depending on the school’s COVID-19 protocol. This results in more kids on rosters and schools not being able to put together a roster since they don’t know who will be playing for them. This causes a lot of uncertainty for athletes looking for scholarships. 

 Phone calls are the only way for athletes to contact schools, which makes it hard for athletes to really make a decision and delays the process. This puts a lot of stress onto these young athletes. 

 Juniors Vivian Akyirem and Abby Hornung expressed many of the same concerns.  Their main concern was also about athletes extending their year of eligibility, keeping spots filled for new recruits.

 Berkshire is helping these students tremendously, whether it’s contacting schools or sending in film, and so these students are able to connect with numerous schools to make this process easier, but the recruitment process is quite clearly not exempt from the hardships brought forth by the pandemic.