Loyola University Chicago ‘06 - Softball

I had known for a long time I wanted to play softball at the next level—I just wasn’t sure what type of school I wanted to attend. My recruiting experience and how I ended up making my decision was atypical, but if I could go back and do it all over again, I’d be more than happy for things to work out the way they did.

I played up a year for almost as long as I had been playing softball. It was great until all of my teammates went on to college and I was left behind for one more summer. Many of them, and other girls I had become friends with from playing against over the years, went on to play ball at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. I knew they had a strong program and the university was only a couple hours away from my home town of St. Louis. When July 1 prior to my senior year rolled around and they expressed interest in signing me, it seemed like a logical option and quickly became the option in which I invested the most interest. In retrospect, I believe this hindered my desire to seek out other opportunities and develop other options.

While I was mostly hoping things would work out with SIUC, I half-heartedly continued exploring my options—Missouri State University, Washington University and Loyola University Chicago were the leading candidates. I went on a visit to Missouri State sometime near the beginning of my senior year and didn’t get a strong impression one way or the other. Washington University seemed like a good choice because of the high academic standard, but because they are Division III they couldn’t offer any amount of athletic scholarship and the tuition was too high.

Things got interesting when it came time to schedule a visit to Loyola. Since high school softball in Missouri is played in the fall and my team was heavily favored to make it back to the state playoffs, I explained to the coach I would only be able to visit the weekend she proposed if my team was knocked out of the playoffs. She said that was okay but there was another recruit coming to visit and the scholarship offer would go to the first person that accepted it. 

Fearing that the other recruit would take the position on the team before I could even visit, I had to make one of the most important decisions of my life based on a lot of unknowns. I talked things over with my parents—things didn’t seem to be working out with SIUC and the offer from Loyola was too good to pass up. I called one of my long-time teammates from summer ball who signed with Loyola the previous year, asked her a ton of questions, and trusted the answers she gave me. Shortly thereafter, I signed a letter of intent to play for Loyola University Chicago without seeing the campus (other than online) or meeting the team.

I wouldn’t advise making your decision without doing either of those things. Luckily, it worked out for me despite two coaching changes and learning that there never was another “recruit” that was being considered for the spot. I had the opportunity to play with amazing teammates, enjoyed the community and academic challenge Loyola provided, and fell in love with the city of Chicago.

I would suggest being as proactive as possible in the college search. Read as much as you possible early on in the process to get an idea of what you’re looking for in a prospective school and what you hope to get out of your student-athlete experience. Explore several options in case things don’t work out with your first choice. Take the initiative to send videos, write letters, make phone calls and return questionnaires yourself—it reflects positively on you as being responsible, mature and prepared to make the transition into college life. Make your decision based on the entire package; not just the athletic program. Don’t take this opportunity for granted, having the privilege to play sports in college was one of the best experiences of my life. Most of all, good luck to you on your journey!

Trish

For more information check out the Active Recruiting 101 special section.