NCAA announces return of in-person recruiting June 1

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Samuel Cooke

App State head football coach Shawn Clark (white shirt, black cap and gaiter) coaches during App State’s win over Georgia State Nov. 14 in Boone. Since last March, all NCAA recruiting has been virtual, but on June 1, coaches can return to in-person recruitment. “It’ll be good to see a kid in person, see what he’s made of, see who his parents are and get a feel for them,” Clark said.

Cameron Burnett, Visual Managing Editor

The NCAA halted all in-person recruiting activities in March of 2020, entering a “dead period” where coaches had to completely change their recruiting strategy, trading in weekend tours and high school visits for Zoom meetings and social media interactions. These restrictions have stayed in place for over a year but are coming to an end.

On Thursday, the NCAA announced that all recruiting activities can return to normal on June 1 with in-person recruitment back at the forefront.

App State football head coach Shawn Clark said he made over a thousand Zoom calls since last March and looks forward to getting back to meeting these high school players in person.

“It’ll be good to see a kid in person, see what he’s made of, see who his parents are and get a feel for them,” Clark said. “That’s been good for us in the past here at App to make sure we get the right kind of guy and some of these guys who came in December, it was the first time we saw them in person.”

With vaccines becoming more widely available, the safety of in-person recruiting can continue to trend upward and App State coaches will get back to meeting all of their recruits in person on June 1.