How Michigan High School Athletes are Handling College Recruitments Amid COVID-19
Student athletes banking on scholarships are left wondering what will happen?
By Alayna Jones
Terrence Enos, Jr. Offensive Tackle position for Cass Technical High School
In early spring of 2020, the entire nation was under siege by the looming threat of COVID-19. Schools across the country were immediately shut down for fear of the imminent threat of the virus that accounted for 1,000 new cases each day, totaling in 57,397 cases in May and 5,491 deaths. It began on Friday, the 13th of March, when Michigan’s Gov.r Gretchen Whitmer announced all schools in the state would be closed until further notice. As a result, high school athletes whose entire lives center on going to college on an athletic scholarship now face monumental pressures in order to make the right decisions for their futures.
Two of Michigan’s highly recruited upcoming seniors still face the dilemma of making the once-in-a-lifetime decision of choosing their prospective colleges, all while pursuing a regular sports season that could be a potential threat to their safety. Division I athletic programs have relied on guidance from the NCAA with information from state and local authorities in regards to the COVID-19 outbreak to determine how to safely recruit for the upcoming class of 2021. This puts additional stress on college coaches who are faced with recruitment deadlines and still have questions on how to scout for high school recruits for the upcoming season.
Cass Technical High School football’s offensive tackle Terrence Enos, Jr. is a rising senior and has high hopes of continuing his long-awaited dream of playing with the University of Pittsburgh Panthers in the fall of 2021. Terrence has been playing the game since early elementary school and now has to face the possibility of not competing this fall in his final year of high school and the probable reality that a pandemic may leave an indelible shadow on all of his hard work. Despite this, he has faced the challenge and adjusted accordingly.
“It changed a lot of things from us having to move some of the weight equipment outside and having to work out and do meetings on Zoom for three months so we’re just trying to adjust to the times to hopefully make a run this season,” Enos Jr. says.
The same holds true for Detroit Edison’s fourth-year point guard Damiya Hagemann, who was told that all high school sports had been cancelled until further notice. She was in the middle of her junior year on the women’s basketball season and felt that it was her own personal defeat but also felt remorse for her teammates and family.
“I kind of felt very upset because we were on the road to our fourth state championship, and it was kind of heartbreaking because growing up my whole goal was to win four state championships in my high school career,” she says.
Damiya Hagemann, Point Guard position for DEPSA, Detroit Edison Public School
Despite the remainder of last year’s season being cancelled, Hagemann is considering multiple Division I college offers to accept in her senior year. She is excited about joining her teammates in competition for the upcoming season but admits that the prospects of competing is bitter sweet. Through all of the uncertainty, Damiya will prevail with the hope of being accepted by her prospective college, as the highest ranked women’s basketball recruit in the state of Michigan.
In early May, Gov. Whitmer, along with a partnership with state officials, considered the safety of high school athletics which could be threatened by the potential of COVID-19 infections in her administration’s Michigan Safe Start Plan. The plan proposed to reverse all high school sports that require close contact such as football, soccer and volleyball to the spring and hold sports with less contact like track and field in the fall when infection rates would not be at its highest. According to a June The Detroit News article, “the Michigan High School Athletic Association and the National Federal of State High School Associations are continually providing guidance on how sports can be played safely.”
It seems with so many mixed messages from the governor and local officials, high school coaches and school superintendents throughout the state have decided that most high school athletes will maintain preseason workouts, practices and team scrimmages in hopes of salvaging a respectable high school athletic season.
The pride and dedication demonstrated with these athletes who do their very best to ignore their concerns and go forward with the game resonates with so many high school athletes throughout the country who face their greatest adversary yet — the COVID-19 virus. There is one thing that is certain: the 2020-2021 high school athletic season will never be forgotten.
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