Hope for ‘slept-on’ athletes - Recruitment coach says scholarships still exist for youngsters, despite Champs cancellation

The cancellation of this year’s ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) because of COVID-19 has caused concerns about the future of many of the nation’s top student-athletes and their technical development. But one recruitment coach is more worried about the lesser celebrated ones who were, looking to use the meet as a showcase to earn scholarships for tertiary education.

Krista Forbes, a former Champs athlete herself, now based in Atlanta, Georgia, describes these athletes as ‘slept-on’ because they did not achieve the same successes as their more popular counterparts.

As international students, these athletes often need full scholarships to universities and colleges because their tuition fees are usually higher than local students’. The cancellation of various meets, including Champs, because of COVID-19, means Jamaican athletes are affected more than American junior athletes. This is because it is possible that senior athletes who would have left collegiate teams and freed up scholarship funds may return for another season because they, too, were affected this year.

“Coaches and pro­grammes are preparing for that to be the case,” Forbes told The Gleaner. “You’ll find that American kids are not as expensive to recruit as Jamaicans, or even other Caribbean kids or Africans would be.”

She says many athletes would have been preparing to peak and post their best times and distances at Champs, but now they are left with less-favourable records for the season.

COMPETITIVE STATS

“Athletes are now not able to put up extremely competitive stats that would make it worth it for a coach to say ‘You know what? Instead of bringing in three Americans for the price of one, I’m going to go and give one Jamaican one scholarship.’ Champs would’ve put them in that zone,” Forbes said. “Americans can say ‘I will take a 70 per cent scholarship because the Government will pay the other 30 with other grants that they can get. Jamaican athletes don’t usually have that.”

Forbes says that, unlike ‘slept-ons’, top local student-athletes have usually secured multiple university offers overseas because of impressive times and distances they have been able to record earlier in the season, with less effort. They will not be as concerned about there being no Champs this year.

But Forbes says there is still hope for ‘slept-ons’, as long as they take the initiative in finding schools themselves.

“With the stats athletes have because they weren’t able to go to Champs and qualify for scholarships from bigger schools anyway, they’re now going to have to put themselves out there,” she said. “It’s highly unlikely coaches are going to come and find them where they are, because coaches do tend to look at Champs stats because it’s the best performances all in one place.

“They now have to figure out how to be seen by those coaches without ever stepping foot in the US. They will, however, have to look at smaller schools as opposed to mid-range ones, and find those programmes that offer the full scholarships they’re looking for.”

Forbes focuses on coaching parents and under-scouted student-athletes through the college recruitment process. She has worked with athletes from Immaculate Conception High School, Wolmer’s Girls School and Calabar High School, among others, and has seen them earn close to $10 million in scholarships.

rachid.parchment@gleanerjm.com

Forbes’ recommendation for these athletes:

1. Make sure you can find your best and most recent stats online. As far as coaches are concerned, if it’s not online, it doesn’t exist.

2. Put together video portfolios to showcase form to coaches. Visits may not be possible, especially with current travel restrictions.

3. Have SAT scores readily available. A score of over 920 in Critical Reading and Maths puts you in the ‘safe zone’.

4. Have passes at CSEC level in Maths, English, a natural science, a social science, a language.

5. Send well crafted emails to coaches and recruiters. Search for coaches’ email addresses on the websites of schools that offer programmes which interest you.

6. Network with former teammates already overseas.