Recruiting

Clare had an interesting start to her week yesterday when she had to shepherd a recruit and her family around campus.  My daughter was made for this sort of thing.  At Elmhurst, she was the go-to person for when Coach scheduled a recruit for a sleepover.  It’s good to know you’ve raised a kid who’ll ply somebody else’s underage kid with pizza instead of beer on a Friday night in November.

The junior coach did such a good job the recruit committed to Valpo at the end of the visit.  Now, here’s the thing”  “I’ll never see her play,” Clare told me over the phone.  Why?  Because the recruit just finished her sophomore year of high school.  Three years down the line, Clare wants to be on track to having a softball program of her own to lead.

But to have a college offer when you’re fifteen, my God.  This didn’t happen to Clare, and she thinks she knows the reason why:  “I was on the wrong travel team.”  College coaches go to certain tournaments to see certain teams that have a longstanding reputation for producing quality players.  Clare belonged to a nice team, nothing more and nothing less.  “I’m where I’m supposed to be now,” says the all-time homerun hitter for softball at Elmhurst College, and she may be right.  I only hope she doesn’t blame me for not finding her a better team back in the day.  I feel responsible enough for that as it is.

In the end, though, you can only have memories from the things that were and not what might have been, and in that I am incredibly blessed.