A Florida Gator constructs blueprint for recruiting success…except she was never recruited in the first place. Rather, Michelle Moultrie did most of the legwork for her future coaches, and now she’s the starting center fielder and leadoff hitter for the Gators softball team.
A supremely gifted athlete from Jacksonville, Fla., Moultrie entered the recruiting fray late. She decided even later that the University of Florida would be the perfect place to continue her education and maybe even play a little ball for the Gators.
“She had been sending me emails and sending me stuff about coming to play for Florida,” head coach Tim Walton recently told ncaa.com. Luckily for Moultrie, Jacksonville is only an hour-and-a-half drive from the Gainesville campus. “We sent one of our coaches to watch her play in a high school game,” Walton said. “We could see her athleticism, but she was really raw.”
A perennial powerhouse in SEC softball, Florida has the best of the best players available to them, and they rarely take flyers on prospects who are not ready to contribute immediately. But per standard recruiting practices, the Gator staff kept tabs on Moultrie while continuing to pursue other recruits.
Moultrie didn’t assume anything or rest on her laurels. She followed through with her application process like any other graduating high school senior bound for college. But she boosted her recruiting stock by notifying Walton of her admission to the University and by informing him that she would be attending the Gators’ summer softball camp.
Says Walton: “If a kid’s going to take the time to do that, I’m going to watch her. So I followed her around the camp and worked with her swinging and watched her run. At the end of camp, I told her thanks for coming.”
A week later, Walton phoned Moultrie and invited her to try out as a non-scholarship player. Two weeks into her freshman year at Florida, she made the team.
Moultrie maximized her recruiting potential by doing more than just bombarding her targeted school’s coaching staff with emails.
First, she hit it big by keeping it local. According to Ehren Earleywine, head coach of the Big 12 champion Missouri Tigers, most programs favor filling their rosters with in-state players. He says, “We feel like those kids grew up loyal to the university, and they play harder because it means something to them when they play an archrival or a conference opponent. I think it has more significance to them, and makes for a more loyal player.”
Keeping recruiting efforts local is also more cost-efficient. Let’s face it, not all college sports programs have limitless recruiting budgets. Since softball is an equivalency sport—meaning a limited number of scholarships must be divided among the full team—most players are responsible for paying at least some of their college expenses. For in-state student-athletes, those costs are substantially reduced compared to out-of-state players.
Moultrie also took advantage of the all-important college sports camp to gain one-on-one access to Walton, the coach to whom she had tirelessly marketed herself. Scot Thomas, head coach at Virginia Tech, says, “The camps give us an opportunity to get a feel for what [the athlete] is like and what [his or her] demeanor is like. You can tell in the camps if you have a kid who is lazy. On the other hand, you may have a kid that increases your excitement, and you will continue to recruit the kid.”
Which is exactly what happened with Moultrie. The buzz she generated led to a tryout invite, a roster spot and ultimately, a scholarship offer.
With camp season in full force, consider these tips on how to conduct yourself to impress the coaches:

• Contact coaches in advance to inform them you’ll be attending the camp
• Arrive on time
• If a uniform isn’t provided, wear a jersey with your name on the back
• Hustle at all times
• Encourage and cheer on fellow athletes during the camp
• Ask for an evaluation at several positions
• Project a positive attitude

Source:  ncaa.com
Photo:  gatorcountry.com