<p>For a while, Emma Rutan wasn’t sure the whole college softball thing was going to work out for her.</p><p>The Franklin senior had been emailing and calling coaches, sending practice video and game footage out in an effort to land herself a roster spot at the next level. Most of the responses she was getting, though, contained a familiar refrain — <em>we’re interested, but we’d like to watch you play a little more as a senior before we pull the trigger on you.</em></p><p>When the COVID-19 outbreak wiped out her senior season, Rutan had legitimate concerns about how it might affect her future. Fortunately for her, it worked out — college coaches had to adjust their recruiting approach since every high school team lost the season, and playing the long game with prospects was no longer an option. University of Indianapolis coach Melissa Frost reached back out to Rutan in late March.</p><p>"She actually emailed me back and offered me a position," Rutan said. "She said she had actually seen enough of me playing at camps, and she saw me play a little bit in travel ball over the fall. She was really wanting to watch me play this season, but she said that she had seen enough of me and that they liked what they saw."</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>Not every spring athlete will be that lucky. For many high school kids looking to draw the attention of colleges, losing the 2020 season throws a major wrench into the recruiting timeline.</p><p>Whiteland junior Gabrielle Allen, one of the top sprinters and hurdlers in the county, had expected this spring to be her best chance to make her pitch to college coaches with some improved times, but she’ll now have to wait until this summer — or perhaps even her senior year — to do so.</p><p>"This really hurts her, because Gabby is certainly a girl that could run collegiately — and I don’t know where that would be, D-I, D-II, somewhere — and she has the desire to," Warriors coach Brandon Bangel said. "And now this season’s gone, so it really just pushes the recruitment process back a whole year for her.</p><p>"She’s going to have to be really patient next year, because she’s not going to get offers and she’s not going to get some of that stuff until she really posts some good times, and that may be way late next year, so that’s going to be a difficult thing for her."</p><p>Allen, who has family in Alabama and is strongly considering continuing her running career in the South after graduation, has had some contact with college coaches already but was hoping to generate some more options for herself.</p><p>"I’ve always wanted to go bigger," Allen said, "especially if — I’m thinking about moving back down to the South, so this year could have been a big, big opportunity."</p><p>It’s an opportunity missed, both for undecided seniors and late bloomers hoping to fill a stray spot on a college roster and for juniors that are losing out on their best window of opportunity to make an impression on college coaches.</p><p>Junior year, Bangel noted, is generally the time when most would-be college athletes make their mark. Luckily for Allen, track is somewhat an exception to the rule.</p><p>"Track’s a little different; they’ll wait later," Bangel said. "Sometimes they’ll wait until your senior year and see how things are going in your senior season before they sign, but junior year is typically when you get your name on everybody’s list and all that."</p><p>Recruiting is a two-way street, though, and while high school athletes might be suffering from a lack of visibility with no games going on, college coaches are having a harder time as well.</p><p>Franklin College baseball coach Lance Marshall pointed out that while much of his 2020 recruiting class has already been filled, the lost spring season takes away a big opportunity for he and his staff to look ahead at future prospects.</p><p>"What it will affect, probably, is more the coming year," Marshall said, "because it also allowed us to get a head start on the 2021s when we were out at the high school games. That was a benefit for us, for sure."</p><p>Instead, recruits and coaches alike will have to hope that the current hiatus doesn’t extend too deep into the rest of the year — summer, for starters, is a key scouting time for sports of all seasons.</p><p>The lack of competition is a problem that everyone has to overcome, but especially the athletes, who will have to keep the rust off for who knows how long.</p><p>"It can slip through your fingers real fast if you’re not staying on top of it," Rutan said.</p>
