Committing to a relationship is hard. When that relationship involves someone you’ve never met, it’s even harder.
Currently a senior at Bingham, Morgan was recently offered the chance to play Division 1 Lacrosse for San Diego State University and, after almost six years of play and extremely hard work, it’s no surprise that she committed.
Morgan got her start in seventh grade at South Jordan Middle School when the girls’ lacrosse team came for their annual recruiting day. Curiosity started it all, but talent and a love of the game kept her going.
However, passion for the game is not enough to get an athlete recruited. She said, “I knew I wanted to do D1 and I set my sights on that.” She also said, “I spent hours doing research, emailing, and talking to coaches…. tons of research.”
Getting recruited is a long and complicated process, making it difficult to do on your own. Eliza Hitz, Morgan’s coach for the last two years, was “a lot of motivation… She and I would go shoot before practice and it really helped.” Additional sources of aid for Morgan included her well-known club lacrosse coach, Soni Bartlett, and Julie Glusker, another club lacrosse coach, as well as the owner of Aptitude Academic Services. “Julie helped me a ton,” stated Morgan.
The recruitment process is all about the details, though. “First decide what you want to major in or at least a general area…you have to have a highlight video…join a club, it really helps…know what division you want…you need to be eligible with the NCAA and have an account…and practice a ton.” Getting recruited can be the most stressful point of an athlete’s career, but for Morgan, it was completely worth it.
“The weight has lifted and it’s a huge relief because it’s a lot of work.”
Morgan would send twenty initial emails at every tournament she played in and, after being in ten tournaments, Morgan quickly did the math and exclaimed, “I’ve sent at least 200 emails…at least!”
The most difficult parts of recruiting, however, are the dates and visits. Regulated by the NCAA, one of the date restrictions is that D1 coaches are only allowed to call after July 1st. Morgan was pleasantly surprised on that date with an early morning phone call from CU Boulder.
As for visits, they can be very expensive but easily the determining factor of an athlete’s recruitment. Morgan visited schools in Vermont, San Diego, and Boulder, Colorado.
“Before I went to a Massachusetts tournament, I had met the assistant coach and was invited to a camp at the University of Vermont,” said Morgan. She met with their head coaches and found out in August that the university’s assistant coach had moved to the University of San Diego. The same night Morgan received an email expressing the new San Diego Coach’s interest in Morgan and asking her to call if she could.
“The whole thing happened within 2 crazy days. I hadn’t met the girls, I hadn’t seen the campus… but I signed with them on November 14th,” said Morgan.
According to Morgan, the school is perfect for her. San Diego State has Kinesiology and Athletic Training majors but, more important to Morgan, “It’s five minutes from the beach and they have surfing classes!”
