By:\u00a0Gabriel Kamins, Opinions Editor<\/p>\n
The Coronavirus has swept across the world, causing people to stay home, keep six feet away from each other, sanitize frequently, and practice many life-altering things. However, an underrated effect of the virus is the impact it has on juniors in high school who are trying to get recruited to play sports in college.\u00a0 Whether they are unable to go on visits to schools or participate in camps, or their season was cancelled entirely, leaving them with less film to send to coaches, many juniors at River Hill have felt the impacts of the Coronavirus, and must figure out where to go from here.<\/span><\/p>\n Zach Igwebe is one of the better players to suit up for the River Hill Football team in recent years.\u00a0 This past season, Igwebe was named First Team All-County as a linebacker and also ran for 13 touchdowns as a running back.\u00a0 Due to his impressive junior year, Igwebe has been in contact with coaches from \u201cMonmouth University, Kutztown University, Elon University, Davidson University, Towson University, Dickinson University, Bridgewater University, and Williams University.\u201d\u00a0 However, due to the virus, Igwebe \u201ccan\u2019t go on any visits\u201d to schools that are showing interest in him, which makes the process of deciding on a school difficult for him.\u00a0 Thankfully, though, \u201ca lot of recruiting is done through Twitter these days,\u201d Igwebe noted, and thus, his recruitment has not been \u201cdrastically impacted.\u201d\u00a0 So what\u2019s next for Zach?\u00a0 \u201cThe logical next step would be to find a school that would be the best fit [for him] and hopefully get an offer to play football there,\u201d he explained.\u00a0 Igwebe is exercising every day in order to stay in shape, as he is unable to attend normally scheduled lifting sessions with his team.<\/span><\/p>\n While Igwebe had the luxury of being able to play his junior season, those who play a spring sport were not as fortunate.\u00a0 River Hill Lacrosse had a promising season in store for 2020, but unfortunately had their season cancelled due to the virus, leaving juniors like Kyle Henry and Jack Burns with less of an opportunity to showcase their talents for colleges.\u00a0 For Henry, the pre-virus recruiting process was going well.\u00a0 He was \u201cgetting a lot of messages from Division 2 and Division 3 schools, as well as some from Division 1, and a lot of invitations to special camps and showcases.\u201d\u00a0 The star goalie\u2019s recruitment has been \u201caffected a lot\u201d by the virus.\u00a0 \u201cI missed my junior year of lacrosse, which was my biggest year, as I was striving to have the highest save percentage in the league,\u201d he said.\u00a0 He also had \u201cmany tournaments lined up with many different coaches from different schools\u201d for the summer, and is hoping that they don\u2019t get cancelled.\u00a0 Similar to Henry, Jack Burns has \u201cattended a few Division 1 camps\u201d and has \u201cgotten many Division 3 schools aggressively pursuing [him]\u201d.\u00a0 He has even \u201csat down with a few interested Division 3 coaches.\u201d\u00a0 But, Burns, who explained that \u201cJunior year is typically the biggest year for recruiting,\u201d has certainly felt the impacts of the virus.\u00a0 Still, he\u2019s staying hopeful.\u00a0 \u201cAssuming the summer tournament is not canceled, there should be plenty more opportunities for me to play in front of college coaches,\u201d he explained.\u00a0 Currently, both athletes are sending their highlight videos and information to different coaches across the country.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a weird time and [that] is really all you can do for now,\u201d explained Henry.<\/span><\/p>\n For student-athletes who are attempting to play sports in college, this is a very difficult time.\u00a0 They must do their best to stay in shape, with limited access to training resources, while also doing what they can, despite some having less film to send, to get noticed from coaches at the next level.\u00a0 The Coronavirus has had an impact on everyone\u2019s lives, with some feeling the effects more than others.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to stay home, practice good hygiene, and social distance when necessary.\u00a0 That way, this pandemic can pass soon, and life can be back to normal.\u00a0 Until then, Zach Igwebe, Kyle Henry, Jack Burns, and student-athletes all across the country are still determined to put themselves in the best position to play college sports.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By:\u00a0Gabriel Kamins, Opinions Editor The Coronavirus has swept across the world, causing people to stay home, keep six feet away from each other, sanitize frequently, and practice many life-altering things. However, an underrated effect of the virus is the impact it has on juniors in high school who are trying to get recruited to play…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Football_Recruiting_2019_Draft_1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1175,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions\/1175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}