ROCHESTER, NY – Just as most individuals have had to make adjustments in their everyday lives during a pandemic, coaches at RIT have had to make changes in all aspects of their job, including recruiting. The coaching staff have had to get creative and come up with new ideas in all facets of recruiting future RIT student-athletes.

RIT admissions is hosting potential students for on-campus visits and tours. Families may contact the admissions office and set up a private on-campus tour following all COVID-19 protocols for social distancing. 

“We can have prospective student-athletes visit campus, which has been incredibly helpful,” said RIT women’s lacrosse coach Erin Wagner. “Recruits are encouraged to register for a tour through the Admissions Office where they will go through symptom screening prior to campus tours.”

While on campus, recruits and their families can meet with the coach, following the same social-distancing  and masking protocols.

With a lack of in-person contact with potential student-athletes, coaches have relied upon texting, emailing or FaceTiming recruits to stay in contact. “I have found myself FaceTiming recruits a lot more,” said RIT Women’s Basketball Coach and Senior Woman Administrator Amy Reed. “They actually prefer it, and you get that “face-to-face” interaction in the best way you can. I also text with them quite regularly.” 

During the summer months many coaches will travel to watch potential recruits at various camps, summer-league games and showcases. However, RIT currently has enacted a freeze on all official travel, so all off-campus recruiting has been on hold since last spring, which means that recruiting has shifted primarily to an online/virtual setting.

Reed explained that many events were streamed, allowing her a chance to watch recruits from afar. “There are still AAU events being held, and a lot of those events were streamed live,” explained Reed. “The organizers knew most colleges weren’t permitting coaches to do in-person recruiting at this time.”

“I have not done any in-person recruiting since January,” said Wagner. “This summer and fall, I have been doing evaluations based on highlight videos and game film from tournaments.”

“We have been limited to highlight videos and any live-play video that is offered at the different events, said RIT Men’s Lacrosse Coach Jake Coon. “Many events have setup some sort of video but they don’t capture everything. We also use club and high school recommendations as a really important part of the process right now.”

With on-campus visits and travel curtailed, RIT coaches have had to get creative in their recruiting. Coach Reed sends recruits a video highlighting the reasons why a potential student-athlete should come to RIT. Wagner is planning a virtual “Junior Day” for her 2022 recruits. 

Could the travel and in-person restrictions have a lasting effect on recruiting? “Depending on how long the restrictions last, it could start to affect the class of 2022,” said Coon. “We usually try to transition over to evaluating recruits in the fall, and as of right now we cannot. Because of this, next summer will be extremely important to catch up on evaluations and visits.”

“I think we can certainly recruit virtually as a supplementary way to extend our outreach and cast a wider net,” said Reed. “I do enjoy attending events in-person. I do not think that should end. You can see things in person that you wouldn’t normally catch on video. However, I think a combination of in person and remote is the future of recruiting.”

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – With the priority being the health and safety of students and staff at member institutions, the Northeast Women’s Hockey League has made the difficult decision to cancel its 2020-21 conference schedule and league championship. The conference announced the decision on Friday, Oct. 23.

“The priority must be to protect the health and safety of our student-athletes as well as the members of our campuses and communities,” Tom DiCamillo, commissioner of the NEWHL, explained. “We are disappointed in having to make this decision and feel for our student-athletes; however, our intention is to stay safe and united as a league, and prepare for the 2021-22 season.”

The conference transitioned from the ECAC West to the NEWHL in 2017-18, which the Potsdam Bears joined with Buffalo State, Cortland, Oswego and Plattsburgh. Morrisville and Canton joined the league last season bringing the total number of schools to seven to secure a permanent NCAA Division III automatic qualifier in the national championship tournament. Potsdam has qualified for the NEWHL tournament in two of the league’s three seasons, earning the No. 2 seed in 2018-19.

Atlantic Hockey has announced that the 2020-21 season will officially begin on the weekend of November 13-14, 2020. The schedule features 24 games and allows for up to 28 games for our member institutions. The season concludes with the Atlantic Hockey Tournament, which will include all 11 teams and be played over three weekends culminating with a return to Buffalo’s LECOM HarborCenter.

“First off, I’m extremely excited to be announcing we have an approved league schedule for the 2020-21 season. It’s been a long process, and involved quite a bit of discussion, but it’s a testament to all those involved that we have managed to get Atlantic Hockey on the ice in 2020-21,” said Commissioner Robert DeGregorio. “We put this schedule together to maximize the student-athlete experience during such uncertain times. We found a way to schedule up to 28 games while maintaining a focus on the health and safety of all parties by reducing travel times and overnight trips as much as we could.”

To mitigate some of the risk factors regarding COVID-19 exposure during travel, Atlantic Hockey has separated the league into eastern and western pods, with Air Force standing alone as the geographic outlier. The eastern pod is made up of AIC, Army, Bentley, Holy Cross, and Sacred Heart. The western pod consists of Canisius, Mercyhurst, Niagara, RIT, and Robert Morris. All teams will play five games against each pod member (20 total games), play Air Force for a pair of games (2) for 22 league games, and then play a two-game set against LIU, who is being worked in as a scheduling partner for the 2020-21 season. Air Force will play each team twice and add in the Sharks for four games, two home and two on the road.

Prior to the possibility of LIU becoming a scheduling partner was even on the league’s radar, it was decided that league standings would be determined by point percentage this season, not by total points or even win percentage. Atlantic Hockey decided to move in this direction for two reasons: 1) unfortunately there is no guarantee each team plays a full league schedule and 2) wins are not valued the same in the 3-on-3 OT model that is now our operating overtime so win percentage, while easier to comprehend, was not viable. With that in place, moving to a schedule where Air Force had 20 league games and all other members had 22 did not impact the ability to make a schedule like this work.

Atlantic Hockey is still working to finalize the return-to-play protocols for the season, but LIU has agreed to abide by all protocols for the 2020-21 season, including testing, screening, sanitization, and other preventative measures outlined in the document.

The full 2020-21 Atlantic Hockey schedule, with scheduled non-conference games, will be released at a later date.