As the ripple effects from the COVID-19 pandemic continue to make their ways through college baseball, kids are altering course in hopes of realizing their dreams.
In recent years, reclassification has engulfed amateur baseball across New England as kids searching for a potential athletic scholarship and more prestigious academics leave their high schools for prep school institutions.
The reasons for the rapid influx in kids repeating a year within high school are hard to enumerate. The decisions by the NCAA to provide an extra year of eligibility to student-athletes burdened by the COVID-19 pandemic along with allowing immediate eligibility for transfers has back-logged recruiting. Available roster spots at schools are limited for high school graduates as colleges deal with having players on roster for five or even six years while then surfing the transfer portal for established college performers.
This leaves families feeling pressured as they jump from graduation class to graduation class in the hopes that in their now new, extended year their dream school has more roster availability.
