The Forgotten Class? How COVID Disrupted the Athletic Dreams of the Class of 2021

For high school athletes, the path to a college scholarship has always involved talent, exposure, development, and timing.

For the high school Class of 2021, COVID-19 disrupted all four.

The athletes who graduated in 2021 entered the most important part of their recruiting process just as the pandemic shut down high school sports, closed gyms and training facilities, and dramatically changed how college coaches evaluated prospects.

On March 13, 2020, the NCAA halted in-person Division I recruiting and suspended official and unofficial campus visits. What began as a temporary restriction became a recruiting dead period that lasted roughly 15 months.

That meant many players who would normally have spent the spring and summer of their junior year attending camps, playing in showcases, and visiting colleges were stuck at home.

For Florida football players, the timing was particularly difficult.

Florida is one of the nation's premier high school football states, and recruiting exposure often comes from much more than Friday night games. Spring football, seven-on-seven tournaments, college camps, summer workouts, and personal visits all give coaches opportunities to evaluate players who may not already be nationally known.

Those opportunities were severely limited.

The FHSAA also modified its 2020-21 football schedule and eliminated mandated district play as schools worked through the pandemic.

Then came another problem which could be felt on the field: development.

Many Class of 2021 athletes lost weeks or months of organized practices and games. Just as importantly, some lost access to the places where they normally trained.

School weight rooms and gyms were closed in many communities, while private gyms and training facilities also shut down or operated under restrictions. Some athletes had equipment at home. Many did not.

That created an obvious disadvantage for players trying to get bigger, stronger, and faster before college coaches made their decisions.

A 2020 report on high school football found coaches dealing with players who had no access to weight equipment, which impacted their ability to complete modified home workouts they provided. In Florida, future Gators described working out in garages and at local fields because gyms were closed.

For a highly recruited player who already had offers, that might have been manageable.

For a late-blooming prospect who needed one more season of development to attract attention, it could be the difference between getting noticed and getting overlooked.

Basketball players faced a similar challenge. The 2020 spring and summer AAU circuit, one of the most important evaluation periods in recruiting, was heavily disrupted. Coaches lost opportunities to see prospects compete against elite competition outside their high school programs.

And then the college roster situation changed.

The NCAA granted athletes affected by COVID-19 an additional year of eligibility, allowing many players who otherwise would have exhausted their eligibility to return. At the same time, the NCAA temporarily suspended annual initial-counter limits as schools dealt with the pandemic and new transfer rules.

The practical result was a crowded and unpredictable college roster.

A football program that normally expected several players to graduate could suddenly have some of those players return. A scholarship that might have gone to a high school senior could become part of a much more complicated roster calculation.

Then came the transfer portal.

In April 2021, the NCAA approved changes allowing qualifying football and basketball players to transfer once and compete immediately, rather than sitting out a full academic year.

For coaches, that created another recruiting option: experienced college players who had already played at the next level.

During the 2020-21 academic year, 2,531 FBS football players entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. In men's Division I basketball, 1,687 entered.

That gave coaches an enormous pool of players with college experience at a time when evaluating incoming freshmen was more difficult than ever.

The Class of 2021 therefore faced a unique combination of obstacles.

They played fewer games.

They practiced less.

They had fewer opportunities to train and gain strength.

They had fewer camps and showcases.

College coaches had fewer opportunities to see them in person.

And when roster spots became available, coaches suddenly had more experienced college players to consider.

The most highly recruited prospects still found their opportunities. But for the thousands of players who were on the edge of receiving an offer — the late bloomers, the small-school athletes and the players who needed one more year to develop — the margin for error became much smaller.

The Class of 2021 did not simply have to compete against other high school athletes for scholarships.

They had to compete against a pandemic that changed the recruiting process itself.

And for many of those athletes, the hardest part was not proving they could play college sports.

It was getting enough opportunity to prove it.