The global pandemic affected sports in a variety of highly visible ways from cancelling games to wearing masks to limited fan attendance or no attendance at all. The NCAA also passed a rule allowing student athletes to retain a year of eligibility during the pandemic. The intentions beyond the move are understandable. However, the knock on effects of providing an extra year of eligibility to so many student-athletes has created some unintended consequences. New transfer rules combined with this rule to create a transfer portal flooded with players changing teams. It also created issues for high schoolers attempting to take their game to the next level. For much of the year recruiting trips were not available and players had to find other ways to get coaches to view them as prospects instead of attending games. And while social media and the proliferation of easy to use technology made it easier for students to broadcast their exploits to the world, there’s no replacement for being able to meet face-to-face with coaches and sell yourself and develop a relationship. And with less space available on many teams due to extra eligibility and transfer chaos many high school student athletes who might have been higher rated prospects are being pushed to prep schools or junior colleges and told to wait it out for a year to give the team extra space. This will likely created a pipeline issue for many years forward as well. THS Media talked with athletes here at Truman about their experiences with recruitment and what it was like for them as they tried to find a landing spot for next season.