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Nearly everyone agrees that visiting a campus is the best way for a recruit to determine if a college is the right fit. But the coronavirus pandemic has prevented recruits from making official visits and forced coaches to adjust their recruiting strategies.

How are coaches making sure recruits can still learn about their schools and programs? They share some of their new virtual realities in our latest Coaching Roundtable:

Billy Pate, Princeton men

“Like everyone, we are using Zoom and Skype more than ever. Clearly, this doesn't take the place of prospects visiting our campus, but we can at least strategically position the video or conduct a virtual tour. We have been sending more videos to recruits as our athletics department and other teams have put together some great content. Also, the ability to share documents on Zoom is a great feature and makes it similar to a powerpoint to promote a meaningful discussion.

“We are probably a bit unique at Princeton as most of our prospects have a fundamental understanding of our academic reputation and beauty of our campus. However, I do feel the prospects are missing a key piece of what we do and that is to watch team practices, attend classes and hang out in the dorms with our student-athletes. Many of the prospects know underclassmen on our team and can certainly call and chat directly with them to learn more about the everyday life of a student-athlete. Nonetheless, we are hopeful the current prospects will get a chance to see campus in person in the near future once the health crisis improves."