With the cancellation of spring college sports and social distancing guidelines in effect, a major aspect of college sports has been altered. Recruiting has become quite different, with coaches not being able to visit prospects in person. Central athletic director Eric Van Kley says that many of this year’s high school seniors have already made their decisions, so junior recruiting is being affected even more.

“I think it may impact junior recruiting as much as senior. We’ve got a really good plan in place, and that’s just using technology to help us. With very limited mobility among families, it’s getting the iPhones, Droids powered up, figuring out FaceTime and some of the other technological advances that we can use. We’re very resilient, we’re working at length with our admissions office to figure some of those hurdles out, and we’ll keep working hard to bring in great student-athletes to Central.”

Central has many recruits locked in for next school year, including many from the city of Pella.