Reevaluating Recruitment

Image courtesy of Milton Flickr

By AJ STRANG ‘21

As I rejoiced for our ISL Champion Varsity Soccer and Football teams, I marvelled at these teams’ immediate recoveries from losing multiple All-ISL athletes. However, in celebration I felt slightly hollow. Pondering upon this pervasive emptiness, I determined the source: I simply did not know many of the players on these teams. I quickly realized that this is because a large portion of these athletes were new this year, and/or prioritized their sport above all else. In other words, these rosters are stacked with recruits.

Although the term “athletic recruit” can carry a damning connotation at Milton, the label only displays one’s devotion to their talents. As everyone gets into Milton for their particular skills, why should consideration for a certain athletic ability drastically differ from a musical talent, for example? Moreover, despite claims that admissions accepts sports recruits despite their being less academically qualified, a Varsity Coach explains, “in the recruiting process, we look for smart kids with straight A’s.” Milton’s attempts to attract exceptional athletes do not undermine the school’s academic integrity. As Varsity Soccer Coach and Director of Financial Aid Chris Kane asserts, the act of recruiting only stems from a desire to attract “the best candidates for the school.” 

Nevertheless, an issue lies in the motives behind Milton’s recruiting for select sports. Zach Brooks (I) asserts that the football team accrued approximately seven new recruits this year, whereas a boys Varsity squash player states his team did not obtain even one. This stark contrast illuminates Milton’s focused recruiting for team sports, especially hockey, football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and lacrosse, while seemingly neglecting the smaller individual sports such as golf, squash, and cross-country. However, the logic of recruiting for larger sports appears counterintuitive.

Firstly, bigger teams generally require several players to make significant impacts on the games. Secondly, the aforementioned team sports are very physical. Thus, these disciplines necessitate physically mature athletes, a standard which underclassmen require time to meet. Furthermore, these sports usually induce high injury rates, forcing rosters to stock benches with comparative quality. Thirdly, the delicate factor of chemistry risks the success of recruitment. Finally, coaches often find the subjectivity of talent difficult to discern in team sports.

Comparatively, to establish a prominent cross-country program, Milton would require fewer recruits. As a team consisting of only seven varsity members, the small squad relies on fewer athletes. Furthermore, given the lower injury rates and requirements of physical maturity, members of the team provide impact for longer tenures. Finally, the individual nature of the sport dispels any teamwork concerns, and the objectivity of individuality avoids any risks of misevaluation.

So why do we shower the larger sports with reinforcements in determined pursuits of ISL championships while the boys’ cross-country team flounders perpetually outside the top 5? Coach Kane states that the admissions process does not prioritize “any program relative to another.” Instead, he suggests the responsibility of procuring talent falls to individual coaches. Additionally, Coach Kane opines that the larger applicant pools for major team sports dictates the disparity of recruits between various sports.

However, cynical students, including myself, assert that the apparent systematic preference for certain sports roots itself in an institutionalized motivation: promoting Milton’s image. Two of Milton’s recruiting reasons reveal how the administration uses admissions to enhance the academy’s public perception.

Firstly, as the larger team sports receive more publicity due to their inherent nature as spectator sports, the direct pressure of playing major sports induces heavier recruitment. The flood of new boys’ hockey recruits this year following a disappointing season exemplifies Milton’s desire to maintain the school’s athletic reputation. Meanwhile, less prioritized sports undergoing losing seasons away from such fanfare and scrutiny, such as wrestling, do not find themselves flushed with reinforcements.

Secondly, Milton’s prestige hinges on matriculation into renowned colleges and universities. As Nicholas Choi (I) explains, “Milton’s recruitment is influenced by the thought that athletes of particular sports have a higher chance of later landing offers at top-tier colleges... it’s simply smarter for us to recruit for football as there are more roster spots at quality colleges for football than a sport like golf.” Hence, the manufactured composition of our admissions department reflects this desire to promote prominent sports; that the Offensive Coordinator of the Football team and the Varsity Soccer Coach are the Heads of Admissions and Financial Aid respectively is no coincidence. 

I am not claiming that Milton administration selects admissions officers unworthy of their positions, nor that admissions officers select students unworthy of their earned place in this school. In fact, students often unfairly misconstrue specialized athletes as dumb jocks, failing to recognize that we all reached the same academic standards. However, the tendency to recruit team athletes for appearance purposes, whether intentional or not, influences the admissions system to which we are universally beholden, crumbling Milton’s pillar of meritocracy: leaving us hollow.