In 2014, Full Count Softball posted over 1,200 articles and today we begin our look back at what we feel were the Top 10 stories of the year, ones that had emotional impact, great human interest and drama or significance to the sport.

Today’s Article: Georgia drops three recruits

Story Ranking: #10

First Published: August 12, 2014

What It’s About: Early recruiting is, arguably, the biggest topic in college and club softball today as players as young as the eighth grade are being offered and committing. One of the fears among coaches and administrators at every level is that softball will go the way of football in that players will commit early and then either decommit or be dropped by colleges for any number of reasons. That happened at the highest level when word leaked out in the early fall that an SEC school, the Univ. of Georgia, had told three players—two incoming high school seniors and an incoming junior—that they no longer would have scholarships. To be fair to Georgia, this has happened at many other schools that had coaching changes and two new assistants were brought in under head coach Lu Harris-Champer over the summer, but this story was surprising in that two of the players were just three months away from signing their Letters of Intent and the athletes apparently had done nothing inappropriate off the field to have their offers pulled. There was a lot of shock and upset feelings, not surprisingly, on the player and club team side and concern across the sport in general that this would be the first big example of the feared consequences of young athletes committing very early and it coming back to burn them down the road…

Update: All three players ended up with new programs as 2015 shortstop Mallory Belknap signed with Georgetown, 2015 pitcher/infielder Brittany Nimmo (now with the St. Louis Chaos organization) signed with North Carolina State and 2016 catcher Rebecca Prairie committed to Georgia Tech.

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ORIGINAL STORY:

Georgia drops three recruits (8/12)

Ninety-nine percent of the time when we cover recruiting on this site, it’s happy news.

Recruiting, in most cases, culminates with the announcement of which university or college a player has decided to attend and the excitement that comes with knowing that not only will she be getting to play a sport she loves at the collegiate level, but likely get paid in some way to compete.

Then, there’s that one percent of the time when recruiting isn’t so pleasant, when it resembles a sport like football where it’s estimated that 10-15% of committed players either decommit or get dropped for whatever reason.

Unfortunately, that’s the situation that’s happened in the SEC within the last couple of days.

What we know

Last Friday, three recruits that had been offered and committed to the University of Georgia were told they no longer would be able to sign with the SEC school. In essence, their scholarship offers were withdrawn.

I’ve talked to no less than six sources close to the situation, including club and college coaches as well as people within the Georgia athletic administration, and there are differing opinions as to why the offers were rescinded.

What is agreed by almost all is who the three talented prospects are: Mallory Belknap, a 2015 shortstop who plays with the Arizona Hotshots; Brittany Nimmo, a 2015 pitcher/infielder who plays with Originals Gold-Bernholt (Mo.) and Rebecca Prairie, a 2016 catcher with East Cobb Bullets-Schnute.

None of those I spoke to, not surprisingly, want to be quoted on record because of the delicate situation facing both sides.

For the athletes, their families and club coaches, they want to try to find a new school as quickly as possible and fear speaking out will hurt these chances.

On the Georgia side, the sources I spoke to knowledgeable about the softball situation say the athletic administration is concerned about privacy issues and legal concerns and has instructions for higher ups to not discuss publicly.

Plus, whenever recruits are dropped, it draws criticism and the hope is that all parties can move on from this as seamlessly as possible and everyone will be able to move on.

Without dispute are the changes that have happened within the Georgia softball program this summer.

Assistant coach Gerry Glasco left to take a similar position at Texas A&M after being in charge of the Bulldogs’ recruiting efforts for several years. Shortly after, his daughter Geri Ann Glasco transferred to Oregon after hitting .297 with 10 homers and 42 RBI while going 16-5 as a pitcher.

Georgia Head Coach Lu Harris-Champer finished her 14th season at the helm of the SEC program highlighted by a 12th consecutive trips to the NCAA Championship.

The head coach has produced 20 All-Americans and 65 All-SEC honorees in her time at Athens, but as of early July found herself needed to overhaul her staff.

On July 16 Tony Baldwin was announced as an assistant, returning to Georgia where he was a volunteer coach in 2011 and 2012 followed by a stint at North Carolina the last two years.

One week ago, on August 4, Rick Pauly was also named as an assistant after serving as a volunteer assistant at USC Upstate for the three previous years.

That much is pretty black and white… the rest of it is in dispute.

What’s uncertain

The reasons for the pulled scholarships vary depending on whom you talk to. My source close to the Georgia athletic department says the new coaching staff came in and, not knowing the committed players, began looking at all prospects to “re-evaluate the team’s needs and who would be a good fit for the program.”

Sometimes, it was stressed, that when new coaching staffs come in and there are different philosophies or styles, then committed players and their scholarships may not be honored. Although sticky, this has happened a handful of times within the last year including cases at Big 10 and ACC schools.

Those closer to the players feel that Georgia, with the departure of Geri Ann Glasco, are bringing in outfielder/infielder Sydni Emanuel, the second leading hitter on Texas Tech last year, and her sister, Cortni, who signed with the Red Raiders in December, and to facilitate their scholarship dollars are cutting recruits.

Some feel that it won’t be just the trio, but could be as many as five total players, and the fact that Georgia allegedly wasn’t at the July TC/USA Nationals or the Atlanta Legacy Showcase—where all three players competed—shows that the Dawg coaches weren’t interested in evaluating the already committed prospects.

The Georgia source denies the tie-in with other athletes, saying that player transfers and the dropped scholarships are “mutually exclusive” and have more to do with the “reconstruction of the recruiting direction” the SEC school will be taking.

Whatever the reasons, all know that pulling the scholarships—especially with the Early Signing period for incoming seniors less than three months away and the dollars for the 2015 class all but allocated elsewhere—will make it tough for those recruits suddenly on the market to find a new home.

It’s not as if they aren’t major college-caliber talent: Prairie committed to Georgia last October and is known to be an excellent defensive catcher with good strength, Belknap made the Hot 100 for the 2015 class because of her middle infield defensive skills and great skill with the bat and Nimmo, a two-time All-State pitcher, had offers from the Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC.

One of the player’s coaches said that four schools called him today and one college coach says he would “commit her tonight if he could.”

Besides the timing and the uncertainty of where they will play college ball, equally troubling is the way the process was handled says those on the players’ side. Two of the three players were reportedly told their offers were rescinded by e-mail and one was supposedly told while she was in school last week.

Also, when Coach Gasco left earlier in the summer, the players were asked if they would stay committed and now, says sources, that loyalty isn’t being reciprocated.

“The university and softball program expected these kids to honor their commitment after taking themselves off the market for two or three years,” says one coach. “They didn’t look at other options and were excited, buying Bulldog apparel and getting fired up to play where they committed.”

“It’s not like they did anything to merit this, like drinking, putting up inappropriate social media posts or even stopped playing or working hard. Nobody said, ‘You’re a bad kid, a bad student or a bad player.’ They weren’t told they needed to work on their game or improve in any way.”

Those I spoke to close to the Bulldog program know they may get a p.r. black eye over this admitting, “We were instructed to say ‘no comment,’ but we all do hope the players get to places where they have great experiences and we will support them and attest to their abilities and character if asked.”

Time is short, but the good news is word is already spreading and hopefully, as school starts again both at the high school and college level, programs that will be a good fit for these major D-I talents will pick up the interest.

“We’re seeing that schools are definitely interested,” says one player’s club coach, “it’s definitely disappointing but we’re cautiously optimistic that everything will work out as it should. In time, we’re confident we’ll look back and see this experience as a blessing in disguise.”