CrossFit Athletic Group

Summer 2020

Going into her senior year, Maddy Bettys had offers to play soccer at the Juco level and basketball at the DIII level, as well as a lone D1 soccer offer from Detroit Mercy. As this year was progressing, she picked up some other interest here and there but nothing that really stuck in the form of a solid option.

Then the week of her districts for basketball, she got a call from the soccer coach at Toledo asking her to come out to their ID camp that Saturday. There was a major dilemma with that, however: Michigan weather. A big snowstorm pushed Madison's basketball game to 12 noon on Saturday - the exact same time the soccer camp.

Uh oh.

The choice: right now or the future?

Man... let this one sit for a minute, because this one even had me on the fence. So let's add some perspective to this.

If soccer is Madison's 1a, basketball is her 1b; might not be her best sport but it's right there. She's a walking, offensive rebounding, volleyball knee pads-wearing double-double on the court. All-State kind of player. No Madison Bettys in the lineup means bad news for Ford's basketball team, and each game in the state playoffs is more important than the last. Lose and you're out.

But it's her senior year and as long-term as I am, I would definitely say time is ticking to find the right college to play at. And out of nowhere an option comes up that checks all the boxes: good athletics, new coaching staff, an hour away from home, good academics. But that option has a catch: she'd have to miss her high school basketball game.

If I was Madison, I would have probably missed the basketball game. But Maddy - guided by two top-notch parents, by the way - decided to call the Toledo coach and ask if it was okay to play in the game and then drive to Toledo to participate in whatever was left of the ID camp. The coach was cool with it.

Ford won the district championship at noon and the rest of the girls celebrated back at the school while the Bettys crew was on I-75 S.

At the camp, Madison did her thing on the field, but the main thing the coaches pointed out to her was how impressive it was that she made that decision to stick with her team and then make the effort to come out their way.

Two days later, Maddy got a call from Toledo letting her know they had a scholarship waiting for her.

...........

Jaylee Hall finished a strong sophomore volleyball season and looked to carry that momentum over into her club/travel season that winter and spring, knowing her junior year was going to be an important time for her to catch some recruiting looks. Hoping to play at the DIII/NAIA level, Jaylee travelled with her club team to tournaments across the country... and nothing went as planned; they lost games, she wasn't getting set often, and most college coaches lined the courts of teams that weren't in the losers brackets.

The choice: follow the trend or follow logic?

Travel sports is the only way to get recruited now-a-days right? How can someone get better without playing at that level? Everyone that plays in college played travel growing up, so doesn't that mean that playing travel growing up is what makes them play in college?

The Hall family took a close look at Jaylee's college goals, the club volleyball scene, and (probably) their bank account and decided that something didn't line up: to play at a D-1 level, yes, you'll usually need a certain resume' behind you, but where Jaylee wants to play, the most direct route would just be to target the schools she likes and focus on improving her skills. Ultimately the decision was up to Jaylee, and she decided against playing travel last summer.

As Jaylee's junior season went on, she became a little anxious when many schools she reached out to asked for highlights from her club team. But finally, Madonna University and Adrian College broke through and offered her spots on their team, followed by a few other schools at that level, providing her with a very secure floor for her college career.