A new era of San Mateo County community college recruiting

But what was once the sole domain of four-year schools, the hype of committing to play at the next level has filtered down the community college level. The College of San Mateo football program has the publicity chops of a Division I program. The Skyline College women’s basketball team is also hopping on the announcement bandwagon, announcing the “commitment” of a pair of players to the Trojans squad for the 2022-23 season.

“As times have changed, especially with the NIL (name, image and likeness) deals, it’s important for student-athletes to feel like they’re getting the full (college athletic) experience and, in a way, brand themselves,” said Chris Watters, Skyline women’s basketball coach, who is entering his 11th season with the Trojans. “It’s about the full experience. We want them to feel like this is college basketball. It’s different than high school.”

Gone are the days when asked who the newest recruits are, community college coaches would reply, “Well, we’ll see who shows up on the first day of practice.”

Now, community college coaches are trying to lock in commitments from recruits, even though there is no binding agreement, like a national-letter-of-intent signed to play at four-year schools. Watters admits his roster can see some fluidity during the summer, but the program’s reputation has helped secure commitments from student-athletes.

“I do think there is still some movement during the summer. Kids change their minds or something comes up. There’s still some of that,” Watters said. “But as our program has continued to improve, we’ve seen less than of that. We’ve built good relationships with [recruits] and a lot of that is based on trust. I think we’ve earned that over the years.”

Community college athletics has also seen increase in attention because of COVID and the transfer portal implemented at the four-year level. The transfer portal gives those athletes at four-year schools a chance at a one-time free transfer and are given the opportunity reopen the recruiting process.

With COVID, student-athletes were, essentially, given another redshirt year, meaning they got an extra year of eligibility. With athletes staying at schools an extra year, it is affecting the roster spots available for high school seniors.

Those two developments have pushed high school seniors further down the recruiting list.

“There are just more athletes than there are roster spots (at four-year schools),” Watters said.

And now more than ever, that is where community college athletic programs come into the picture, because they give four-year coaches another option to consider when trying to fill out rosters. Like the transfer portal, community college athletes give four-year school coaches players with college experience who can be quickly plugged and played.

“We get contacted all the time by schools who are looking for players,” Watters said. “From a family and athlete standpoint, there is a stigma (about athletes attending community college). But from a four-year college coaches standpoint, we find coaches all the time who are looking for community college players.”

One of those who got caught up in this new era of recruiting in Mali Ennis, who committed to playing at Skyline. A 5-11 combo guard out of St. Ignatius via Burlingame, Ennis was an all-West Catholic Athletic League selection this season, despite missing several weeks with a knee injury.

A known quantity in basketball circles since she was in middle school — during which time she played for her U17 club team — Ennis was expected to be an early college signee.

An athlete from an athletic family — her dad, Robert Ennis, starred at SI in the late 1970s-early 1980s before having a solid career at St. Mary’s. Mali Ennis’ older sister, Maddie, just wrapped up her sophomore season with the University of Pacific women’s basketball team, while younger sister, Emmie, is a highly-sought soccer recruit.

Like the rest of the family, Mali Ennis generated interest from a number of Division I and Division II schools. But the knee injury scared off some coaches and the transfer portal limited her options as well.

“Why would they take an injured senior in high school when they can go to the transfer portal and find someone with college experience?” Ennis said.

There was also the fact that Ennis was not interested in attending some of the schools that offered her scholarships.

“It’s just the goals I’ve set for myself,” Ennis said. “I just felt I could do better, instead of settling.”

That’s when she turned her attention to the community college route and that’s when Skyline came into the picture. Ennis was already very familiar with Watters and his Skyline program. He had served as an assistant coach for her club team while in middle school and she had spent plenty of time at open gyms at Skyline.

She was a bit wary, however, of going to community college route.

“Coming from SI, it’s kind of frowned on to go to a community college,” Ennis said. “But from a basketball standpoint, it’s not like, ‘Poor me.’ I know I’m going [to Skyline] to be a better player. … You just have to hold your head up high.”

And ultimately, that is the goal Watters, and other community college coaches, is trying accomplish: make their players better and help then find the right spot at the next level.

“From our perspective, we do a really good job of developing talent. We do a lot of skill work to elevate their game and help them find a role at the next level,” Watters said. “We tell student-athletes in recruiting, it’s a two-way street. We want them to come to Skyline and use us and we’re going to use them for program success.

“And together, we’re both successful.”