With the fall signing period just days away, college coaches are hoping for a Christmas bonanza: presents upon presents in the form of talented high school seniors. Still, inevitably more coaches will hear "no" from a given recruit than will hear "yes". The ways in which coaches handle that rejection will likely be far more revealing about their character, and yet the swimmers that commit may never know what would have happened had they uttered it.

It is natural for coaches to feel jilted when they are rejected at the end of this process. Many will have religiously been talking to the prospective student-athlete from July 1st on, a period of four months. They have likely met the prospect in person, had them on campus for an official visit weekend. They may feel some personal attachment. They've spent some time thinking about what having that prospect's swimming ability/personality/academics on their team will mean. And then, in one swift conversation it all comes down. In some cases, there may not even be a conversation. They will log on to this very website to find out that one of their top prospects has already committed to another school.

There are varying ways in which college coaches deal with this rejection. I believe that a silent majority (I call them silent because people don't gossip about them, politeness is so unexciting) will handle it quite well. They will be disappointed for sure, but they will wish the prospect well and move on. Another group will respond completely inappropriately.

Almost every college swimmer I've known can tell you a good story about a coach they turned down. One swimmer was told by a coach that "he would never amount to anything". So is the logic that the swimmer would only amount to something in that particular program? Another swimmer was told by a coach that she had "decided to fail" by making her college decision. Still another recounted for me how a coach lied to the swimmer and claimed that they had "already committed faster people".

On one hand, this is a fairly insubstantial vice in the face of the more serious accusation that flies around this time of year. One of the strangest accusations I've heard in the last year surrounded having team members of the opposite sex feign being single and flirt with recruits. More commonly, coaches can promise more money/admissions spots than they actually have, leaving some potential recruits out in the cold. Still, it also seems that dealing with rejection was something we were all supposed to learn about at middle school dances (or at least, I did).

So let's hope for something better this season. If you really think your program is all that and more, you shouldn't need to go to Defcon 4 when recruit A won't commit to your school. At least, that's what I'll be telling myself if I need to go for a three-hour jog next week while playing Korn's greatest hits. That's way healthier, right?