Braden Mottola pitches for Pro 5 Baseball Academy during a 2026 regular season game. Photo by Katie Mack
By Elodie Page, Taj Harrell & Ja’Sona Simmons
Brayden Mottola transferred from Riverside before his senior baseball season for one reason: to boost his chances of playing at the college level.
Last year, Mattola helped lead Riverside to its best season in recent history. The Pirates finished with a 15-4 record, and he was named conference player of the year, but that wasn’t enough to gain the attention of college recruiters.
“I don’t think I was given the chance that I wanted to perform at the next level from playing [at Riverside],” Mottola said. “I went somewhere where I could get that chance and develop my skill set to play at the next level with coaches who played at the next level.”
Mottola transferred to PRO5 Baseball Academy, a premier year-round baseball training program in Raleigh, North Carolina, for high school players aiming to play college or professional baseball.
PRO5 more closely mirrors a college setting with intense training and scouting opportunities, aimed at preparing athletes for success. Within this academy, athletes work with professional coaching staff, including former Major League, Minor League and college players. They play a 60-game schedule (traditional high schools play about 20), including games against junior colleges and other top academies in the Southeast, all while taking online classes.
Mattola’s transfer exposes a fundamental question within high school athletics: as college recruiting increasingly moves to showcases, travel teams, and specialized academies, what role does the traditional high school program play?
Many Paths, One Destination
Only about 7% of high school athletes compete collegiately, and roughly 2% play for a Division I school, according to NCAA.org. With these odds, athletes face critical choices about where to invest their time and whether or not their high school can provide the exposure they need.
Robert Duncan, Riverside’s athletic director, sees colleges recruit in a variety of ways.
“Different sports cultures reach out and interact with students in different ways,” he said. “College coaches often go to [showcase tournaments] and create their initial scope on the kid, then usually come to schools to verify the information,” Duncan said. “They may be able to see 100 athletes in one day as opposed to coming to one [high school] game and only seeing one kid.”
It’s a more economically viable recruiting method for college programs, especially smaller schools. But it can also create a complicated system in which a student’s opportunity to play at the collegiate level depends heavily on their sport, their coach, and their own initiative.
Rafaela Drake saw her path to college change when she won the 2023 triple jump state title.
Drake wasn’t sure if she would compete in college, but after doing well at winter indoor meets, coaches started reaching out.
“After that good season, it was in the cards for me,” she said.
Riverside responded with targeted support.
“When [my counselor] heard I was looking at Columbia, I was able to talk to a previous Riverside athlete who played football there about his process,” Drake said.
Teachers helped her make up work when she took campus visits and missed class. Riverside track and field coach Jason Smoots helped dial her in on workouts to help her chances at getting recruited.
“He was thinking more about what my goals are for certain meets to keep my performance up and open more doors for me,” she said.
Drake graduated in 2024 and is now a sophomore at Columbia. Looking back, she believes she got the help she needed because she advocated for herself.
“If you’re vocal about [college] being something you’re interested in, you’ll find more support,” she said.
Two of Drake’s teammates had similar experiences. Connor Tyrell, ‘25, competes as a freshman at UNC Charlotte and said the track and cross country coaches helped him navigate the recruiting process.
“Our coaches really helped because I did not know what I was doing when trying to get recruited,” Tyrell said. “[Our coaches] had a big part in helping me figure out what schools I wanted to go to and how to contact them.”
Philip Blum, ‘25, who now runs for North Carolina State University, also experienced this support.
“I had no idea where to start in my recruiting process at all,” he said. “I basically got to ask the coach how to do all that stuff and what I should send in my emails. [The cross country coaches] showed me how to do it.”
Track and field athletes benefit from sport-specific metrics. Platforms like Milesplit.com log meet results from all over the country, which means coaches don’t have to watch kids run in-person to find the talent they’re looking for.
“Coaches who are recruiting are just looking at who the top performers are in whatever events,” said Drake.
Elizabeth Healy, ‘25, was breaking school records each season and didn’t need much help getting colleges’ attention during her junior and senior years. While Riverside isn’t a “powerhouse school,” as Healy put it, individual performance data is included in state databases that recruiters can look at. She called her recruiting process “fairly independent of Riverside” and now runs at Clemson University.
The Club Sports Reality
Christopher Mayshack graduated from Riverside in 2003 and played for High Point University. After not getting the playing time he wanted early on at High Point, he chose to transfer to North Carolina Central University to get more playing time.
Even 20-plus years ago, his high school team was just part of the recruiting process.
“There were certain coaches that told me to improve myself and work on my game and grades to make sure they were good,” Mayshack said.
But the actual recruitment happened through club basketball, commonly known as the Amateur Athletic Union, or AAU.
When his playing career ended, Mayshack coached in several high school and college basketball programs before he became Riverside’s head coach in 2024. And AAU plays an
“Club recruitment is how most high school [basketball] recruiting is done,” he said.
Many different sports offer club pathways, which are an opportunity for athletes to participate in their sport outside of school. Usually, club sports involve more commitment than a recreational league. Club sports require tryouts, higher fees, travel, and more experienced coaching to further develop and expose kids to higher competition and recruitment opportunities.
Additionally, the transfer portal has fundamentally altered the recruiting landscape.
“It’s more about college coaches wanting older, more experienced players,” Mayshack said. “There’s a stress on kids really knowing the game coming out of high school. If they want to have a real opportunity to play, it’s about finding ways to continue to improve their game.”
The NCAA transfer portal is a database that allows college athletes to transfer and enables other schools to contact and recruit them. Athletes can enter and withdraw at any time, but certain windows control when they can officially move between schools. This means coaches can now look at athletes who have already played at the collegiate level, often overshadowing a regular high school athlete.
“You have to be ready. They’re no longer willing to take a chance on you,” Mayshack said. “With the transfer portal, they can just go in and find an older player. It’s easier to find [someone with] more experience. You have to stand out.”
This shift particularly affects developing players.
“The kids that can play and have a high level of skill, they’re gonna be fine,” Mayshack said. “But it’s those kids that are on the borderline of being skilled; their game hasn’t really developed yet. Those [athletes] are what it affects.”
For these athletes, Mayshack recommends alternative pathways.
“I would highly recommend kids going to junior college because it can provide you with an opportunity to work on your game, but still get the college experience,” he said.
Mayshack’s role in his players’ recruiting process focuses on finding the right matches – using his connections from playing and coaching college basketball and inviting different coaches to watch practice and talk to players on the team.
“My role is to pair up the kids with a college that fits their skill sets,” he said. “Working on finding the right fit for them. A place where they can grow, good staff that understands their needs and how it fits into their landscape.”
When Athletes Leave
While some athletes may turn to junior college to continue developing their skills after high school to get recruited, other athletes transfer before graduating.
Mottola isn’t the first Pirate athlete to leave Riverside. Pitcher Kaden Nichols also transferred after freshman season, joining the PRO5 roster.
Elite basketball and soccer players have opted out of varsity sports to prioritize prep schools and premier club teams for decades, which they believed gave them the best chance to play in college.
Mottola’s assessment of Riverside baseball is clear: “It hindered my chances of being recruited. I think teams that are better with a better coaching staff allow you to be recruited a lot easier.”
“[Our winning percentage] didn’t allow colleges to look towards our program, especially when a lot of our seniors didn’t end up going to play [college] baseball,” he said.
At PRO5 Baseball Academy, Mottola found what Riverside currently can’t provide: well-connected coaches and numerous teammates that already have scouts’ attention.
“All the coaches there have either played college baseball or minor league ball, so they’ve all been through it,” he said. “They know what it takes to be at the next level. They have connections in the world to get you where you want to be.”
After losing his top two pitchers to PRO5 last season, Riverside football and baseball coach Bryan Hurdle described the experience as “bittersweet.”
“I’m so proud of them,” Hurdle said. “We don’t want to discourage any kid from exploring any opportunity to be successful. The financial commitment required is substantial, costing upwards of $20,000 annually.
“When you choose to go to an elite Academy like PRO5, it’s a higher level [and] more intense,.” Hurdle said. “They have to get up at 6:30 in the morning, work out till elevenish, and they have [school] online. It’s a lot.”
Hurdle also said Riverside supports players who aspire to play in college, too.
“At a lot of our games, there are scouts in the stands, or have contacted our staff about coming to look at certain players,” he said. “Outside exposure plays an important role. A lot of the baseball players do travel baseball, which is when you’re a part of an organization, and a lot happens on that recruiting trail as well.”
Hurdle acknowledged that Riverside can’t operate like a private academy, but coaches still help athletes reach the next level.
“[PRO5] has a much higher level of competition, because the cost and travel of it is extreme,” he said. “Here at Riverside, we try to expose and promote our kids through different opportunities at camps in the off-season.
“Any kid that’s willing to explore any opportunity for them to get to the next level, I’m here to support them in any way,” Hurdle said.
Difficult truths
As Duncan supports all of Riverside’s athletic programs, he tries to be realistic about how the school can help students chase their dreams.
“When college coaches reach out, I provide the information that acts as a spotlight,” he said. “A lot of times, I’m the person that verifies grades. I’m making sure that the school’s front office and the counselor department are aware of the request.”
Beyond that, the recruiting process is often out of both his and the athlete’s control.
“If you don’t fit into a college’s mold of what they want, they’re not going to take you,” he said. “That’s probably one of the most disheartening things for a lot of high school kids or their parents. They assume because you have this body of work at the school that you should automatically be getting contacted from coaches, but they can look on the film or look on your demographic page and see you don’t fit the metrics for what they take.”
As the landscape changes, Duncan sees both positives and negatives. Today’s athletes can promote themselves faster and get in touch with coaches more directly. However, the transfer portal creates challenges.
“College kids are transferring, moving from school to school every year,” he said. “That diminishes the value of an 18-year-old.”
Coaches encourage their athletes to do the best they can academically to create as many college options as possible.
“There’s only so many spots that [coaches] offer, and the higher [an athlete’s] GPA, the more scholarship opportunities are out there,” said Hurdle.
Additionally, students can gather their own performance data and share it with coaches.
“The best advice I would give kids is to create a Next College Student Athlete (NCSA) account,” said Hurdle. “You’re able to get on there and update your highlight reels. You’re also able to contact coaches and send personalized emails with your highlights.”
Mayshack emphasizes the importance of consistent effort beyond what’s visible.
“You have to constantly be working on your game for improvement,” he said. “If you want to play at that level, a lot of it is about the work. The things that people can’t see. Everybody thinks it’s about the games, and it is about the games, but it’s more so about the stuff that people can’t see at practice times, the shooting, the skill work, lifting weights. Those are things that make you become a better prospect.”
Beyond that, student-athletes must be persistent and believe in their own potential.
“Coaches are going to ignore you for a long time, and it’s not usually anything personal,” said Healy. “They are getting hundreds and hundreds of emails, so you have to be super persistent.”
“Be disciplined,” said Drake. “Even if you’re not seeing results that you want or that you think are good enough yet, staying consistent with training and the mental side of it will definitely give you results that can open a lot more doors.”
“If you really enjoy your sport and you love working hard,” Healy said, “I think there is a school for everyone to continue their sport, no matter the level.”
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