Mike Sainristil Decommits from Virginia Tech

By: Will Stewart | Founder

Athlete Mike Sainristil, who committed to Virginia Tech back on February 9 as the fourth member of the 2019 recruiting class, has re-opened his recruitment.

https://twitter.com/MikeSainristil/status/1054553652034191360

Sainristil told Jason Stamm in a TechSideline.com update back in June that he was torn between the Hokies and Michigan. At the time, it sounded as if Sainristil might decommit soon, as he told Stamm on June 26, “I actually don’t know what I’m going to do yet,” Sainristil said. “I know at heart, I’m still with Virginia Tech. But over this week, I’ll sit down and talk with my mom and dad. They went to Virginia Tech with me. I’ll ask what they think, in comparison between the two schools. Whatever has to be done will be done.”

With Sainristil’s decommitment, the Hokies now have 17 players in the 2019 recruiting class.

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22 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. “There is no love lost for VT and it’s coaches…”…isn’t this usually an idiom best used to describe a bad relationship??

    1. Opposite from your interpretation. He’s showing respect to the team…or at least trying… I’m not upset about him moving on, but also not going to dramatize his attempt to show some respect ….I think you have it wrong…

    2. You are correct “No love lost between two people means that they are not friends, they dislike each other intensely,” but I suspect that is not what he meant.

  3. When I was at the UNC game, I met the Dad who’ son is a Junior on the FB Team and he has a Junior in HS going through the recruitment process for Baseball (ACC prospect). He was talking about how hard the process is – the kids get slammed with messages (phone call, texts, emails, FedEx’s, etc) + a lot of people in your ear from neighbors, friends and family trying to be helpful.

    Athletic recruiting would be challenging for adults.

  4. If you are not 100% committed to becoming a Hokie then hit the trail! These kids don’t know what to do and don’t even understand the word “commitment.” Wish him luck but again if he isn’t a Hokie then hit the road Jack!

    1. Well said, VT Rockie. At this point VT will be better off without him then with him on the team. The NCAA needs to address this situation because it is becoming more prevalent in some recruits’ decision making scenario. Much too much of the Commit /DE-commit cycle goes on with HS recruits. I’m sure there are situations where it may be necessary, but I also believe some recruits just commit to save a spot until a better offer comes up down the line. That to me is the wrong reason for committing. There seems to always be a way to game the system if one tries hard enough. It’s not fair to the school or other potential recruits who may seriously want an offer from a particular school. This needs to be looked at.

    1. Fixed, thanks — we had not updated Gary in our database — ahem, @Chris Coleman — so he wasn’t showing when I looked at the list of commitments.

  6. OK, I understand young people sometimes make poor decisions, having been young once, back in the Dark Ages. However, if we’re going to have a recruiting system with some sense of honor, let’s not call it a commitment. A commitment is something you commit to doing, come the devil or the deep blue see. Call it something else. An intention, perhaps, as in, “After much thought and talking with my parents, coaches and advisors, I am today announcing my intention to attend Virginia Tech.” Or my plan. Or my goal. Or something. But not commitment. I think that we should teach young people the meaning of the term commitment.

    1. Or, you could just recognize that words have different meanings in different contexts — and in the world of recruiting, a verbal commitment can mean any of the following:

      1. I’m committed and will follow through on signing day with my commitment.
      2. At the moment, I’m a lean toward this school.
      3. I’m using my verbal commitment as a place holder while I wait for more desirable offers to materialize.

      I mean, VT has commit-able offers out there to more than 25 players, right? Does that mean the VT coaches don’t understand the meaning of commitment? It’s a complex system with both programs and players striving to create the best outcomes for themselves. I guess my point is: Who cares that the term verbal commitment includes the word “commitment?” We all know what it really means.

      1. There’s nothing complex about making or keeping a commitment, or offering a kid spot in the (limited) number of scholarship players on the team…and the coaches understand the process all they need to understand it. This is all a game that everyone on both sides of the fence KNOWS is a game. The ONLY time the word “commitment” means ANYTHING in this day and age is on signing day when a kid must sign or not sign. If the kid signs he has consequences if he then backs out and the school has consequences if they don’t honor the commitment that was made in writing. Everything else is directional. If the majority of verbal commitments turned out to be something other than a signing day commitment then the system would be vastly different than what it is today.

  8. I would rather him do it now than 3 days before national signing day. Best of luck in his decision.

    1. Yeah, that’s my thought. Like reserving a hotel room, VT will hold a space for him. If he doesn’t want that anymore then he’s doing the right thing by releasing the space early on so VT can move on. The risk to him is that if he changes his mind back, the spot may no longer be available so his decommit does/may cost him something.

  9. I have no problem with this decision. Choosing a university is a personal decision and there are numerous factors. As “adults” we need to recall how differently we thought (or did not think) when we were 18. I have had 2 kids at UK for the last 3 years. My son recently graduated and was resolute in his choice of UK throughout his senior year of high school. My daughter, however, had committed and we had paid minor deposits for her to attend WKU, but she decided in the spring of her senior year that she wanted to go to UK. 18 year old kids make whimsical choices all of the time and then change their minds. Better now when we can recruit another player to replace him. Good luck to him. I don’t wish him any ill will.

    2. I don’t disagree with what you are saying. However, I believe there is a difference between committing to a school from an academic standpoint and committing to a school from an athletic standpoint. From an academic standpoint, if a student decides to apply for early admission to a school and that school accepts him/her, then the school expects that student to attend their school upon graduation from HS. Not decide to attend a different school after being accepted for early admissions to 1 school.

      In some ways committing to a school in athletics is kinda like that because a coach is reserving an athletic scholarship for that student until Signing Day. I realize that coaches may get more players to commit than to ensure the coach is able to sign a full class. However, I would hope VT coaches aren’t in the habit of getting 30 recruits to commit to VT and guarantee all 30 an athletic scholarship when VT is only able to sign 25 recruits in a given class.

    3. I understand what you saying and don’t disagree with it on the student/student level.

      For the student/athlete however there is the potential of a multi-tiered effect that can come from someone committing, another player can’t commit because the commitment fills a need, the de-commitment, the other player has committed to another school, etc.

      There in lies the rub for me ….

      Go Hokies …. Beat the bees

      HokieGT VT78

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