Reframing Recruiting - How Ezgi Basaranlar Learned to Be Seen

How Ezgi Basaranlar Learned to Be Seen

When Ezgi Basaranlar started her volleyball journey from Istanbul to the University of Delaware, there was no playbook for how to get recruited. What she did have was a camera, a lot of patience, and the willingness to do the tedious work most athletes never see.

“Honestly, the hardest part of the recruiting process was getting seen early enough and finding ways to stand out among all these other athletes,” reflecting on the sense of urgency during recruitment, Basaranlar explains “You really have to start building your highlight clips early, keep updating them, consistently send them to coaches, because the competition for those limited college roster spots is extreme.”

The challenge of being noticed was amplified by geography. Recruiting is already competitive for athletes in the United States, but for someone thousands of miles away in Turkey, the process required even more creativity and persistence. “Coaches in the U.S. can easily travel to tournaments and scout multiple players in one weekend, but that’s not super realistic when you’re overseas.”

Unable to rely on being seen in person, Basaranlar had to find ways to make her presence last. With every video clip became a chance to prove her ability, every email an opportunity to stay visible in a crowded inbox. “So the toughest part for me was proving myself from afar, making sure my game footage and highlight reels spoke for me, and keeping in communication with coaches to stay on their radar.”

Recruitment isn’t just about skill- it’s about strategy: understanding that visibility could mean the difference between an offer and silence.

The Process Has Changed...a Lot.

To be seen, Basaranlar became her own video editor, agent, and publicist. “My dad or club coaches would record my matches, and then I would spend weeks, sometimes months, going through two-hour-long videos, noting the exact minute and second of every play that I wanted to include,” she says.

The work paid off when the first coach to respond from Delaware offered her a spot. “It was a full circle moment.”

Now, technology has transformed what was once “weeks cutting up footage manually” to now a whole new system where “every match is broken down automatically into short clips for every action.”

Platforms like SportsVisio have made that possible, turning recruiting into a faster, fairer process for athletes everywhere. “It gives every athlete access to the kind of tools that used to be available only to pros or major college programs.”

SportsVisio’s technology uses automated video analysis to identify key plays, categorize actions, and create instant highlight reels that athletes can share with coaches worldwide. By removing the technical barriers of editing and organizing footage it allows players to focus on performance and ensures their talent gets seen.

Visibility and the Modern Athlete

To Basaranlar, recruiting now overlaps with personal branding in ways it didn’t a decade ago. “At the end of the day, recruiting is about visibility and self-promotion, being able to market yourself as a player. It keeps you organised, saves you time, saves you data from your computers, and lets your game speak for itself through data and highlights.”

For today’s players, especially international ones, that visibility can make or break an opportunity. The tools exist, she says, but the effort still has to come from the athlete.

Recruiting now overlaps with personal branding in ways it didn’t a decade ago. The days when a coach discovered a player purely through in-person scouting or word of mouthare largely gone. Now, athletes are expected to curate and maintain their digital presence as carefully as they train their physical skills.

This shift reflects a broader change in how athletes, especially those hoping to play in college, are evaluated. The online profiles, data dashboards, and social media clips that SportsVisio provides have become an essential part of the recruiting ecosystem, shaping first impressions before a coach ever makes contact. “It keeps you organised, saves you time, saves you data from your computers, and lets your game speak for itself through data and highlights.” That evolution has opened doors for athletes who might otherwise have gone unseen.

From Turkey to a Title

At Delaware, Basaranlar helped lead the Blue Hens to a conference championship, a fitting end to a five-year career that began with self-made videos and blind outreach. “My favourite memoryfrom college was when we won the conference championship. There were five of us, and we were all starting. We started as freshmen, and none of us ended up transferring. We were on the same team for five years, COVID happened, that’s why we had an extra year, so really being able to see that process of where we were at our freshman year and then finally step by step getting to a point where we won the championship at the end to finish off our college careers was just extremely exciting and just a proud moment for all of us.”

Now, looking back, she sees her story as one small example of a much larger shift in the recruiting world, where technology, access and persistence increasingly go hand in hand.

“It’s really exciting that we’re giving athletes a real platform to get noticed and pursue their dreams at the next level, whatever that next level looks like for them.”

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