Noah Darnell goes from losing scholarship to attending Harvard
Noah Darnell, a senior pitcher at Santa Margarita High, got to experience something that is becoming too common in the world of the college transfer portal and changing NIL rules.
He was committed to Tulane for about five months. Then a week before his senior year was to begin, he received a phone call.
“They didn’t have a spot for me,” he said of Tulane. “We’re going in another direction.”
A week later, Darnell went to an Ivy League showcase and informed coaches he was back on the market. Harvard coaches saw him, knew he had a 4.4 grade-point average and told him they wanted him.
“Harvard was No. 1 from the get-go,” Darnell said. “I’m so happy.”
These last-minute phone calls by schools telling commits there’s no longer a spot have become more frequent, especially because college baseball has changing roster rules. Luckily for Darnell, everything worked out.
“I felt a little bit angry,” he said of his initial reaction. “I was frustrated. I wanted to work twice as hard to get another offer.”
As for lessons learned in this sometimes uncertain environment, Darnell said, “The main lesson I learned was God has a plan and you have to trust it.”
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