My son was an athlete all four years at MIT. When first being recruited his coach told him that although MIT Admissions holds all the power, recruits like him would be placed on a list that was sent to admissions. He was admitted along with a lot of the fellow recruits he met on the overnight visit he was invited to. In subsequent years he noticed that about 50% of the recruits that were said to be on the list were indeed admitted. This shows, that for his sport in particular, getting on the coaches list helps tremendously in getting admitted. YMMV.