Forums >Racing>College Recruiting Question
Wondering if there are any coaches, athletes or parents with current/recent experience with the recruiting process.
My sophomore daughter is a really gifted high school distance runner. Currently, she wants to attend a school in Massachusetts. We live in Florida, so it is unlikely that the Mass coach will know about my daughter or see her run. Is it better to reach out to that coach now to open the line of communication and so he/she can keep an eye on her...or is it better to wait until her junior year?
I've gotten competing points of views on this issue. A local XC coach that I am close with and whose daughter was recruited to an SEC school last year said to wait and avoid at all costs being a pain to the coach. His theory is that coaches are trying to fill, and focusing on, next year's slots, not the year after. On the other hand, I have heard from several other sources, including a talented and highly recruited Florida HS runner, that early and regular communication is important.
I can't see any benefit to out to the coach at this point. I would let her have a sophomore (and most of a junior) year.
What school?
Runners run
Why is it sideways?
Mikey is a wise man on this subject.
Running and racing in high school with the thought of colleges watching every performance is not good for anyone involved -- coaches, athletes, parents.
The same goes for academics as well, except even more so because those are more important.
The message to your daughter: train hard, run well, do well in school, make process-oriented goals in academics and athletics that are about enjoyment and achievement in high school. Delay the college process until the second semester of junior year. Twelve months of fretting is enough. This is hard for parents, I know, because many of your peers will be behaving badly in these matters and pressuring you to behave badly.
Don't let the hype psych you or your daughter out. Stay focused on what's in front of you -- 2.5 more awesome years that are more valuable in themselves than as a means to any end. Make that experience rich and the college stuff will take care of itself. It really will.
Feeling the growl again
Sounds too early. If nothing else, as girls mature they often experience significant changes in performance as they progress through high school. It is much more common for a very talented girl to have a sudden fall-off in performance their junior/senior year than for boys simply due to biology. For this reason, I know some coaches aren't all that interested in 9th/10th grade performances until they see what happens 11th/12th.
Also, prior to junior year (from memory), coaches are under heavy NCAA restrictions on communications with athletes. Even junior year I believe there are restrictions on the number of contacts. Rules are (or were) looser if it is the athlete initiating the call/email.
What it is NOT too soon to do is homework. Do you know or can you get in touch with anyone who knows or has run for the coach? What is their personality like? Any knowledge of how they react to athletes contacting them?
I would not say you are losing anything by waiting. Approaching them with a solid 11th grade running resume is a lot more likely to generate interest than approaching them with a partial 10th grade running resume and expecting them to remember to check in on her for 2 years. First impressions and all.
MTA: The decision will need to be made as to whether her goal is to get a scholarship to run collegiately, or to attend this particular university. If the former, she should not anchor herself to this particular school as it will dramatically reduce her chances of successfully obtaining a scholarship. If the latter, there is really no need to stress over the whole recruiting thing as she can always attempt to walk on or try out for the team. Most of the people I know who ran on scholarship went where they got a scholarship or where they got a scholarship AND could get the degree they wanted....very, very few focused on one school and got exactly what they set out to get. Conversely I know extremely talented runners who went where they needed to go to get the academics or whatever else they were looking for in the school, even if it meant running on a not-so-good team or even without the scholarship they may have gotten at another school. Several of my college teammates turned down scholarships because the schools offering them did not have the right academics.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Best Present Ever
Take my relatively uninformed response for what it's worth, but I have been surprised by how early recruiting starts. I have friends whose kids were listed on the webpages of colleges as recruits in Jan of their junior year of high school -- they had been in touch with coaches since sophomore year. It seems worth having a talk with the high school coach -- should he or she know how this usually works?
Just a dude.
I have recently gone through a similar process with a musician daughter. I went through the process as a runner myself. This is all my opinion, and worked well for my daughter.
In her sophomore year, my advice is to find potential schools to attend. Find coaches and what their philosophy is, what their training style is, how they motivate and teach. Maybe your daughter responds well to a calm coach who does lots of miles? Maybe more intensity is needed? Maybe she would be better as a small fish in a big pond. Maybe finding herself as the 6th or 10th person on a team would be frustrating or discouraging? I'd encourage her to find several schools to chose from.
Also, make sure the school is a good fit academically. If she wants to study engineering, make sure the engineering department is good.
Check in to finances as well. There are very few full rides anymore.
In your junior year, contact those coaches/schools. We traveled to three schools with my daughter, and talked to a local university as well. She loved one teacher, but the school and everything else about the situation didn't fit. (Apparently, the teacher agreed and switched universities the year after.) Visiting the school, meeting future teammates, that kind of stuff is very important. This is where I screwed up when I went to college. I ended up spending 3 years in a place I never felt I belonged or was wanted. Needless to say, I didn't progress well...
If your daughter is really that good, she will get on people's radar. State championships and large regional meet results will get there. So will fast track times. (And it doesn't hurt to send them just in case...)
Good luck. Hopefully it will be more fun than stressful. It's usually both...
-Kelly
Getting back in shape... Just need it to be a skinnier shape...
One day at a time
My son went through recruiting a few years ago. He started visiting colleges the second semester of his junior year - he met with most of the coaches informally. Coaches started paying attention to him the summer before his senior year. He went on several overnight visits that fall. Division 3 school visits were on us. A D1 school paid for him (and me) to fly down and stay for a couple of days.
The whole process can make you nuts if you are not careful. Here is my biggest piece of advice: NARROW DOWN THE NUMBER OF SCHOOLS YOU PURSUE SERIOUSLY. My son had ELEVEN schools on his list. That is too many! It's like trying to have 11 dance partners at a time. 8 of the coaches really wanted my son badly, and they wanted to know that they were #1 on HIS list! It was exhausting.
And keep in mind that everything may not turn out the way you expect. My son ended up getting injured and never ran a single race in college. But that's life!
Wow, I remember a few years ago when you posted a bit about your son and the recruiting process. It's too bad that he got injured and never ran a race. If I recall, your son had some impressive times in HS. I guess the take away from that is you shouldn't pick the school solely on your sport of choice. They better have the degree programs you wish to pursue. (seems obvious, but I wonder how many do that?)
When I was in HS a friend of mine that was a few years older got a full ride to the University of Illinois for XC and Track and Field. He was a star runner in Indiana at the time. He quit running after the second XC season with the reason that running (more specifically training) at the D1 level ruined his love for running. As far as I know, he still doesn't do any running.
Wow, I remember a few years ago when you posted a bit about your son and the recruiting process. It's too bad that he got injured and never ran a race. If I recall, your son had some impressive times in HS. I guess the take away from that is you shouldn't pick the school solely on your sport of choice. They better have the degree programs you wish to pursue. (seems obvious, but I wonder how many do that?) When I was in HS a friend of mine that was a few years older got a full ride to the University of Illinois for XC and Track and Field. He was a star runner in Indiana at the time. He quit running after the second XC season with the reason that running (more specifically training) at the D1 level ruined his love for running. As far as I know, he still doesn't do any running.
We think my son's injuries were mainly in his head. He went down to UT-Austin and had a psychotic break. It's been a long four years! He has schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (the prognosis for this illness is actually better than for schizophrenia, though). He finished out his freshman year in Austin on the dean's list, but the stress was too much for him. He now lives at home and studies applied math at our local university. Still the sweetest kid ever. He knows he's ill and takes his meds without fail. He has been hospitalized twice, though, and I'm not sure yet how he will do long-term. We are fortunate that my husband and I work from home, so we can keep a close eye on him.
The state record that he and his teammates set in the 4x800 still stands. He runs a little now, but just to keep his weight in check.
Yeah, the UT coach told us you just don't know how kids will do when they run in college. Some good ones don't pan out, and other mediocre runners really take off.