The best comparison is not with guys like Webb, but with Allyson Felix. She is already essentially training without a team, she doesn't need a team to motivate her. Rupp is a special case, got to have the "team" and his personal coach both.
Evan Jager is not doing too bad right now, BTW. In the end her current coach will have a lot of say, assuming she continues to progress.
She should clearly go to CU and train with Wetmore. How many olympians has he coached??
I've heard she is interested in Duke...
Working since dawn wrote:
When the time comes should Mary Cain bypass the college route and go right to the pro ranks?
Hot and Humid wrote:
I've heard she is interested in Duke...
ruh roh
Duke would be a HUGE mistake. I've heard she's interested in the Ivy League. I think she'd do well under Mark Coogan at Dartmouth and probably get a lot of attention. Princeton and Columbia wouldn't be bad either. Given Bronxville's academic prowess, I'm sure Stanford and the Ivies are at the top of her list.
It should be illegal to prey on kids.
If she wants to compete on the world stage the best thing for her to do is to compete with the best and not have the distractions of a college team and life. She needs to train with the intent on performing at her highest level on the highest level. It might not hurt her to run in college but there is a good chance that it will interfere with her long term progression and summer racing. Collegiate running is not designed to prepare athletes to peak for WC or develop long term. If those are her goals there are better ways of getting there.
If someone cannot find motivation to improve from racing against top tier athletes but can find that motivation in college then they have some serious issues. She will have plenty of goals without the collegiate system and if she has a good coach there will be good structure centered around her development and not the team's.
No disrespect to the collegiate system because I think it is great for most athletes but there are times when it is not the best choice for certain individuals.
Um, not to be unkind or perverted, but shouldn't we wait to see how she survives puberty before planning her future for her?
She should definitely forego the college route if she improves for the next few years. A sponsor can pay for her college while she goes to the NIKE project or somewhere with full support.
A grill runs about 11 seconds off of what is a top 5 professional time (maybe) and finishes 6th in a junior race and people are debating here skipping college?
Lets just wait and let this one play out. Yes she is very fast, but has a lot of work to do before debating skipping college. And even if she runs 3:59 in high school, college is great experience and exposes athletes to the best coaches. Well worth it.
We all saw what happened last time a USA great high school athlete went pro shortly after breaking a high school record...
Yes we did. The American record was set.
Cain will be a HS Jr in the fall. She has 4.0 at an academic high school. If she's hit times like Mary Decker did when at Orange High School (Orange CA) then she can turn pro and depending on her personality train near home in Westchester County or at altitude at Mammoth, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, or Boulder. If not she should follow the Shanghai Top 10 route to keep her options open and choose Stanford, Cal, Illinois, or Princeton, maybe the glitter and glitz of UCLA.
Guess it all comes down to money. Unless she could get a pretty lucrative contract right out of high school it would be pretty tough to turn down a scholarship to a top ranked academic and running school.
And look at it like college coaches do. Coaches usually give scholarships based on what you are doing out of high school, don't want to count your chickens before they hatch. So although she could be the number one high school runner of all time, or even better than all the college athletes running something like 4:02 in high school. Is it really worth risking a $200,000 education if something happens and she does not ever get any better? Nike or someone could pay her a good amount out of high school and she get hurt her first year and never be able to run as a professional or as a college runner.
It is not like this is the NFL where the signing bonus alone would pay for college 10 fold.
I think the best move would probably be something like NBA players do. Go to school for a couple of years, win a national championship, and then move on (finishing your degree on your own time).
she's from Bronxville not Brownsville. Property taxes can be 40,000$ a year there. Although a scholarship is nice it is certainly not a way out for her. She also is smart enough to get academic aid. I doubt money is that much of an issue as it is for kids in poor areas who barely scrape by academically.
Do we know for sure her economic status. Even in very rich towns there are poor areas with apartments, trailer parks, and cheap motels, and prep schools which allow poor kids to attend with tuition taken care of. How do I know, I was one of those kids ;-)
At this point what colleges/schools, if you could help in the decision process should she steer clear of? What schools would be best to handle such a huge talent?
How much more do you think she can improve from here? Just curious. I have seen some top high school runners plateau in college because of various reasons; maybe such as training too hard too soon? Don't get me wrong, I wish her all the best and I hope that one day I do see her in the Olympics, I just hope that this isn't her peak. Just imagine what she could accomplish if she does continue getting faster..