UNH & Umass Amherst walk-on standards?

Ask Bobby McDonough

This guy??

Amherst is a great place to run. Lots of trails and great country roads. I'm not sure what the UMass running club is like, but there aren't too many major running clubs in the area. There are, however, plenty of competitive road races in the Amherst/NoHo/Springfield/Westfield area.

Nop200 wrote:

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/nh/Oct12_UNHHom_set8.shtml

This guy??

That'd be the one

I'm not sure about the walk-on standards at UMass Amherst, but I can tell you the running in Amherst is pretty top notch. I don't know much about U New Haven, but a recent search shows their top guys don't even break 17 in the 5k, so you should be easily good there. And as someone else said, Western Mass Distance Project is the group you would want to look at in Amherst. WPI is a decent school, but Worcester is terrible for running. Hope this helps!

At Amherst, you can walk on but you will stumble off.

You can walk on at WPI, but you'll have to significantly improve to do so at UMass or UNH.

Old Woman in the Shoe wrote:

I'm not sure about the walk-on standards at UMass Amherst, but I can tell you the running in Amherst is pretty top notch. I don't know much about U New Haven, but a recent search shows their top guys don't even break 17 in the 5k, so you should be easily good there. And as someone else said, Western Mass Distance Project is the group you would want to look at in Amherst. WPI is a decent school, but Worcester is terrible for running. Hope this helps!

I think they meant University of New Hampshire.

If you go 9:50 and show progression umass might give you the nod.. You should just go there for computer science though..top notch

At UMass it used to be, something like, anyone can run with the team for a couple weeks in August. Then they have a scrimage/trial. If you hope to run the 800, your HS time might be more important, but for XC and distances 1500+ your placing in the scrimage/trial really is the determining factor. Freshmen/injured runners might get a little more consideration but not much.

I walked on to the UNH team several years ago even though my high school PRs weren't that impressive (2:00, 4:41, 10:08, 16:47). I stuck around for 2 years before deciding to quit because I wanted a better overall college experience. Coach Boulanger (Coach B) is a good guy and let me train with the guys during XC before putting me on the roster during indoor track.

He did the same for several other guys, many of whom developed to be much better runners in college than me. One of the guys went from never breaking 17 in a 5k to running 33:30ish in his first 10k later that year. Another guy was a mid-17 HS kid who wasn't making much of an impact in college track, but he loved running and wanted to continue training. Coach B put him on a marathon training plan and he ended up running a 2:50 marathon later that year.

You probably won't run in races with those PRs, but I can almost guarantee if you go up to Coach B and explain that you want to improve, he'll set you up with a training plan. UNH has turned a bunch of good (but not great) HS runners into conference champions or ones with good PRs, so I'm sure the same can be done for you.

My only advice, wherever you go to college, is that running isn't everything. It may be the most important thing in your life in HS, but things will change. Running on any team in college is tough and time-consuming. You can always train on your own and still improve. I met several other students during my JR and SR years at UNH who ran in HS but decided not to join the team. We ran together a few days a week and had a lot of fun without the huge team time committment. Hope this helps.

COKM,O9DFAVN wrote:

At UMass it used to be, something like, anyone can run with the team for a couple weeks in August. Then they have a scrimage/trial. If you hope to run the 800, your HS time might be more important, but for XC and distances 1500+ your placing in the scrimage/trial really is the determining factor. Freshmen/injured runners might get a little more consideration but not much.

Unless something has changed, UMass (men's team) has a roster limit of 24 for all seasons. Anyone who is receiving any financial support (even just books) HAS to be on the roster even if they are red-shirting or injured.

This has often led to drama amongst team members and the coaching staff. Be prepared for back stabbing and manipulative gossiping just like high school.

If you are not expected to score, don't expect to be on the roster...although kissing O'Bs ass might help (a lot).

Based on what I have read here juxtaposed with what I know about UMass, UNH seems like a better opportunity to be treated like a valuable student-athlete.

SamtheMinutemanSucks wrote:

COKM,O9DFAVN wrote:

At UMass it used to be, something like, anyone can run with the team for a couple weeks in August. Then they have a scrimage/trial. If you hope to run the 800, your HS time might be more important, but for XC and distances 1500+ your placing in the scrimage/trial really is the determining factor. Freshmen/injured runners might get a little more consideration but not much.

Unless something has changed, UMass (men's team) has a roster limit of 24 for all seasons. Anyone who is receiving any financial support (even just books) HAS to be on the roster even if they are red-shirting or injured.

This is true - unfortunately, the UMass XC/TF squad is rather small due to the limited budget that the school has given to the team. There have been rumors around for awhile that the school would love to drop the program, but they haven't been able to do so successfully (the indoor program was dropped in the early 2000s, but a lot of on campus and alumni support helped the program get reinstated - details can be found on this old forum thread:

)

The UMass team is typically heavy on mid to long distance runners, as OB aims to get three seasons per academic year out of them (so he'll favor giving any portion of an athletic scholarship to those events). That was the only favoritism I really saw when I was there.

That's unfortunate that people are like that.. I'm starting to think that either umass or unh would be great for running, team or no team. It will probably come down to money, what doesn't? :P I'm leaning towards umass, maybe I'll give myself a shot with walking on, but sounds like I'll find a nice running niche without doing so. Thanks for the responses everyone! I appreciate it.

Does anybody know if it would be possible to join the team at umass sophomore, junior, or senior year. Are the walk-on standards stricter?

Why would you want to walk onto the team at Umass? That is a terrible program, look at the kids there and how they develop? Go as far away from there as possible.

old timer... wrote:

Why would you want to walk onto the team at Umass? That is a terrible program, look at the kids there and how they develop? Go as far away from there as possible.

Mainly because umass seems to be the best fit for me academically, which is what really matters. I want to run, but I'm not going to make my choice of college based on it.

Is it really that bad?

Shouldn't you wait to make a decision until you get accepted?