Recruiting Visits..... what is normal?

This is not unusual at all. I would say this is the most common recruiting experience in some form or another.

Also 0/10

0/10 Run of the mill.

Uh no I don't think this is normal at all. I've had a number of friends go on official visits and none of them had this happen... not sure how you should go about this. If you don't plan on partying and drinking in college cause you're very serious about your running then I guess don't go to that college?

Agree that this is more of the norm.

However, unless the rules have changed, a recruit cannot run with the team.

they're going to college, things like that happen in college. Either learn how to handle it or don't go

I agree with most of the responses. This seems to be pretty common with recruiting. Certainly there will be some places this doesn't happen but I would say the majority of recruits see or experience alcohol on at least one visit.

Ran at two different colleges. The first one we absolutely never exposed any recruits to partying - probably because most of us didn't party hard during the season.

The second school had a much bigger team and had more recruit visits. As a transfer I was never put in charge of any recruits, usually the younger guys on the team were, and if the team was having a party that night my recollection was that they would steer clear. I'm sure there was an occasion or two, though, where we were partying and some recruits came.

Depends a lot on 1) the school 2) the leadership of the team at the time

1. when I wrote "running" with the team, I chose my words poorly. The run was an athlete only run, not mandatory and not led by coach (in fact, no coach in attendance). Most of the visits had something like this.

2. how utterly depressing to see that (so far) the response to this post is overwhelmingly toward how "normal" this is. For now, because of perceived cavalier reaction of those posting replies, I'm going to assume that most replying to this post are kids themselves.

To me, there are all kinds of things wrong with this scenario, and yes, yes... these are teens who are almost adults, and college is full of all kinds of influences and experiences, and YES, many high schoolers drink and/or party... I'm not blind to reality. But, it would seem to me, that as a "first impression" most coaches, programs, and universities should care a little more than this about the standard they are setting and the role they are modeling.... even if modeling by simply passively condoning.

Again, I suppose the many recent headlines of athletes+ alcohol+ stupidity+ lack of guidance+ ego= what some are calling an epidemic of violence, hazing, abuse, and rape within hs/college campuses

I guess I have foolishly (if not arrogantly) always told myself that risky, reckless, aggressive behaviors were more often seen in the more "jockish" of sports. That somehow, runners seem to just (percentage-wise) be smarter, more responsible individuals. Not sure how I came up with this ridiculous stereotype.

It is NOT normal. IMO, the people that are saying that it happens all the time do not have a lot of personal experience with either a lot of different people or a lot of different schools.

Yes, it happens at some schools. Depending on the athlete, this can influence the decision positively or negatively. I have been involved with a number of athletes in several different sports, and this happens in a small minority of situations.

thank you very much, old guy, for replying.

Your words have restored some of my hope for college & college sports in general.

I feel that you were a bit too quick to dismiss the entire runner population. Yes, it does happen at a lot of schools that a potential recruit is taken out to a party on an official visit. It really just depends on the caliber of the running program and what the kids are like. On most teams there will be those that "party hard" all the time, and those that prefer quieter evenings - those that fit the description you listed "smart, responsible".

Most people have their time where they "experiment" even just a little bit, be that just a few drinks or with over-the-top partying. Some kids don't drink at all. What a given person ends up doing depends upon their level of resolve for what they want, and knowing why they want it. So if they are brutally against drinking, perhaps citing an alcohol problem in the family and they surround themselves with the right people, they'll be fine and probably won't drink until they want to. They just have to find those friends (and/or teammates) who feel the same way as they do. However, the common college "state of mind" is that fun is partying/drinking and partying/drinking is fun, so it's not remotely unheard of for a visit to have occurred this way.

Yep. I only went on two recruiting visits but was taken to parties and drank heavily at both.

Your hopes for college sports are "restored" because some old guy on letsrun tell you that drinking on recruiting visits is rare?

First, it isn't rare. It happens all the time. Of course, if the recruit is known to be straight-laced, then the Coach will pair him up with the FCA types on the team but otherwise, the goal of a visit--from a Coach's viewpoint--is to not only sell the school but to see how the recruit would fit in socially. So, if the team parties, then the recruit is going to see that. Period.

Secondly, college kids drink underage and make terrible decisions every day. Every single, f'in day. Athletes--of any discipline and all intelligence levels--are subject to those same temptations. In many ways, they are more apt to binge because of the demands of their competitive seasons. Why in the world that causes you such angst and makes you question the entire institution of "college" makes no sense to me.

Mundus is correct. OP you seem to have an extremely uptight, ignorant view of reality.

I went on visits to 5 big ten schools, as well as a couple others outside the big ten...the experience was similar at pretty much all of them. You talk to the coaches, hang out at practice, maybe an easy run, and then you go out and your hosts show you a good time.

Once in school I lived in a house with a few teammates close to the track, because of this the coaches had us host a large number of the recruits. We were advised ahead of time if the kid was really uptight but otherwise with normal kids we would throw a party and give them a good visit. Our team partied pretty hard, but we also worked very hard and had a lot of success on the conference and national level. We looked for kids who would fit this mold and if they didn't we'd let the coach know and depending on how good they actually were we may or may not continue to recruit them. If you couldn't drink 15 beers until 3 am then wake up at 8am sunday for a 15 mile run you probably couldn't hang with our team. My advice is if your son/daughter didn't enjoy the visit, maybe that particular teams culture isn't for him/her and to look elsewhere. But nothing outrageous went on during your story.

[quote]Mundus Vult wrote:

First, it isn't rare. It happens all the time. Of course, if the recruit is known to be straight-laced, then the Coach will pair him up with the FCA types on the team but otherwise, the goal of a visit--from a Coach's viewpoint--is to not only sell the school but to see how the recruit would fit in socially. So, if the team parties, then the recruit is going to see that. Period.

quote]

This. When i went on my recruiting visits there were other recruits there who were not taken to parties. If they can tell you like to/are interested in partying, they are going to take you out and show you a good time. In my case, the good time lead me to pick a school i probably shouldn't have.

Also, be glad your kid doesn't play a real sport like football or basketball where it isn't uncommon for the team to find girls who are willing to "show them a good time". In some cases that has included escorts.

I went to an overnight at a D3 college, and the dudes on the team play euchre all night and drank beer. They offered me beer, but I didn't drink it. Not THAT big a deal then as the drinking age was 19 in Ohio then and I was 18 at the time, but still, Flagpole is not a law breaker.

Anyway, I didn't like the getting drunk part (it was a Tuesday night), so I wasn't impressed and didn't go there.

to your first point, what I actually said was, "some of my hope"

As far as "rarity", that was not my original question. I was referring to, "normal". As in, more often than not.

I am well aware that college and partying is something that goes hand and hand in many regards, has probably since the beginning of colleges. What surprises me is that parents who probably expect a level of care/responsibility to be taken of their minor child (particularly a girl) could unknowingly find her in a situation that could be avoidably detrimental, if not dangerous. A parent might very well expect and understand this risk in sending a child off to college, but I'm not so sure that should be the expectation of a parent sending their child to a short recruit visit.

I question the institution of college as much as I do society as a whole, however, in reading the initial responses to my original post, YES, I find it disheartening. Do I actually think all of society is bad? nope. Do I think all of college is bad? nope. Do I think (given the initial replies to my post) that there may be room for huge improvement and shift of the status quo? I think there is a lot more that could be done in terms of changing the overall culture of alcohol=fun. I'm not anti-alcohol, either. In fact, I have often considered the benefits that might come from this country lowering the drinking age requirement.

My "questioning the entire institute of college" as you put it (though, I feel that takes what I actually feel or said to a level of definite extremism) is more about my perception of, "it's ok!" if coaches can't display good judgement, if athletes are not required to exercise it, if parents cannot even expect that their 17 year old daughter will not be KNOWINGLY put into a situation that could cause her avoidable harm on a recruiting visit, well, then maybe the darkside of college culture is bleaker than I once believed. This is where you can find my dismay, sir.

Curious, your tone (granted, this platform void of inflection could make my perception simply wrong) that reads as though my discussing the matter somehow became personal for you.

Its not his tone, he was likely responding to your tone and beliefs that how you see the world is "the way" and not "a way." You write about these issues as if your views are the correct views and that because most situations don't follow your views, that there is some sort of dark issue.

I am a college junior who runs for the xc and track teams. In my experience hosting "prospies" or having friends host them on weekends, we usually like to get a feel for what the recruit seems to be like during the day/run. If the recruit seems like a 'cool kid' at his high school or talks about partying/going out throughout the run/day, then we will take him to some parties and provide the alcohol. If he seems to be more of a reserved person (AKA "indoor kid") we will have a quiet night full of clean fun. It's fairly easy to discern between the recruits that will want to party vs. those who wouldn't.