College Coaches: What's generally the hardest distance/event to recruit?

Hammer and racewalk. Very few *good* high school kids in either event.

Racewalk isn't an NCAA event, who cares?

No college coach recruits for a specific distance event. You have middle distance runners and distance runners. The only thing that may be different is a lot of teams tend not to have many distance runners run the 10k outdoors. You have to have a runner who is fit and who actually has the mentality to want to do it and who will be able to run the distance well. What kind of question is this?

Recruiting throwers can be a challenge. Many high school teams have no one qualified to coach the event so there's often few standout kids a year which many schools are fighting over. Finding the diamond in the rough usually requires video which a surprisingly large number of throwers (and field event athletes in general) don't have. Also, most high school kids have never done weight, hammer, or javelin so they likely won't make a big impact freshman year unless they are very talented.

Throwers are difficult simply because your best HS throwers will want to play football as some level, so it depends on your relationship/and if you have football.

Sprinters are difficult simply based on economics and academics.

Distance runners may be the easiest to recruit except for the competition.

Easiest are jumpers and other one trick ponies, but its less bang for the buck.

Blahbaba wrote:

Sprinters are difficult simply based on economics and academics.

THAT'S RACIST!!!!!!!!!!

What about steeplechasers? Aren't most usually converts and lack good steeple mechanics?

400 hurdler/1600m combos in HS rare?

Steeple. wrote:

What about steeplechasers? Aren't most usually converts and lack good steeple mechanics?

400 hurdler/1600m combos in HS rare?

Not in New York! Steeple is a high school event here.

The hardest would probably be throwers or the pole vault. Smaller fields for both. The best go DI, while the middle of the road ones often just give it up in college.

Our high school has a 60ft shotputter who is the soccer team goalie. An odd combination I would think...

Steeple. wrote:

What about steeplechasers? Aren't most usually converts and lack good steeple mechanics?

400 hurdler/1600m combos in HS rare?

Good steeplers are almost never 400m hurdlers in HS. The 400/300 hurdles rewards speed and explosiveness, which to some extent compete with distance prowess. But worse, focusing on that event in high school curtails your ability to train for distance so severely that it's highly unlikely that anyone but an extreme distance prodigy would be able to convert up in college.

Remember, the steeplechase is a "long" 3k - Every good steepler can run an excellent flat 5000m. How many long hurdlers can do that?

Most college programs I know of don't recruit kids specifically to steeple unless they are from New York. Typically you just recruit 1500-10k types and then see who's athletic and who's not. It's a lot easier to teach an athletic runner how to hurdle than it is to teach a hurdler how to be a distance runner.

baiter wrote:

Blahbaba wrote:

Sprinters are difficult simply based on economics and academics.

THAT'S RACIST!!!!!!!!!!

lol, more like event-ist or something

Women's anything

good 800 guys are tough to find

the fast 400 guys want to run the 200/400 and the white distance kids can't sprint for sh*t

There is a reason why NJCAA sprints are very deep and comparatively NJCAA distance is not.

I find it most difficult to recruit ultra athletes. They are generally untested in high school (except in Montana which competes the ultra on a state level).

Women's throwers.

You're more likely to find an all american thrower playing volleyball/basketball than throwing the shot in HS.

MickeyJanes454476 wrote:

College Coaches: What's generally the hardest distance/event to recruit for? What's the easiest? Is it harder to get a stud hammer thrower or 800 specialist? Have you found a difference?

Coaches in the Northeast go to little ol' Rhode Island for throwers as it is (I think) the only state where the hammer is competed at the H.S. level. And given the demands of the hammer, those some guys/gals are also cross trained for the shot and discus and 35-pound weight.

I'll attempt to throw this thread in a slightly different direction. What will score the most points to win at XC, indoor and outdoor NCAA D1 championships to earn the NCAA John McDonnell trophy?

First: 1500/1600 guys who are good, fearless and have range. They can run 800/1500/5K and even 10K events on the track and really good XC. They can double indoors and out and score a LOT of points at conference and nationals if they are good.

Second: Good Horizontal Jumpers. They don't tip a bar like PV or HJ and don't step out of the ring like SP an DT. They may hit the plastecine (sp?)once but usually get a legal jump to move to the next round. They can score in the LJ, TJ and run open sprints or relays because they have REALLY good speed. Forget about the decathletes as they compete in 10 events to score in one. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the decathlon, just not in NCAA track meet scoring.

At 12.5 scholarships for the schools that are fully funding those AND who aren't located in incredibly hot climates (for the distance component), THIS is the formula.

Oh, I forgot the most important part. The coaches have to be personally driven to succeed. The successful ones, like anything in life, are the ones willing to sacrifice to be the best.

John McDonnell and Dick Booth proved it for years on end.

Oh, by the way, as a coach you have to LOVE everything about the college sport environment including recruiting, training, travel planning, meet planning, race strategy (for the distance people) and motivation.

I'll admit, during the school year, John McDonnell was there EVERY day of the week of the ENTIRE school year for us - when coaches were allowed to interact 7 days a week. He NEVER missed a day in my 5 years. His wife Ellen, was a SAINT for putting up with him, but deep down, I think she wouldn't have it any other way.

A good long sprinter for indoors- 400m, 4x400m, DMR, and the 800m without much trouble. A lot of these guys are even good high jumpers.