William and Mary

I believe the program has recently become very proactive in the inclusion of the Dill Pickle as a key ingredient in the training regimen. We all know and embrace the power of the Dill Pickle and W&M seems to be at the forefront of use of the Pickle to enhance training. This fact should speak volumes to the prospective student-athlete.

By the way, I have already been in-touch with the staff but I would like another source of information too.

Coach came over from UCLA. Knows his stuff.

They give the same 12.6 scholarships that all other colleges do. Look at their conference results and assume about 10% for every point that you will score. Freshmen are usually surprised at how little they will get.

They put all of their money into distance there. Should be a national caliber program(used to be)

Judman wrote:

I am a HS junior guy from and trying to get a little info about the William and Mary XC program, team culture, facilities, etc. Are the new coaches good and well liked? I am thinking about going there for a day trip in April. Do they give freshman any scholarship money at all?

They got a lot of freshmen (talking about the men's team) from the 2017 HS class. All of those were recruited by Solinsky, and I'm sure they were disappointed to not be running for him. The 2018 class recruiting has fallen a bit. They had a couple of national class guys from Ohio that were seriously thinking of going there until Solinsky left. Both of them had visited in the summer after their junior year and were to go back for an official visit in the fall, but W&M didn't have anyone come in. That sealed it for the two of them.

Recruiting will be key for them.

The program took a major nose dive a few years back, but they used to be an absolute lock in the SE region. In terms of scholarship money I would assume it's all based on times. If you run 405 in hs you'll get good money because you would already be faster than most of their guys. If you are running 415 it will be much harder because they have a lot of guys around there already. My assessment of the program at large is that they already hit rock bottom. With 12.6 scholarships they can't do any worse because they would start to lose to teams with about 0 scholarships. They will rebound in the next few years and with new blood etc. I'd say it's somewhat of a gamble going there. You could have the experience of being part of some great rebuilding and getting back to the big dance finally, or you could be stuck with a mediocre program for 4 years and not accomplish much.

I would encourage you to get to know the school itself better. It's a fantastic school and even if running there isn't what you originally thought it would be, if you love the school you won't regret going there.

Full disclosure I'm a wm alum and ran for them some time ago :)

Ghdjf wrote:

Coach came over from UCLA. Knows his stuff.

This is true. Forest knows his stuff and will do an excellent job there.

Thanks for the reply. I want to go to a school for education first and running second but want a good combination of the two. Do you know if they are fully funded? I don't know but I have heard that they are not.

great school academically and team has been hurt in the past with coaching changes and injuries/quits because of an old coach. but with forest, it sounds like they are on the upswing (despite a rough regionals race this year in cross). from what ive heard, he seems to be very focused on long term development and has had lots of success with his UCLA teams. hit him up and take a visit, it would definitely be worth it

Wrong just wrong. Many D1 colleges, including W&M, don't even have the NCAA max 12.6 for their men's programs. Many aren't even close. And it's not too tough to score in the CAA distance events right now so don't assume a point gets you 10%.

The school is officially a joke. They hired former FBI loser James Comey to teach a course on 'Ethics'.

i always wonder why people would accept anonymous advice for such a big decision, but since you asked: i had two kids run for forest at ucla--my daughter's a senior there this year and misses him tremendously, as do all of the athletes still there that i'm familiar with. he's a good coach, and an all-around good dude. don't know a thing about the school, but i think running for forest would be a privilege....

that's my story and i'm sticking to it,

cush