Truths/Myths about running in college?

I'm a DIII coach for a state college. Been for 10 years. Been running 3/4 of my life.

- When recruiting, what do you look for in an athlete besides times?

Ask about grades, what they think about running, how they like their team.

From this, I can gather many things, such as their attitude, and how they will be a part of my team, and how I might need to coach them.

- Avg. size of roster per year

I have right around 28-30 runners on my team.

- Minimum time standards for walk-ons

No minimum time. Just a good attitude. Come to practice ON TIME!

-How many scholarships you have to work with/how you decide who gets what

My institution doesn't really give out athletic scholarships since it's a state school.

-What happens if a runner gets injured/doesn't perform? Is their spot on the team/scholarship in jeopardy?

I try to use the athletic trainer and my knowledge of running injuries to try to keep them in shape. Only time their spot on the team is in jeopardy is if they flat out quit coming or are constantly late to practice. Or they do something that gets them in trouble with university police or something that tarnishes my program (fighting, drugs/alcohol/smoking, etc).

Hope this helps...

As an athlete:

I've never heard a walk-on standard being an actual thing. I know many teams that publish ridiculous standards and accept far slower people, and many teams that publish reasonable standards but don't accept walk-ons when they achieve them. Most of the time it's not even a question worth asking, the coach is most likely just going to lie to you one way or the other.

Big improvements from high school. Mileage and intelligent training helped. My HS coach was terrible.

Studies were actually easier for me once I was on the team. Without a team I got into this pattern of staying up late studying, then trying to go for a run at like midnight, getting a few hours sleep, getting back up in the morning... Whereas being on the team forced me to get my run in at a reasonable time, get my homework done, optimize my life based on a schedule. Without the team framework that schedule became all fuzzy and it was harder to organize my life.

D1 runner here.

Myth: You’ll be like a celebrity on campus

Fact: Nobody cares about XC

I do like my team. I think that’s it’s super important to find the right fit, because you spend a lot of time with the team, so if you don’t like them, I think it could be a miserable experience.

Do you actually think that you’re funny or clever or something? ?

I’m a D-2 runner. I’ve improved incrementally but not dramatically since high school. That’s not a complete surprise; I had a very good high school coach.

I’m able to keep up with school but it does take a lot of discipline. I currently take 16 credit hours and it can be tough to balance everything.

As far as myths go, I’d say don’t believe the only good runners are in D-1. While it’s true there are more good runners in D-1, there are plenty of guys in D-2, D-3 and at JUCOs that get after it and kick ass. As a freshman, expect to get beaten by many of them.

Attitude can be a reason not to be recruited but it wont be the reason to be recruited. So you need to hit the required times and be a team player. Most D1 teams carry around 12-20 guys on the roster. 9:20 and 4:18 are good rules of thumb to go by for junior year in order to get on a decent team. 9:10 and 4:12 are where money starts and 9 minutes and 4:07 are where money increases to anything worthwhile. You won't get cut if you are on scholarship and continue with the required program. Keep in mind that a large % of D1 guys are not on scholarship so they may get cut to open up a spot.

Seriously, please stop polluting these boards with those annoying gifs. I used to just ignore you, hoping that you would get bored and leave. Clearly that didn’t work, so now I’m asking politely for you to stop. You’re adding nothing to these threads and just continuously post the same joke over and over again. We didn’t like it the first time, and we still don’t like it the 1,000th time. So stop beating a dead horse and move on. Thanks.

LoneStarXC wrote:

Seriously, please stop polluting these boards with those annoying gifs. I used to just ignore you, hoping that you would get bored and leave. Clearly that didn’t work, so now I’m asking politely for you to stop. You’re adding nothing to these threads and just continuously post the same joke over and over again. We didn’t like it the first time, and we still don’t like it the 1,000th time. So stop beating a dead horse and move on. Thanks.

FYI...you're a girl, and talking to him. This is the greatest day of his life

i agree, he sucks wrote:

LoneStarXC wrote:

Seriously, please stop polluting these boards with those annoying gifs. I used to just ignore you, hoping that you would get bored and leave. Clearly that didn’t work, so now I’m asking politely for you to stop. You’re adding nothing to these threads and just continuously post the same joke over and over again. We didn’t like it the first time, and we still don’t like it the 1,000th time. So stop beating a dead horse and move on. Thanks.

FYI...you're a girl, and talking to him. This is the greatest day of his life

I’m a girl who’s talking to him and telling him to get lost. He’s probably used to it.

LoneStarXC wrote:

Seriously, please stop polluting these boards with those annoying gifs. I used to just ignore you, hoping that you would get bored and leave. Clearly that didn’t work, so now I’m asking politely for you to stop. You’re adding nothing to these threads and just continuously post the same joke over and over again. We didn’t like it the first time, and we still don’t like it the 1,000th time. So stop beating a dead horse and move on. Thanks.

At least he posts the gif, lets me know to just skip that post.

-Coaches look for performance, but the good coaches can contextualize the performance. A kid running well but he's coming from a crap HS program vs a kid from an established, successful one.

- Rosters are usually pretty small, especially on the Men's side due to the fact that most kids only receive partial scholarships. Women's side is flush with cash due to title IX.

- There are NCAA rules in place to keep coaches from just stripping a scholarship away on a whim. That being said, I think everyone on my team ran and performed as if they could lose their scholarship any given season. We did fear injury and set backs for that reason.

Personally I would look at the current roster and see who's performing and who has not, etc.. This is something easy to do now and wasn't so easy back in the pre-internet days.

Myths- You will THINK that everyone on the team is a "runner" and cares about the sport.

Reality-There are lot of kids just going through the motions, spend their time complaining about everything, everyone, doubting the training.

Myth- The HC is going to make a detailed training plan meant to make each athlete the best they can be.

Reality- The coach as a plan he uses and rarely deviates from his normal practices. Athlete either makes it or doesn't, if they don't it doesn't matter because the coach will just a new one next year.

baddabingbaddaboom wrote:

Personally I would look at the current roster and see who's performing and who has not, etc.. This is something easy to do now and wasn't so easy back in the pre-internet days.

Myths- You will THINK that everyone on the team is a "runner" and cares about the sport.

Reality-There are lot of kids just going through the motions, spend their time complaining about everything, everyone, doubting the training.

Myth- The HC is going to make a detailed training plan meant to make each athlete the best they can be.

Reality- The coach as a plan he uses and rarely deviates from his normal practices. Athlete either makes it or doesn't, if they don't it doesn't matter because the coach will just a new one next year.

Yep, I remember the pre-internet days. Heck, I remember before chip timing.

That first myth you have listed is one of my biggest problems on my team. ---- That "going through the motions" effect. I always told some (or all) of them when they pissed me off that you ought to leave the team, and join the college's soccer team and sit on the sidelines if you don't want to do anything but have your name on a roster.

I disagree on the second myth. I split my team up into groups (usually 3), and have a A, B, and C group. All three groups will have custom tailored workouts to PREVENT injury. Occasionally I have a "D" group, which are the injured ones, that I work on to help get back on track.

If the athlete doesn't show up, well, I can't do anything about that, except to talk to them, and find out what's going on in life/mentally to see if I can help.

Being a runner myself, I go and run with any one of the groups to make sure they are doing the workout correctly and to monitor their "thoughts". I also have another coach that goes out, and drives/bikes to also keep an eye on things.

One of the biggest compliments I get from all the other college coaches, parents, and the athletes is that I know what their practice is like -- frankly because I DO THE WORKOUT WITH THEM.

I hate these coaches that have either never run a minute in their life and they try coaching, and when they have practice, they just send the athletes out and forget about them until they return. Those types of coaches are getting paid to do nothing.

My college H.C. was Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross. He treated athletic grants like Glengarry leads. Obviously, that was nothing like high school.

Great responses so far guys and gals

I'd love to keep this thread going!

I've definitely experienced similar things here.

I want to make sure I don't put to much of my own bias when I talk about college running to my kids. Personally, I had a fairly negative college running experience, but obviously many have had vastly different experiences.

Something I tell kids often is to feel like they have to go D1. I was a "pretty good not great" high school runner who could have run for either a good D2 or a mediocre D1, and unfortunately I chose the latter because I was so fixed on the whole "D1 athlete" thing. If I could do it over again, knowing what I know now, I would have without a doubt ran D2.

Sounds like you weren't any good. D1 is the only real runners. Im pretty much a rockstar on campus they just don't know it yet.

High School Coach wrote:

Great responses so far guys and gals

I'd love to keep this thread going!

I've definitely experienced similar things here.

I want to make sure I don't put to much of my own bias when I talk about college running to my kids. Personally, I had a fairly negative college running experience, but obviously many have had vastly different experiences.

Something I tell kids often is to NOT feel like they have to go D1. I was a "pretty good not great" high school runner who could have run for either a good D2 or a mediocre D1, and unfortunately I chose the latter because I was so fixed on the whole "D1 athlete" thing. If I could do it over again, knowing what I know now, I would have without a doubt ran D2.

Oops! Fixed my post there

In response to your two athlete questions:

1. I did improve significantly, but only because I significantly increased my mileage. I believe that in high school you coaches and athletes should try to train reasonably and not over do it. In college though, I say shoot for the freakin stars. If you wanna be somebody, train your butt off to do it.

2. The thing with academic/athletic balance is it’s usually not too hard for freshmen and sophomores. But as the real world looms ever nearer for juniors and seniors, it gets harder and harder. Especially if you are in a program like education, or a medical program that requires service hours, internships, etc. bottom line is that you better enjoy training, because if you have things going for you as a student, you’re going to have days where you are really busy and the time you spend at practice is just going to be another thing to get done.

1. Yes, I improved more in college than in any other peroid in my life.

2. No, cross country/track does not interfere with academics unless you choose to let it. I truly believe that I did better in school because of the discipline, time management, and accountability that came with the team. My cross country team had an unofficial GPA competition each semester, and I was mad if someone beat me. Track is probably the easiest sport there is to balance with school.

Just to follow up on the academic side, my teammates and coaches held me accountable for my grades. If I missed a class, coach knew it and chewed me out for it. If I made a B on a test when a teammate made an A, he gave me grief over it. Maybe that's unusual, but my team really did take school seriously. We all knew we weren't going pro, so we needed to earn real degrees to get real jobs.

And this was at Podunk Directional State, which no one confused for the Ivy League.