Can Mary Cain "turn" pro in HS ?

reed wrote:

Cain has a 4.0 in high school she isn't going to run her whole life, and she knows it. She'll go to college. oregon obviously. she'll win a lot of stuff in track but will have more trouble in xc.

99% chance she does NCAA.

Agree 100% except for the college choice. Cain's father is a doctor. He knows the importance of a quality education for Cain's long term benefit. That rules out Oregon. My guess is he would want her at a Princeton: Ivy; prestige; best undergraduate education, bar none; excellent running program; close enough to home that parents can visit without flying across the country. Also, as a doctor, he knows she is an ankle injury from an end to her running days.

The last wunderkind, Lukas Verzbicas, dropped out of running altogether on his own volition while a freshman at Oregon, after a disappointing cross country season. A subsequent debilitating injury has put a big question mark on his athletic aspirations.

I have to laugh at the morons who suggest she might go pro "for the money." I hate to break it to you folks, but pros in track are lucky to make $100,000 a year and that is for the best of them. Most hardly have two nickels to rub together without working as a barista at Starbucks or something of the sort.

There are a couple of pros by virtue of looks and personality (think LoLo) who can get some endorsements, but my honest opinion is Cain does not fall into this infinitesimal group. Just sayin,.

Also, don't forget Cain comes from a reasonably well-to-do family, so a few extra shekels by going pro is a laughable motive.

Prediction: NCAA, Princeton, then, post-Princeton, some fun running at the pro level, followed by medical school and life lived happily ever after.

Amen,

JP

Looky Here wrote:

Tom Hammond says wrote:

millions?

Are we following the same sport?

Guys like Andrew Wheating and Galen Rupp are pulling in $400k-$600k per year. Cain's marketability is above either of these two. Yes millions, dimwit.

I dont think Cain would make Rupp money. Making 150 K a year though

alan webb signed a 1.5 million dollar contract when he went pro.

Let me guess - you are a doctor who sucked at running and still can't get over it?

reed wrote:

Cain has a 4.0 in high school she isn't going to run her whole life, and she knows it. She'll go to college. oregon obviously. she'll win a lot of stuff in track but will have more trouble in xc.

99% chance she does NCAA.

Rupp runs for Salazar. He ran NCAA. Rupp did not earn a degree from Oregon.

Mary Cain should go to M.I.T. she's that smart...that would be funny... M.I.T. having the best runner in the country!

hey wrote:

alan webb signed a 1.5 million dollar contract when he went pro.

it was $250K a year for 6 years. that's not a lot of money and he was more well known than cain is (so far). a lot can change in the next year plus. i could see her getting on the cover of SI or time.

She is not going to Oregon or running ncaa. She will go to the best college she can get into and ask AlSal to coach her as a Nike pro. I don't see how they can turn her down...unless they want to lose another big talent to NB.

In the off chance she decides to run NCAA, she will run for a Nike sponsored school, and at best be a one-and-done. If your school isn't a Nike school, don't even bother wasting a stamp on a recruiting letter to her.

Can't wait to see Cain and Baxter at Oregon in 2 years. GO DUCKS BABY OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

reed wrote:

Cain has a 4.0 in high school she isn't going to run her whole life, and she knows it. She'll go to college. oregon obviously. she'll win a lot of stuff in track but will have more trouble in xc.

99% chance she does NCAA.

I hope you are right. Running in college would probably be very rewarding for someone like her. The social aspect is something you would never get running pro.

lampy wrote:

reed wrote:

Cain has a 4.0 in high school she isn't going to run her whole life, and she knows it. She'll go to college. oregon obviously. she'll win a lot of stuff in track but will have more trouble in xc.

99% chance she does NCAA.

I hope you are right. Running in college would probably be very rewarding for someone like her. The social aspect is something you would never get running pro.

Right, it's not like there are groups of professional runners out there who train together. Wouldn't it be awesome if her current coach had a group of professional runners who she could train with after she graduates high school?

I'm talking about running as a team. Sure, she would have other pros to train with. But the camaraderie of a college team where everyone has the same goals for the team is worlds apart from just training with others.

lampy wrote:

I hope you are right. Running in college would probably be very rewarding for someone like her. The social aspect is something you would never get running pro.

I'd be shocked if Cain runs in college.

She's shown this year, she doesn't value running on a team . What's the benefit for her to run in college where like in high school she is at a whole different level than everyone else.

She could turn pro right now and be guaranteed way more money than any college scholarship is worth.

It seems like a no brainer.

If she's got a 4.0, she's already the best at what she does ever in high school, so she is like a lock for any school in America, whether an Ivy League school is recruiting her for track and field or not.

Why run for free for Nike now?

The swimmer, Missy Franklin, is a unique case. She's shown by continuing to swim for her high school team that the social component is important. Cain hasn't, so I don't see why that would be a draw for her in college.

She can still go to college and run professionally.

By working with Alberto Salazar there is the question of whether she's driven down her price just a little as if she wants to train with Alberto she has to be with Nike.

Seems like 2016 Rio would factor into this. The timing of the games would allow her a "free" year in college to win championships and continue to raise her profile.

If she enters 2016 as a Princeton/Stanford/Harvard/etc. student who is an NCAA champion and potentially the greatest US woman distance runner ever, her marketability will be as high as it gets for a distance runner.

Early 2016 would be the proper timing to enter a very large contact.

She has stated she wants to go to college , running in college is another issue.

She still has another year of high school. Money is not an issue for her and her family.

My guess is she will not compete in college , post HS she will run under the Nike banner and support and hopefully becomes the runner she wants to be not what is fantasized about.

Wejo - the social component when she's on a team with a group of girls running mostly a minute slower than she would over 1500m probably means she would be a little lonely at training.

Running for a top collegiate team with a load of girls who run maybe 10 seconds slower than her (and are stronger at the longer stuff) and could even be ahead of her in training (re: Salazar's comments that she doesn't train like a 4:05 runner) might be a real draw and much more social.

Speaker wrote:

Wejo - the social component when she's on a team with a group of girls running mostly a minute slower than she would over 1500m probably means she would be a little lonely at training.

Running for a top collegiate team with a load of girls who run maybe 10 seconds slower than her (and are stronger at the longer stuff) and could even be ahead of her in training (re: Salazar's comments that she doesn't train like a 4:05 runner) might be a real draw and much more social.

No team in the country is gonna have loads of girls running 10 seconds slower than her in anything but the 800. She'll be sub-4 while even on the best team her best teammates will be in the 4:teens. She could maybe have one girl 10 seconds behind her, and a few 15-20 seconds behind her. That doesn't help her one bit, considering that's where her competition would be too. Running in NCAA is the DUMBEST thing she could do. She can probably pick up a contract after next year for a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, which will pay for any school she gets into and leave a LOT left over.

Why would she want to compete to be the best in the NCAA when she could spend those years competing to be the best in the WORLD, and making bank while doing it, and still get a college education.

Because she's not a douchebag?

Couldn't help myself wrote:

Why would she go to a dump like Princeton or Standord? Why not Harvard or Yale?