College coaches: Let's hear your recruiting horror stories

H.S. Coach #977154 wrote:

As a high school coach, I laugh every time a college coach recruits one of my lazy athletes & doesn't bother to contact me. I would honestly tell them the truth of that athlete & save them a lot of time & effort.

On the other hand, when my runner is a diamond in the rough & could excel with a little more time in his/her running shoes, I'll be the first to tell them. Likewise, if the runner has a good moral compass...

Just a reminder to college coaches, talk to the high school coach! We can give you some insight above & beyond times.

I can agree with this post. I used to be asked far more frequently about recruits. Now it seems like they will try to go with whoever tells them what they want to hear.

I've had several girls get recruited that had major red flags and some that would have been very good at many colleges not get recruited by more than a school or two. This is with equal range of marks/times. It just doesn't make sense.

I do think questions about practice attendance, work ethic, and personality type are important.

It sounds like you have a lot of shit to say and nobody's listening.

I am sure you had a close relationship with your athletes ...

Anti trust wrote:

Yes, but many can offer academic and need-based money on the other hand.

That is, coach says "I NEED this kid".

I'm a HS coach and I always have kids running in college at all levels. I almost never get contacted by the college coaches. If i did I would probably do what i could to help the kid get into the school, regardless of the flaws. You never know how a kid will adjust when he goes away. I have seen kids I thought would be fine back home after 6 weeks. Conversely, I have had kids I thought would not survive thrive in college. You never know.

I also have a feeling college coaches are so used to the HS coaches praising the kids that they can't trust them. I don't think it is too much of a risk for them unless they are giving $, and those situations are limited to only the very top kids in the country. HS coaches tend to tolerate/overlook a lot of flaws in their tops athletes.

What a fairy tale ending!

You readily admit a college coach shouldn't trust you, and generally dismiss the risks involved for that program? 95% of conversations I used to have with coaches add nothing to that kid's value to me as a potential student-athlete, and this is exactly why I really only reach out to them if some specific question comes up through talking with the athlete.

It varies quite a bit institution to institution, but in many places, even if athletic scholarships aren't involved, athletic recruitment can play a major role in admissions and financial aid packages. A college coach can have quite a bit to lose if they're lobbying in these avenues for someone who turns out to be a lush/slacker/malcontent.

H.S. Coach #977154 wrote:

Likewise, if the runner has a good moral compass...

moran

"I go to the car and she sticks her head in my window and said she will come to my hotel room tonight, and hopefully we can work something out..."

That's what you git fer wearing those white tight levis, a college letterman jacket and wearing a full porn star mustache, and kept running your tongue over your top lip, when you gotta git and go.

That's the point...

Exactly, this particular girl was VERY talented as well!

I used to contact the athletes coach, guidance counselor, principal and a teacher or two, just to find out who I am really dealing with. Some of these kids are like used car salesmen, saying all the right things at the right times, but are not really the person they come off as to you. One time I had a kid who was very good, to be honest we were shocked this kid even considered our school, our calls all got praising responses but seemed odd. The athlete had mentioned were he worked, so I called his boss who had nothing to lose by being honest about him. It turns out he was not very reliable and had questionable ideas about ethics. We did not offer and, the last I heard, he had been kicked out of two different colleges for stealing stuff from dorm rooms.

We made a terrible mistake with a Nike summer "elite" camper. Recruited hard just on that basis alone, and we offered. She had an ok fall cross season, visited and was still telling us we were her #1. She committed.

She gets to campus in Sept. and hits on every guy in sight. Not a bad kid but you could tell running was part of her HS past and not her college future. It was our fault for not paying greater attention to her power/weight and too much to her good looks, HS and Nike experiences.

She did zero in four years.

I had a D-II coach ask me about how I train my athletes. I named some coaching influences on me (i.e. Vigil, Canova, Hudson). But, the coach didn't know of those coaches & their training philosophies! My athlete still went to run at that D-II school (huge financial package) & emailed me to tell me how clueless his coach was.

TheCoach wrote:

Not really horror, just stupidity. I had a girl come in for a visit and she sat silently while her parents asked all of the questions. When she left I deleted her from my recruiting database.

Perhaps she was shy. Sounds like she is well out of it.

ukathleticcoach wrote:

TheCoach wrote:

Not really horror, just stupidity. I had a girl come in for a visit and she sat silently while her parents asked all of the questions. When she left I deleted her from my recruiting database.

Perhaps she was shy. Sounds like she is well out of it.

The real question is, "was she hot?"

Back when I was running at a d3 school, my roomates and I were hosting a top recruit. The kid immediately goes on a rant on how much he hates the "gays" later at night and tells of how he got arrested for curb stomping another student at school. Half the team was there for the stories, so we tell our coach what had happened. Guess what? our coach still gets the kid to go to our university just because he ran a 9:25 2mile.

Once had the CSU Monterey Bay coach tell me that a girl (who was already accepted and needed no aid) needed sub 5 just to walk-on and she could get partial aid for a sub 4:50.

I know how to use the Internet and how slow that team is.

She went to a different school and would have been their #2.

H.S. Coach #977154 wrote:

As a high school coach, I laugh every time a college coach recruits one of my lazy athletes & doesn't bother to contact me. I would honestly tell them the truth of that athlete & save them a lot of time & effort.

On the other hand, when my runner is a diamond in the rough & could excel with a little more time in his/her running shoes, I'll be the first to tell them. Likewise, if the runner has a good moral compass...

Just a reminder to college coaches, talk to the high school coach! We can give you some insight above & beyond times.

You are not the norm. Most HS coaches, 90% over exaggerate their athletes to college coaches on the phone. I always ask HS coaches how many D1 athletes have you coached, where did they attend and how did they do in college. I quiz them on their knowledge before asking questions about their kids.

I ran Division I XC and T&F for all four years. During this time I developed the opinion that half of Division I college coaches are terrible people. I think when your livelihood is based off the performance of 18-22 year olds some people start to dehumanize athletes. I had one recruiting trip when the coach ignored all the other athletes because a star athlete was on the trip. This coach called me a few days later and announced I had acted disinterested and he would no longer recruit me. He didn't even acknowledge my existence the entire recruiting trip.

I ended up competing in the same conference. Turns out the coach was a horrible person and most of his athletes hated him. In hindsight that experience was a valuable lesson on college athletics. I'm glad I wasn't a blue chipper coming out of high school having to deal with phony coaches who just wanted me to commit to their program.