Why aren't schools contacting me

Fred Gwynne (AKA Herman Munster) wrote:

Also give up on the smoking whatever you called it. Not just for athletics but for your general well being in life.

Good advise as I smoked for 22 years. Stop now.

Not sure how this hasn’t been clearly stated 3 pages in but college coaches cannot contact you until July 1 between your junior and senior years. So that’s why they haven’t contacted you yet, you have some of the best track times in the country for a sophomore so you’ll be contacted.

Next, you can reach out to them and they can respond, just no initial contact and no phone calls, I think. They typically have a form on their website you can just fill out and send it, it’s very simple. If you have friends (that aren’t seniors) in contact with coaches, then they did this already.

If you really ran those times, your identity will be pretty easy to figure out btw. Not many 10th graders are hitting those times so I’m sure a quick milesplit search of the top times would show who you are pretty quickly.

[quote]Email them wrote:

Not sure how this hasn’t been clearly stated 3 pages in but college coaches cannot contact you until July 1 between your junior and senior years. So that’s why they haven’t contacted you yet, you have some of the best track times in the country for a sophomore so you’ll be contacted.

Next, you can reach out to them and they can respond, just no initial contact and no phone calls, I think. They typically have a form on their website you can just fill out and send it, it’s very simple. If you have friends (that aren’t seniors) in contact with coaches, then they did this already.[/quote

Wrong, they can contact me now and you guys that say to stop the braha don't get it. I know you want to help but it relaxes me on the day of a race and hasn't hurt me yet. I guess if I go sub 4:10 indoor that maybe they will wake up. Ha, there is no way I would run DIII.

The new rules are effective since September. Coaches can contact runners beginning their junior year and official visits can start junior year also.

I used to coach at a D1 school and I was always open to hearing from potential athletes. Pick a few schools you might be interested in, look up the conference they compete in and research what it takes to score points at their conference meets in events you want to run. Most scholarship athletes out of HS are brought in because the coaches feel they could score points in a year or two. Make sure you are in the range of scoring at their conference meets before you start asking about money. Asking immediately about money might turn the coach off. Also look up the majors the schools offer, make sure they have what you want to study. Then email/call the coach and let them know who you are, why you’re emailing, and that you are interested in speaking with them more about the school and possibly running for them.

Be polite, humble, and genuine and remember they probably get many emails a day from others just like you.

Did Bud Fox email Gordon Gekko? No! Bud Fox did what he had to do to get a face to face meeting. Why do corporations still hire salesmen/saleswomen? Why do corporations fly salesmen/saleswomen around the other side of the world for face to face meetings with potential clients? On one hand you stated the young lad should email then later you stated many emails ... .

Email, call, drive and stop in at practice, whatever works for you. Point is, go try to connect.

^Do this and fill out the recruiting questionnaires on college websites. Most colleges would be interested in having you on their team, but the reality is that most college coaches are more focused on recruiting the 2019 class and getting ready for track right and don't have time to be seeking out every fast junior out there. The really good schools have fast people come to them, so they don't have to put as much work into reaching out to kids. Generally speaking, most coaches are already stretched very thin on time and are able to get enough good recruits just from recruits contacting them or by reaching out to kids listed on those recruiting websites (don't pay for those though, just use the free accounts). Yes, this is kind of lazy, but it takes a long time to look up every fast kid in the state and look up their schools and school addresses and send a letter to every good runner in the state in each event, so for better or worse, many coaches don't want to or don't have time to do this. When you email coaches, just introduce yourself, tell them your PR's, your mileage/running experience, why you're interested in that college/team, your grades and ACT/SAT scores, what you want to study, and your contact info. Don't ask for money right away. If you're good enough to get a scholarship, they will bring it up,. Asking right away is usually a turn-off. Ask the coaches for more info about their team and what their standards are to join the team.

Be patient. Cristian Soratos ran 2:03, 4:26 and 9:55 in HS and ended up running 3:55 in college and is now a 3:36 1500 guy who was 5th at USAs in 2017.

I agree with the posters suggesting that your attitude is a bit too passive. In our modern world of social media, email, and texting, nothing gets a college coach’s attention like a surprise in-person visit.

Start by deciding which D1 super powerhouse you want to invade. You may change your mind by your senior year, but that is okay. Next, grab the keys to your dad’s motorcycle at 4 AM without his permission and show up at said D1 powerhouse’s morning run. Park across the street and stare them down as you smoke some braha wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket. When they start running, casually strip down to your running gear and begin chasing them down at your leisure. By mile 2, you should be on them. Weave circles around the top runners, sometimes shadowing them and sometimes surging to let them know that you can drop them at will. Do not make eye contact and do not speak or otherwise acknowledge them. At mile 4, throw in some strides to show off your superior form and sprint speed. At mile 5, fire up some braha mid-stride, blow a cloud of smoke in the leader’s face, and leave them in the dust with your devastating kick. You should be finishing about a minute ahead of them, so now is the time to demonstrate your superior flexibility by stretching your hamstrings on the hood of the coach’s car as you enjoy your last few puffs. Finally, put out your braha on the leader’s forehead, triumphantly urinate on the coach’s tire, and let him know that this is your team now and his wife will be hearing from you soon.

The coach will be so impressed by your display of alpha male dominance that he will be tracking you down and bowing to your every demand even though you did not share your name or contact info. Don’t settle for anything less than a full ride, a tastefully furnished and decorated luxury high-rise with a view, and 24/7 access to the female gymnastics team delivered to your door whenever the mood strikes.

One of the primary reasons that they haven't contacted you is because you seem to think that everybody should be excited to reach out to you. A lot of recruiting is responding to inquiries, even from very good people. A coach would much rather talk to an athlete who has expressed interest in their school. To think that everybody is going to be excited to contact you because you've run some good times is pretty arrogant. No coach wants some kid on their team who thinks that he's better than he is ("Ha, there is no way I would run D. III" for example). D. III has some of the best academic schools in the country, and many have outstanding CC/T&F programs. You're going to run for 4 years and work for 40. Stop thinking that you're all that, and coaches will respond.

Also, don't ask about money right out of the gate. People who think that they should get a big scholarship are almost always disappointed when they get the real amount. Also, asking about money right away shows the coach that running for their school isn't as important as running for the cheapest school. Runners who think that they should be getting big money often turn down offers early thinking that more money will come later, and then are scrambling in March and April when most of the money will already be committed to the kids who were excited to get a scholarship from the school that they really wanted to attend.

A lot of schools athletic websites and team pages on that website have recruiting questionnaires. Start filling those out and you’ll get contacted. Getting recruited and college both aren’t one-sided. You have to be an adult and put in the effort. Goes a long way if you show initiative

Also there’s nothing wrong with going D3 either. I was a 4:27/9:33/15:43 guy in high school and now I went D3 for academics and found that it can be as competitive, if not more competitive than D1 and D2. Would’ve never thought I’d be an all-american in xc after not making it to the state meet in anything in high school.

I recommend D3 to many kids and parents. It is probably going to provide a better experience to the typical 9:30 HS runner who goes on to run 14:50 in college. He can be competitive at his conference and maybe at nationals where he would have been cut from the team in D1. But please don't state that D3 is as competitive. I assume that you meat the people are just as serious. 100 guys ran 14 minutes in D1 last year while only 1 guy ran that fast in D3 so I don't want to mislead a 9 minute HS kid into thinking he will be seeing much competition in D3.

They probably aren't worried about you yet because you're only a junior. After this track season and they'll start recruiting for the next year's class.

If you're looking for a power 5 school, you'll have to run faster than 9:19 and 4:17 to get much. Luckily this is your junior year, and most scholarship is based on junior year track times since scholarships will be figured out at the beginning of your senior year before christmas and in the spring all that's left is scraps. 9:19 and 4:17 would get you 20-50% at a middle of the road power 5 school. That'd be walk-on for any of the better schools. Complete track teams only have something like 12.6 scholarships so I hope you're not expecting a near full-ride unless you're running under 4:10 and under 9:00, and that would still only give you a small percent at one of the main power-house schools that are always at the top.

It may sound counterintuitive, but the schools that are weaker in distance are typically putting most of their money into sprints so you are likely to be offered even less at the schools that are weaker in XC. Most SEC schools are weak in XC but strong in sprints. The times that you listed are walk-on times for P5 schools, not scholarship times. To get 50% at a P5 school, you need to hit 8:55 and 4:07 in HS. Even then, you may get very little at many of the schools because they may already have 5-10 guys on the team who are faster than that.

Watch for the Buckeyes to make the playoffs. But back to track, they won the B10 outdoor track meet but finished last in XC. So the point is valid that they put all of their money into sprints, jumps, and throws. They publish their scholarship standards which are 4:10 and 9:10. The fine print tells you that those are not guarantees of any money or you could get as little as 1%.