Are their any legitimate recruiting services for HS runners?

Run fast. They’ll come to you.

Understood.

What I am really looking for is someone who has used a service and found it valuable and a coach that has used a service and found it valuable.

maybe coaches just use the NCAA registration info???

I ran for a nationally-ranked D1 team ~15 years ago on a full-ride. My biggest piece of advice: reach out to coaches and/or fill out online questionnaires for all the programs you’re interested in.

I had a number of programs reach out directly to me, but I also reached out to other programs I didn’t hear from, including the one I ended up running for.

You obviously need the times/talent to actually get offers, but coaches don’t always have time to reach out to every athlete they’d want on their team.

I wouldn’t spend money on a recruiting service or anything like that, but I would invest time in being proactive.

Thank you.

That makes sense and is good advice.

NCSA - next college student athlete

Yes just email the coaches at schools you are interested in and fill out the questionnaires and you are set.... recruiting sites are good if you don’t have a plan and just want tons of emails from lots of schools to see your options.

There is absolutely nothing a recruiting service can do for you that you can't do for yourself if you are an American high schooler.

Just email coaches of schools you are interested in. Name. Cell #. Links to official performances on milesplit and a transcript. If you're good enough, the college coach will take it from there.

Paying someone to spam college coaches is a waste of money.

Disko Eric wrote:

Run fast. They’ll come to you.

Terrible advice. Contact the coaches if you are interested in their program.

Brush up on your spelling or you won't get into any college

Very simple. Recruiting services are junk and they peddle misinformation about athletes. Do the work yourself. E-mail coaches of schools you might be interested in. Make it personal that works best. I know hundreds of coaches and none of them value recruiting services. Good luck.

There are no actual full-ride athketic scholarships. None.

outsider69 wrote:

Disko Eric wrote:

Run fast. They’ll come to you.

Terrible advice. Contact the coaches if you are interested in their program.

I might have to lean toward what the outsider says here. Thing is, I don't really know. I ran in HS pre-internet and I can assure you there's no way any college coach could have gotten hold of me. Now, mind you, none were trying. This is primarily because none had ever heard of me. There is simply no way they could have without online information.

Even today, though, I am suspicious of what Disko Eric suggests. How would know of you and how would they find contact into? The internet somewhat solves these obstacles - keep in mind they were a complete impediment 40 years ago - but that assumes these guys are putting in the time and effort to dig up names and then numbers.

Just in case you all assume that everybody involved in the running world is like Jon Gault X 3 in knowledge of running trivia, aware of every result in every race everywhere, I was the best distance runner at my HS. (This may not be saying a whole lot, but there were several guys trying...) My school's coach had never heard of me and wouldn't have recognized me. He never reached out to me. We never met. Well, who cares about this little story?Just pointing out that if you're out winning Foot Locker or something that gets press attention, well OK. Anything short of that, they have never heard of you. Simply running fast will result in a quiet phone.

Longtime DI coach here wrote:

Very simple. Recruiting services are junk and they peddle misinformation about athletes. Do the work yourself. E-mail coaches of schools you might be interested in. Make it personal that works best. I know hundreds of coaches and none of them value recruiting services. Good luck.

Have a hard time believing the 'hundreds of coaches: claim. List a mere 200 here that you know personally and would approach you if they saw you. Then the claim will be believable.

Just to be clear, I DO believe you coached and probably know a dozen. Just thing you're hugely exaggerating. Also believe the recruiting service comment. I thing you're legit and also that there are not 300 current D1 coaches that would claim they know you.

anguswatson wrote:

or do most athletes just email the coach?

Thanks-

Track and xc are not revenue sports. No one is going to do the leg work for you.

My daughter is a very good d1 long jumper (over 20 ft in HS) . We never initiated contact, nor used any service. Our first university contact was from Stanford. She had many, many letters and phone calls. One thing I would recommend is that you go to a few college sponsored workshops if covid allows. If you have talent, they will notice you.

Your daughter was a top 8 in the country talent. That is like a 1:50 or 4:04 or 8:50 guy. Pretty sure this guy isn't at those levels.

Read an article recently about a startup called streamlineathletics.com, it has a pretty comprehensive database of Colleges in the usa / canada .. could be useful in finding coaches to reach out to directly.

I think that once you have your list of colleges that are a good fit academically you should email the coach or fill out the questionnaire. I would email the coach since it's a bit more personal, worst case they'll just tell you to fill out the questionnaire.

You can certainly start by emailing schools and filling out questionnaires. We used Fasttrackrecruiting.com as a service and food it helpful. It is only focused on track and cross country and I think that focus helps. The staff is former track coaches and they utilized their many relationships and connections to help. If you are top 10 in the country you will not have any issues regardless but if you are a little further back those connections can help.

Disko Eric wrote:

Run fast. They’ll come to you.

Not true*.

You better contact the coaches at the schools you are interested in attending.

*Unless you are a true superstar, they won't know who you are or any of your desires to attend their school .