Quitting College Team

Just tell your coach that you are quitting the team.

You let them know you’re quitting and then you do it.

Are you a 13:45 5k runner? Are you scoring big points at your conference meet. Otherwise, your coach won't have a big problem with you quitting.

You can take the route I took my junior year. I was a walk-on soccer player for a D-1 team. I was expected to start and clearly had a better camp than a freshmen they recruited that also played my position.

Didn't matter, coach liked him more for whatever weird reason and made a promise to his parents that he was going to start. This freshman told me this to my face.

Depth chart was released and they put him above me. This coach rarely ever played his second-stringers so I was going to sit the bench all year as a junior behind a freshmen. F-that.

I didn't even bother showing up for practice that afternoon and didn't even tell the coach I was done. I just left. The coach was a major douche anyways who was fired midseason. If my coach was a decent person and if I legitimately lost my starting role, I would have stayed on the team.

As for the freshman who took my spot, he didn't even last a year on the team. The new coach saw that he sucked and kept him on the bench.

Sorry so long. If your coach is a good and ethical, just go to his office and explain to him why you need to leave. It happens all the time. Good luck.

"I quit."

Kick like a girl wrote:

Are you a 13:45 5k runner? Are you scoring big points at your conference meet. Otherwise, your coach won't have a big problem with you quitting.

I was an important part of our XC team in the previous fall and was all-conference. I likely would have gone on to score points. If I wasn’t recruited to the school, I wouldn’t be so worried as I am now. I am afraid they’ll try and strong arm me into staying in the team.

RandoGuy wrote:

Kick like a girl wrote:

Are you a 13:45 5k runner? Are you scoring big points at your conference meet. Otherwise, your coach won't have a big problem with you quitting.

I was an important part of our XC team in the previous fall and was all-conference. I likely would have gone on to score points. If I wasn’t recruited to the school, I wouldn’t be so worried as I am now. I am afraid they’ll try and strong arm me into staying in the team.

Heres what you do if they strong arm you to stay on the team. Wait til Natty’s. Come through in the lead. Right before the finish as you are about to win come to a dead stop. Take your Jersey off and throw it into the crowd.

I QUIT!

Then dnf.

You sound like a nice guy who doesn’t want to be a jerk about it.

Just tell your helicopter parents to call coach for you. They will be able to take care of it, and you won’t have to feel uncomfortable in front of coach.

My parents aren’t in my life anymore; otherwise, I would probably heed your suggestion haha. I’m going to have to do this my self, unfortunately.

Just tell them the fire's gone. Don't do any blaming, just tell them you're not enjoying it and as much as you've tried to change that, it's not changing.

Any coach who cares about the team as a whole will be happy you told them, and while they may be sad to see you go, they would ultimately be glad that a roster spot won't be taken by someone with no heart for the sport.

And also know that there's nothing wrong with not wanting to keep running. It's a voluntary activity. If you don't like it there's no point for you to do it.

If you have run enough to make it to a DI team, you don't have to quit. You can retire. No shame in that.

Just tell the coach you don't have the fire anymore. They might make a good-faith effort to see how serious you are about not running, but will not likely strong arm you to stay.

Just get written up enough to force them to kick you off the team. No shame in crushing a few beers with the boys

RandoGuy wrote:

I entirely hate distance running, and ultimately, it is never going to help me attain my career goals; the time wasted on this sport that I could be using towards my studies makes it more of an obstacle to my desired future.

You tell them that you quit. The above is your "why." If you have good coaches (which... sounds like you have a meh relationship with them, or it's a massively impersonal coaching staff which is unfortunately common), they will understand.

If they try to strongarm you, no matter what they say, the answer is no. No. No rejoining. No thinking about it. Everything they say to you, you say No. That's it. Your decision was made before entering the room -- you're not going in there to flesh it out.

Just stop going to practices. This isn't too difficult.

ReggiePizza69 wrote:

Just get written up enough to force them to kick you off the team. No shame in crushing a few beers with the boys

Just pull a 3 week bender before nattys. Show up to practice wasted every day, drink in meetings and take naps on weight benches. Keep it simple stupid

If you don’t like your job, you don’t quit! You just go in every day, and do it really half assed. That’s the American way. - Homer

I'm not sure why this seems complicated to you. You can quit most anything other than the military just by saying "I quit." You can generally do it with an e-mail or text these days. But I think you're being a little cowardly here. Whether you like your coach or not, he's invested time in working with you. He deserves an explanation and yes, there's a good chance he'll try to get you to change your mind. This is where you need to man up and stand your ground. If you really cannot do that and get "strong armed" back into doing something you don't want it's as mostly your own fault.

RandoGuy wrote:D1 college runner looking to quit my team. Can anyone tell me what this process looks like? I want to make this as easy as possible. To be sure, I do not want to have to argue my reasoning to my coaches, for I have thought this out plenty over the past year.

I entirely hate distance running, and ultimately, it is never going to help me attain my career goals; the time wasted on this sport that I could be using towards my studies makes it more of an obstacle to my desired future.

Well it does matter a little bit. Since you are at a D1 school how much are you getting in scholarship? If you are receiving an athletic scholarship you should stick out the season and then quit. If you are a walk on or not a scholarship athlete then you don't owe them anything and can quit the team anytime you like.

Having coached college swimmers for more than 40 years, I had my share of athletes who wanted to quit. I always wanted to discuss their decision with them to find out what factors played into the decision, especially if there were team/coach issues that could be improved.

My advice is to go in and have a discussion with your coach to let him know your loss of motivation and give him the opportunity to discuss it with you.

I still have good relationships with many of my former swimmers who retired during their college career.