Netflix has this show "Last Chance U" which follows football (and also recently basketball) players at under-the-radar colleges and universities fighting for their last chance at a DI scholarship / future pro career. The students struggle with success in the sport and training obviously, but also school work, home life, working other jobs, etc. It's basically reality TV but the stories of the players are often compelling and interesting.
I know there have to be stories like this in T&F and XC out there (I'm thinking at e.g. NAIA, Junior Colleges, DII/DIII, etc.). I think the trend right now is to follow YouTube personalities (e.g. Spencer Brown, Zach Levet, Adam Fogg, Ben Crawford's crew, Sage Canaday, or dare I say Wesfly, etc.), but to be honest their content is genuinely boring not due to lack of talent but because they don't have compelling stories. The stories on a high level are frequently just about how hard the training is. This is only an educated guess based on watching them on YouTube, but all of them seem very privileged in that talent and hard work was enough for them to go DI and succeed in the sport (thus far anyway as many of these guys are quite young). Aside: good on Sage for frequently acknowledging his privilege. If that isn't the case, those guys should be telling us about their struggles!! But what about when those factors aren't enough? I would like to hear a story about an African distance runner who left everything they knew to come to the US but couldn't go DI because they can't speak English that well, or a talented sprinter who couldn't get any offers because they were injured throughout high school or missed seasons because of COVID commuting an hour a day to some junior college and working two jobs to pay their way.
Perhaps I'm ignorant and this already exists somewhere, or maybe I'm wrong that people are out there sacrificing a lot for a slim chance at free college and/or such a meager pro salary, but I would be so interested to hear actually interesting stories like this and generate interest in the sport both at levels lower and also specifically not in YouTube personalities.
What do you think?