Hard to get recruited

Here he comes wrote:

. . . the better academic schools haven't responded even though he is well qualified.

Okay, this part seems bizarre. I can understand that there may be fewer scholarships available, what with guys' additional year of eligibility, but it seems very strange that people aren't responding to you at all.

I don't have a real solution to suggest--maybe send a copy of the kid's transcripts/times via snail mail, so a human actually has to sign for it?--but am having trouble understanding total nonresponsiveness. Good luck to you and him!

It is very common. Most 4:15 type kids have a hard time finding a home because they want to be on a P5 team but don't get much love. I have had several kids at you sons' levels end up going D3 and it worked out well. Others went to mid majors and got lost in D1 as 4:10/14:30 type guys.

There are many good mid-major schools east of the Mississippi with good teams and resources. Look at the southeast, south, Great Lakes, mid-Atlantic regional XC results and pick some schools in the top 5 that aren’t in the power 5.

Your kids have NO BUSINESS going to a power 5. Just look at the America East conference where your son's 4:08 equals 3:50.5 for 1500, putting him outside the top 10 on the performance list. Also outside of the top 1o in the Patriot League (most teams have no scholarships).

Your son's 24:45 would put him 19th in the America East for cross country (which was run in bad conditions). He would be 24th in the Ivy League (no scholarships at all).

And you are begging the Syracuse coach and the Notre Dame coach for a roster spot? Get real. If your first son did receive an athletic scholarship it would NOT have been renewed due to poor performance (4:08 and 24:45 is getting beat by walk-ons).

Get rid of your ego and accept a 5k scholarship to Maine or Temple.

Honestly, its just way more competitive than you think.

My nephew just lead his high school football team to a third straight state football title as a star QB. Has only lost one game in his football career. He is an absolute star at QB and LB. Has also been a star at WR last year. Overall amazing football player and athlete, tons of newspaper articles about him, tv interviews with the local news. 6 foot 2, 210 pounds.

Zero D1 offers. P5 won't even talk to him about walking on.

Only D3 is interested.

This country is HUGE and there are hundreds of thousands of amazing high school athletes.

For running, think of all the P5 schools that dilute their roster with east africans of which there are millions to choose from. The only kids I knew that went P5 scholarship for distance running were multi state champ winners with school record times. Basically the type of kid that is the BEST distance runner the high school has EVER seen. And there are so many state champs in competitive states that still aren't good enough to run P5....

Run 4:00 and 8:30.

You will have to set up a separate line to deal with the calls.

Yea pretty much what everyone is saying… what is the power 5 hang up? There are many group of 5 and mid major schools that would gladly talk with him and many “good running schools” having individual qualifiers in xc and track that will give him a bit of money and some will even be better academically than some of the power 5s.

Also the people on the 4.19 thread who think a 4.19 kid can walk-on anywhere need to read this!!!

Not quite like that. We know he can't get a spot at ND but thought it would be easier at Ohio State or Penn State or Florida or NC State than it has been. They wanted to be at schools that have basketball and football and other sports.

Probably because your sons aren’t P5 material. You need to get real. Just go to mid major.

4:12 should be P5 material at many schools. You are correct that is below what us useful for scoring but some guys improve. And I see so many people claiming to walk on at decent P5 schools with slower times. There is a thread about a 9:30 kid walking on at a national qualifying team. My sons received no interest from any team at that level so it makes me wonder how these kids are getting the ear of the coach.

I just signed with Duke as a senior in high school a few months ago, and i think i may have some advice. I was the slowest guy they signed this year, ran 4:14, but I am hugely underdeveloped as a runner, have had volunteer coaches the whole time, only started running 50 mpw junior year etc, and a lot of coaches are that up. I was talking to Nova, Michigan, Princeton, Lananna at UVA, and Georgetown, all top programs so i would say that it worked out well for me. If your sons are undeveloped, give the coaches a rest, and in a month or so reach back out and send a detailed email stressing that fact. Best of luck.

Here he comes wrote:

Not quite like that. We know he can't get a spot at ND but thought it would be easier at Ohio State or Penn State or Florida or NC State than it has been. They wanted to be at schools that have basketball and football and other sports.

Go look at Ohio State's men xc roster. The entire team is from Ohio. They have plenty of local talent to recruit from.

Have you thought about Army or Navy? Top tier academics, east coast, both schools have football and other sports at d1 level, and EVERY student gets a full ride scholarship so less pressure on track teams in terms of scholarship they have to give.

Our oldest son did have interest from the Ivies but we decided against paying $70k. We didn't bother looking this time but some other schools on your list didn't respond this time around.

Here he comes wrote:

Our oldest son did have interest from the Ivies but we decided against paying $70k. We didn't bother looking this time but some other schools on your list didn't respond this time around.

army or navy would be interested i think. at a minimum he could walk on the team.

Have you tried looking D2? I know D2 has the stigma of poor academics but there are solid academic institutions that would give a 4:15 kid a full ride or very close to it

Which schools? The only good school I am aware of is Colorado School of Mines. Grand Valley offered a very small scholarship and the school is not ranked high.

Too late at this time.

AT some point, running in college just becomes giving away your services for nothing. I wouldn't do it unless it got me in somewhere I otherwise would not have been accepted to (an Ivy etc).

I don't know why anyone would volunteer to be training fodder for a bunch of imports (or just other guys way better than them).

My son ran 9:10 as a senior in high school but was not a miler with just a 4:19 PR there. He ran low 15s in cross country.

He got a lot of scholarship offers. All of the ones who came to him unsolicited were from non P5 conferences, except for two. Wake Forest and Ohio State. Oddly enough, he actually was contacted by NAU. Davidson gave him the best offer which would have amounted to a full ride after their regular discount based on need (and our income was over $125,000 at the time). Some other schools outside of P5 were William and Mary, Bradley, Miami of Ohio, Butler, and just about every other school in those mid major conferences.

9:10 is great for a high school kid, but the problem is there are tons better in this country and other countries who typically go to P5 conferences. Ohio State currently has a weak program. You might get some interest there. Not sure why you have a thing about P5 conferences though. If your kids are good enough, they will run against the best in the country no matter what D1 school they go to. My kid ran at Cross Country Nationals, and he went to a mid major.

A 9:10 guy has the potential to develop into something really special, but nothing is guaranteed. If your younger son also runs 9:10 and goes to a P5 school or some other powerhouse school, he might barely make the varsity CC team, but then all it takes is a couple of twins and some other random great runner to come in and your kid is sitting on the sidelines.

You need to expand your horizon.