Snowball effect. They also really lucked out with some of their guys being surprising talents. And also they have a scum bag coach recruiting the kids from all over the state.
They didn’t recruit enough this year to get this team to NXN huh
Here is a secret that I think everyone deserves to know....
EVERY student at private high schools are "recruited" in some capacity. Zero student is assigned or automatically set attend. Private schools don't get government funding thus no kids in the door means no kids paying tuition means the school closes. Every student is recruited to attend in some capacity. That's why I think the word recruiting is assigned inappropriately for private high schools and athletics specifically. It isn't something to debate. PRIVATE SCHOOLS DO RECRUIT THEIR STUDENT ATHLETES.
Many schools work like this: Fliers are sent out, students come to campus and shadow the school, usually they are set up with a freshman to spend the day with and they are partnered with studnets based off common interests as the 8th grader. They attend classes, snag lunch and leave at the end of the day. Sounds like a dictionary definition of recruiting trip to me.
Private schools have entire departments and a range of employees dedicated to getting highly qualified students in the door by outreach. Their sole job is to recruit kids and families to attend the school. I doubt that many of these people are overly concerned with making grandiose or enticing opportunities based off of purely athletics. Obviously, this is not always the case.
When you introduce parents, donors, outside the school walls money or pressure etc etc then it gets messy. I'm sure that this problem pertains to public schools as well. The under the table type of "recruiting" transcends the private schools and I believe can be applied to all "schools". Private schools not excluded. I don't condone it nor am I naive enough to think it doesn't happen, it's just dirty and isn't a public v. private school debate in my opinion.
But again, just speculating here, I doubt many of these types of private schools/people are concerned with XC. Sure, probably a handful but I don't see it rampantly moving the needle for our sport.
School scholarships are given for a wide variety of reasons but it takes a lot of money to run schools and for the vast majority of these schools, I don't believe it is financially viable to give scholarships directly for athletics. Private school mission and visions vary drastically but I feel confident that few would ever support explicit "recruiting" solely for athletics and especially cross country.
I don't know UC's background but assuming capacity is full, for a school of 740 students to outfit the athletic department with scholarships of $19,500 (cost of full tuition) for sports or XC, it is a lot of money that could be coming in the door for other uses by charging full or partial tuition to another kid.
Good for thought! Hope everyone runs fast this Spring!!