What are some reasons for or against Parker Valby transferring?

She picked Florida for several reasons I'm sure. Now, she has by any metric exceeded expectations and you want her to go elsewhere? How does that make any sense at all? If she was vastly underperforming or miserable there, then this would be a valid conversation.

She just placed 2nd at nationals as a sophomore. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

She can also help her team win an indoor and outdoor national championship, which will attract other distance stars to your school. Why go somewhere else when you can bring them to you.

By that logic Ceili McCabe should just transfer too right?

Mia Barnett as well. Have you considered the possibility that she likes the college she goes to and has developed friendships at the school?

If your happy where you are then there’s no reason to transfer.

She goes to one of the best public universities in the country.

She is having great success in her current program.

She will have a chance for team glory in both indoor and outdoor track.

Why would she transfer to Oklahoma? Natalie Cook is at Oklahoma State.

Valby is doing fine at Florida. Also, professionals consider track to be more important than XC and didn’t Valby help the Gators win a team title in T&F last season? I honestly doubt that the trajectory of Valby’s professional career would change much if at all if she were to transfer.

Lastly, UF is an outstanding university. Believe it or not there is more to life than running.

IMHO- turn pro. Florida one of the best public schools in the nation? Yeah maybe if you leave out some states.

OK, it's a good school, no doubt, but she can get a better education in a lot of other places and can probably find better coaching and certainly a better team elsewhere.

ITS VALBYMANIA!!!

Just about any organization that assesses the quaity of post-secondary schools would place Florida in the top 10 of its rankings for public universities. Of all of the teams competing at the NCAA finals, the only two public univerisites that I see that could be considered superior to Florida academically would be Virginia & Michigan. Even those two schools, as excellent as they are, are not leaps and bounds ahead of Florida. What public universities that competed at the NCAA championships would you say are superior to Florida?

This is a stupid thread and Valby is going to do what she wants to do and not consider the opinions of some randos from this forum.

If Toohy weas smart. she would transfer to Florida to get a better education, train with the top runner in the NCAA, and win more team titles than she will win at NC State.

First off, she already helped UF win a national championship in outdoor track, so I'm not sure what else an athlete would want.

Secondly, what schools offer her both a better education and a chance to win in XC? UF is the #29 school in the nation in the latest US News rankings, which aren't perfect but give you a decent idea of how schools rank. Looking at that list, you're basically telling her to go to either Stanford or Notre Dame -- but does anyone really think either of those schools is winning a women's national championship in the next three years? Maybe ND, but it's not like they're going to be favored to win or anything.

Cross country is one part of the year, and they only race a few meaningful races. And she's still able to compete as an individual.

Track has indoor and outdoor, means a lot more to a lot more people. Florida women were NCAA champions last year outdoors (and so were the men)... That sounds like a lot of fun to be apart of. And the weather is pretty nice there during the fall/winter/spring which is when school is in session. And she has a great coach Chris Solinsky. Seems like a great situation to me. Their cross country team is likely to get better the next few years with Solinsky as the coach and all of the publicity having Parker.

LRC: Valby should immediately transfer to an elite college distance program like Stanford, Colorado, or OK State to maximize her potential and win titles!

Also LRC: I hate high schools like Newbury Park and Loudon Valley that just recruit out-of-district all-star talent in order to win titles!

Why should any athlete choose Florida?

-ROI: The likelihood of becoming a professional athlete is rare. If things don’t work out for you athletically, Florida offers a solid education. Florida is ranked #4 in the country for return on investment. Not that this particularly matters for Valby as, let’s face it, she could get a full ride to any school in the country at this point, but was probably a factor coming out of high school as she is is from Florida (in-state tuition less than $7k per year)

degreechoices.com

The top national universities - Degreechoices.com

National Universities include public universities advantageous to in-state residents, and storied private universities catering to the nation's elite.

Open link

-Athletics: Florida has a rich history of winning championships in multiple sports. Track and Field is probably it’s most successful sport since the turn of the millennium winning multiple championships and producing multiple olympians and medalists. At Florida, you have the option to become the best athlete you can be and have all the resources at your disposal.

-Weather: everyone rags on Florida for being too hot, and it is… in the summer time… when the majority of school is off for summer break. September to April is a dream (especially for distance running). The temps are often between 50-70 degrees with plenty of sunshine.

A couple of points specific to Valby.

-Holloway and Solinsky: you have two world class coaches looking after your training. This is a no brainer.

-“Florida doesn’t have hills”: I hate to burst everyone’s bubble.. it Gainesville does have hills. The team uses the school golf course for workouts frequently which has rolling hills (a couple of 20-50ft rolling hills over a 2 mile loop. The team also uses The Micanopy loop, which has over 400ft of elevation gain (rolling hills) in less than 5 miles (route below). Not to mention tons of other routes.

https://www.strava.com/segments/12615084

-Proximity to home: I can speak on this specifically because I grew up a high school away from Valby in Tampa, which is only a 2:30 drive from the university. Florida was the best of both worlds for me. I was close enough to home to visit on holidays and weekends if I wanted to, it far enough away to feel like I was going off to school.

There are tons of other reasons to choose Florida. These are just a couple top of mind. This is my first and probably last time posting on here. I spent too much time writing this. Time to get back to my job.

*Disclaimer: I did go to Florida and was a part of the Track and Cross Country program.

Bro, how do you get through life being this clueless? I mean seriously, did you give any critical thought to the question you just posited? No, what am I thinking this is LRC after all. Well Happy Thanksgiving.

To go back in time, Frank Shorter & Jack Bacheler made Gainesville famous for distance running. Outdoors all year - no snow.

I agree that Florida is in the top 10 of public universities and should not be looked at as a poor choice for Valby academically. We don't even know how smart she is. But since you asked, UNC, which finished fifth on Saturday, is generally regarded as a better school than Florida even though it is one slot lower in the rankings on US News. Not suggesting in any way that Valby should transfer there.

NIL 💰

Perez is good but out

She’s not getting NIL…