Ran unattached and beat a bunch of guys from my college's team. Coach won't let me walk on.

Eugene the Careful Axe Weilder wrote:

Get Real Real wrote:

If true the coach is a douche. Track and field can't afford coaches turning away any athletes.

I've heard about some schools that don't allow any walk-ons whatsoever, no matter how good they are; it has to do with Title IX and managing number of guys on the team. So not necessarily the coach being a dick. His hands may be tied by his AD/Administration.

http://savingsports.blogspot.com/2010/07/war-on-walk-on-athlete.html

It may depend on your test scores and high school GPA alongside your scholarships you are receiving. Those scholarships could count against your teams limit.

Let me guess: Your school classifies cross country and track and field as one sport instead of two. Your team is having a hard time (due to Title IX)finding good runners who can score points in both cross country and track and field.

Unless you're good enough to score points in a championship meet in track, he won't put you on the team. It's easier to do in the 800 than in the 10k. So, your coach decides to get his 800 meter guys to do cross country as a developmental base for track. At the same time, they're limiting the amount of men, which is good for the team because you need a whole lot of sprinters to score a whole lot of points in T&F.

In order to make the team, you're going to have to beat guys that score points. Look at which distance guys made the cut for the T&F team and beat them. Do that and you're on the team.

Beano wrote:

I was a walk on at a D1 school and made the travel squad as a freshman. Coach picked a recruited freshman for the conference meet. The kid had never beat me all season. I ran for a few more months with the team and quit. The coach was never going to give me a fair chance. He'd already made his mind up.

Looks like he was right, you are a quitter. He was probably testing your character. You should have at least given it a year.

academic scholarships do not count as athletic scholarships unless you are given some athletic money. So, if you are on a 50% scholarship for academics but you don't meet a certain GPA & test score number and athletics gives you a 0.1% scholarship they would have to take on the 50% as well and you would count for 50.1% of a scholarship. However, if you are given that 50% but don't get any athletic aid then you don't count against athletics.

to the poster though; decide what you really want to do. If being a part of a team and having those experiences that you won't likely ever be able to have when college is over then you may have to make a move. If you love where you are and just enjoy running, keep doing what you're doing and maybe you'll eventually be able to make the team, and maybe you won't. As long as you're enjoying what you're doing and are pursuing your goals though you'll be fine.

Honestly, give it a year and see what happens. Without knowing your PR's I have no idea whether or not you belong on an NCAA-qualifyig D1 team or a D3 team. (yeah I know D3 guys like running, we get it, but its nowhere close to D1 competitively).

Actually, at some schools the walk-ons don't get ANY insurance coverage at all, even the football players.

Wow OP!

Troll did good 9/10

Got them good and riled

I'm sure most of the 'pro-coach' reasons given on this site are good ones and they make a lot of sense, but if it makes you feel better, I've got a story about Wetmore that fits right in here. In the 98-99 season, a good friend of mine drove from Boulder far into the midwest to do an indoor meet after transferring in and Wetmore telling him 'no room'. I was MUCH less talented and yet he was willing to have me run in an intersquad meet early in the season. My friend came back, having beaten a few solid guys with a 3k off little speed and Wetmore still gave him the cold shoulder. The coach always made time for me, but wouldn't give my friend the time of day. I never figured it out.

Here's the takehome: my friend never competed for a college team after that. Move on soon; there are a lot of schools/coaches out there, and you don't need any one program to reach your goals.

Reality Stats wrote:

Most importantly, don't make this such a high priority as you're in college. Your education should come first before running.

____________________________________________

THIS is the CORRECT answer.

Get your education. If this is a school that has a good program for your degree, then stay there and get good grades.

A good job will be more important than running on a college team.

Nobody says you can't train on your own and win a few local races. You will get faster. Stay in the school you like, and be able to tell everyone in a few years how you worked hard and earned some financial assistance the hard way.

Let me guess? The team was Cal Berkeley :-)

Can't walk on wrote:

Has anyone else ever been in this situation? I ran unattached and beat 5 of the 7 guys from my school in the race. The coach won't let me walk on. The guys in the race were the C team guys.

Almost this exact situation happened to me my Freshman year of college and kept training, stayed determined to make the team and I finished college making pretty much every conference squad, going to nationals a couple times, and making a few all-time lists in track. I was confused at the time as to why I didn't get a roster spot but fully understand now because the guys I was beating were guys coming back from injury, out of shape freshman, and guys hanging on by a thread.

Stick with it, it'll make the victory more sweet.

This thread came to my attention and has been interesting to read. A lot of feedback from different angles.

I'll decided to share my 2 cents as well.

Running is running, simple as that. The size of school makes no difference. College athletics didn't invent the sport.

That being said, being part of a college xc team can be a tremendous experience on so many levels. But the most important thing is to be at a school that is right for you. That means academically, location, socially and running-wise with a team and coach that you enjoy.

I have coached for several years so I've seen a lot come and go. I had the priviledge of coaching a group of guys at a D2 school that only had one man on the roster who cracked 10:00 for 3200m in HS. Not only that but the guys had hardly a dime of scholarship money between them all. That same group worked very hard and turned into one of the top D2 teams in the country on a national level, and beat A LOT of D1 schools in the process.

The difference is at most D1 schools and a few D2 schools, a lot coaches are looking for a quick fix with a HS star or foreigner, not kids they want to develop from 9:50-10:00 2 milers to 30:00-31:00 10k guys over 3-5 years. In and of itself a 30:00-31:00 guy isn't incredible, but when you put several of those types of guys together then you have a very good college xc team. It just takes time, believing in what you are a part of and enjoying the process.

The size of school you are at means nothing in the sport of running. However the people you spend your time around does matter. That's the experience you leave with.

Don't give up your dream. Find a school that fits what you are looking for and enjoy the experience. There's way too much to enjoy, don't miss out. For example we take any guy on our roster who has run under 4:50, 10:30 and 17:30 in HS and is completely committed to improvement and not afraid to pay his dues. In the past I coached one of these types of guys that ended up running 1:54, 3:52, 4:13, 14:26, 29:51 and was a 2 x D2 XC all-American. Find me a D1 school that wouldn't take a 29:51 10k man on their xc team.

That's my 2 cents. Fire away.

Can you tell me that guy's name? I ran a 17:30 and ~10:50 in high school and I never ran anywhere close to that in college. I'm not accusing you of lying, just curious as to who that guy was.

He ran a tick under 10:30 and low 17's in xc for what that's worth. Small high school.

well, already i know it can only be certain D2 colleges because some D2 colleges sub30 10k is faster than the school record!

Years ago my friend...