College walk on hopeful

so the coach doesnt take walk ons who dont have pre req highschool times? hmm. Go to another school in the conference, train hard, and show that @sshole! :P

go somewhere you're wanted. i was in a similar situation 25 years ago, only i talked the coach in letting me come out. he talked to me 3 times all season, the 3rd was to cut me.

i improved, but i have always been jealous of people who had coaches who cared whether they were there. it makes all the difference.

my advice is go d3. because 17:00 is not good enough for d1 anyway. then train hard for a coach that cares about you and make an impact.

I'll bite. I decided to attend a University(crap team in a power conference) that didn't offer tryout for the team. Contacted the coach, he gave me the tryout times, which were absurd because only one or two kids on the team had ran those times in college. This included a kid I beat often as a Junior when he was a Senior.

Never gave me the tryout. I did meet a kid before I arrived that hit one of the tryout times, got the tryout, made the time, but wasn't offered a spot. When I found out the recruited Freshman, I was even more pissed because I beat a handful of them at my Footlocker regional. Ended up training with the aforementioned kid for a few semesters on the club team then went solo. I later found out the coach only likes to keep his recruits, and because of financial reasons, he wasn't allowed to expand the roster beyond 8 guys. So I can't be that angry at the guy.

If the coach doesn't offer you a tryout, look for a club team. Some schools some good teams. Mine had 3 guys who could have beat the team's 4-8.

The coach is a complete quack. Go somewhere else. Anybody who says you need to run certain times in high school and won't even allow you to try to walk-on has no idea what he/she is doing. Even if you got on the team, it would be lame because the coach is apparently incompetent.

I walked on to a pretty competitive D1 school with pretty shoddy hs credentials. Get to know all of the coaches at the schools you want to go to and find a coach who will let you try to walk on.

I was in a similar situation in high school (I'm a senior in college now) besides the fact that my coach took walk ons. I was a 17:03 5k cross country, 4:40 1600 guy. Nothing special by any means. I decided to walk on at a lower end D1 school. First year, I improved a bit but not much. By the end of my soph year I was a 4:28 miler, 15:40 5k, and 9:28 3k steeple. Nothing special by D1 standards but still made significant improvements. If you really want to run D1, there are schools that will take you, just look around. Some coaches like to give mediocre kids in high school a chance because high school coaching is generally much different, and not as good.

If the coach that you've been talking to says he doesn't want to take you cause you're not fast enough, he's probably not going to change his mind. Unless you prove it to him with your times. Anyway hope this helps, best of luck to you.

Thanks for all the responses. I'm thinking I'm going to try and ask one more time to just try out. If he is still being unreasonable, I'll just go somewhere with a coach who seems to be more open-minded.

Sounds a lot like Clemson.

Reminds me a good bit of Georgia Tech

Bottled Anger wrote:

Ended up training with the aforementioned kid for a few semesters on the club team then went solo. I later found out the coach only likes to keep his recruits, and because of financial reasons, he wasn't allowed to expand the roster beyond 8 guys. So I can't be that angry at the guy.

Yeah you can, he didn't have to lie to you about it! He should have explained the situation in the first place instead of dragging you along.

Look into Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania

Not trying to defend the coach, but is it possible this is one of the ramifications of Title IX. Are men's programs under pressure to keep their numbers down so that the colleges can stay in compliance?

asdefjh wrote:

Not trying to defend the coach, but is it possible this is one of the ramifications of Title IX. Are men's programs under pressure to keep their numbers down so that the colleges can stay in compliance?

Every coach deals with Title IX. Its no reason to tell some kid not to try to walk-on when he could potentially be better than the recruits some day.

This smells of troll, but why not...

If a coach doesn't want a walk on that's already beating half his team, then it's one of a few things...

1. He's a new coach that's trying to improve the program... and one way of doing it is to go after and focus on better guys. In all honesty, getting a 17:0x guy for a div 1 program isn't that enticing. Personally, I'm pretty curious to find out what d1 team is filled with mid 16:30 - 17:30 collegiate 5k's... u.w. green bay?

2. You're exaggerating your own time and making it sound better than it is... did you run that on a cross country course, a track, a road race... I was a 16:00 guy in high school in cc, but ran a 15:20 on the roads... I don't consider the later my h.s. pr.

3. He just doesn't have the funding and would rather work with a specific set of guys... maybe he'd let you work out with the team and add you later.

4. He's an old coach and gave up a long time ago.

don't take it personal if he doesn't want you, just train hard, find somewhere you can compete, and enjoy your collegiate experience...

It would be helpful if you stated whether you are male or female.

I'm a male. If I was a female, I wouldn't really have an issue running at a low level D1 program...