Looking to run at Tufts

notajumbo wrote:

I also had a similar experience with the Tufts coach. Was very aloof about the whole situation. Hey I understand that you have plenty of other guys to look at but I didn't even get the common courtesy I recieved from much bigger (even DI) programs.

As the father of a daughter who will be running in college next year and who has gone through the recruiting process since Jan. of her junior year, here are some things you should know.

1) You should NOT EXPECT to call a coach and get them on the phone. Almost all of them (including Tufts) have a recruitment questionnaire on their site. Fill that out. If they are interested, they will contact you.

2) Even the DIII schools get a LOT of interest, so there's no way a coach can talk to all who initially contact. At ONE of the DIII schools she filled out the recruitment questionnaire for, the coach got back to her and said that 250 juniors had filled out the questionnaire. The school asked for transcripts from all 250, and 160 complied. Of the 160 who did, the school only wants 7 - that's 4.3%, so it is harder to make this school's cross country team than it is to get accepted to ANY IVY League school. Of course not all 160 would CHOOSE that school, and some would be weeded out due to not being able to be accepted, but you can see how high the interest is initially.

High school JUNIORS should begin the recruitment process immediately after the first of the year. Fill out the recruitment questionnaires. You should look at the performance of the athletes at those schools to see if it is reasonable that you would be contacted. If you are slower or barely hang on to the back of their pack, don't think they will jump up and down about you. Of their better athletes, check milesplit to see how they did in high school. This is also a good thing to do to see if their athletes improve or not in college.

For what it's worth, the Tufts coach recruited me several years ago and I found him to be very accommodating and professional. When I informed him that I had decided to attend a rival school instead, he handled it very well (unlike a few other coaches I dealt with). Didn't seem like the kind of guy who would blow someone off without cause.

That was just my personal experience. As Flagpole mentioned above, I went through the various stages of the recruiting process. Filled out a questionnaire, then spoke over the phone, then visited. You can't just drop in on a coach and expect them to spend time with you.

High School Senior wrote:

Anyone know what times are necessary to run at Tufts?

Responding to the original question:

in order to get recruited/admissions help, these are the times that will definitely get you interest from the coach.

800- 1:57

1600- 4:22

3200- 9:40

xc 5k- low 16's

At the very least you have to say this for the coach, he's built a great program the last couple years. He's had great xc teams and mid-distance guys.

So if all 250 of them send the coach an email. It should take about 250 minutes to respond to each of them. The coach has the whole summer pretty much off. Respond to your damn emails.

by "each" I mean "all"