Approaching Coaches about walking on

Things have changed in the last twenty years since I ran as a walk-on, so I'm interested to hear informed replies to your question. I've heard horror stories about state champions not being able to run as walk-ons because of roster limitations at 2nd tier Division 1 schools. I would be very surprised if Wisconsin has roster space available for walk-ons anymore.

Good luck in finding the right school.

Here is my personal experience. I walked on to a d1 school that is better at distance than some of your schools, but worse than others. I'm a junior right now, so I also did it pretty recently.

It actually started out of curiousity my junior year of high school when I asked the coach of the team that I would eventually run for what I would have to do to walk-on. That coach gave me a set of standards and basically told me it would be pretty hard for me to run for the team. So I kept training, and that coach got fired at the end of the year.

I repeated the process with the new coach sending an email, and that coach also seemed hesistant to talk to me, but sent me time standards. I kept in touch with this coach and had a workout schedule for the summer sent to me. Followed that and called the coach over the summer to ask how I could walk-on. The coach told me that there would be a time trial and as long as I hit a certain time frame I could train with the team. I hit it, and I've been on the team ever since.

A couple of notes. I don't know what your times are, but I can say with a lot of confidence that they are probably faster than mine, so you definitely have a chance. Secondly, Every coach is different when it comes to walk-ons. You could end up trying out for a team that the coach doesn't want walk-ons and you could be wasting your time. But, in my experience, my coach spends the same amount of time with the walk-ons, we get all the same perks, all the same treatment, and teammates treat you the same as everybody. Finally, in my three years, I've seen a handful of walk-ons, some faster than me, come and go. As a walk-on you have to go in with a different mind set. You need to buy into the program and support your coach immediately, because as easily as you can join the team, you can be kicked off. You aren't there to be the star, you have to be willing to be a role player.

I know I've been vague. But, I'm meeting people for breakfast in like 2 minutes. If anyone has any questions, post your e-mail and I'll get back to you.

get on the school's website and find the email address of the coach and ask them directly. most of them get inquiries all the time and probably have a stock email they send to dudes. Looking at your list, i'm guessing Brown and NYU might have the best shot at letting walk-ons try out. For the others, you probably have to have run at least under 4:30/1:57/9:30 or so before they let you even try out. What kind of times have you run?

A lot depends on how the school's AD interprets the whole Title IX thing and how many girls each team already has.

I'm assuming you're a guy. Most coaches would give their left nut to have more females who want to run in college. And most HS girls wouldn't come on this board and use words like "walk-on."

pleaselemmerun wrote:

Any helpful advice about walking on at the following schools (for track)

UCLA, UC Berkeley, Brown, Wisconsin, Georgetown, NYU

Or advice about walking on in general? How to contact coaches, timing, etc.

Thanks for your time

You specified track, not cross-country. Are you a sprinter, middle, or distance guy? And what are your times?

My prs:

400: 57 Soph year, haven't run it again - have the feeling it's way faster now since I split it during a workout during XC

800: 2:01 4x8 split only meet I ran Junior year, early season stanford invite (ITB injury cost entire season), 2:05.20 Soph PR

1600: 4:48 Soph year in a TT -- probably my best event, coaches never let me run it

5k: 16:25 set this year

academics:

gpa 3.7 unweighted, SAT I 1420, 750,720,640 SATIIs

My times suck for a senior, which is why I was hesitant to post them. I suffered from an IT injury that turned into achilles problems / tendonitis, and that cost me my junior season, so all my PRs are from soph year. I dropped my 5k 2:00 since then, and I'm definitely stronger / faster now.

I'm wondering if I have a better chance waiting, opening correspondance with my times from this year if/after I get in to the school, or just explain that I was out for junior season and keep them updated with my progress and maybe if I run well they can nudge me in?

Go for it. It all depends on whether the coach is a nice guy or not, and if he has room. But what do you have to lose? I did it and it was one of the smartest things I ever did.

I'd wait until you have better times to talk about, frankly, before contacting the coaches at most of those schools.

I will say that if you go to an Ivy, everyone's a walk-on since there are no athletic scholarships. Unless they've imposed roster limits for Title IX, the odds are pretty good, if you get accepted.

Good luck!

by no means am i a stud runner, but i walked onto a college team with these PRs

400-:53

800-1:59 high

1600-4:40

5k-17:20

8k-29:45

in college i went to be a

4:22 mile

8:53 3k

15:51 5k

26:37 8k

50:48 9 mile

and hopefully faster

I say go for it, if u work hard and do ur miles and the shit they give you, you can succeed.

You might want to look at some DIII schools where you could certainly walk on- Haverford, Tufts and Williams are three with excellent academics and excellent running programs. You could probably run for NYU with those times as well. Definitely contact (my guess is a phone call is better than an email since it shows a higher level on interest on your part) the coaches at the schools you're interested in - walking on varies considerably from school to school.

Anything is possible train hard and who knows how good you can be sky's the limit.

regarding nyu, the team is shit. I wouldn't even bother. I personally run on my own. There are a few good guys, but its not worth it, and the coach seems like an ass.

idealist wrote:

if you go to an Ivy, everyone's a walk-on since there are no athletic scholarships.

Good screen name for you.

It will be difficult to walk onto a D1 school with your times. I had similar times in HS (a long long time ago though) 4:46/10:00 and inquired about walking on at UCLA. They wanted 4:30/9:30 to even try out. I raced on the cycling team instead for a year, and then I just ran on my own. It's hard to get fast enough to hit the required times training without guidance, so that's the end for most people in my situation. I only ran 2 years in HS and hadn't figured out how to train yet because my coaching was inconsistent.

Running on my own, I was motivated enough to get up to 140 mpw and cut my 6 mile time in my own time trials to mid 29's. I thought that was pretty good, so I contacted the coach again, but he said it was too late because I was graduating in a year and a half and he didn't want to waste his effort. But if I hit an NCAA qualifying time, call back. How the heck was I supposed to hit an NCAA qualifying time? I didn't even know how to get into any meets, and I didn't have a car or any other support. The message I got was that they weren't interested. I guess I shouldn't have taken it personally, but it was a motivating factor that kept me running pretty fast for someone who didn't get to run in college.