Kenyan Recruited NCAA Athletes -- How do they handle the college workload?

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Really interested in this as well. What sort of academic vetting goes on? How do they know they aren't recruiting someone who will immediately fail out?

Ummm... have you seen the students at the University of Alabama... beer-swollen frat boys and sorority dumbies? Compare that to the (likely) very hard-working and grounded kenyan athletes... I think they'll do just fine.

Oh, and another thing...

Alabama probably recruits the most talented football players in the nation. As I hope you know, some of those dudes are inconceivably dumb - like, how did you pass the the 1st grade dumb. Yet these guys often make straight As and Bs in all their "interdisciplinary studies" classes despite missing 50% of the fall classes for away games (then they go on to get a job in the athletic department).

Is it really that hard to believe that Kenyan athletes, who (from my experience) are generally intelligent and hard working individuals, would not simply flunk out of college?

Rowl tyde...yee haw! wrote:

Oh, and another thing...

Alabama probably recruits the most talented football players in the nation. As I hope you know, some of those dudes are inconceivably dumb - like, how did you pass the the 1st grade dumb. Yet these guys often make straight As and Bs in all their "interdisciplinary studies" classes despite missing 50% of the fall classes for away games (then they go on to get a job in the athletic department).

Is it really that hard to believe that Kenyan athletes, who (from my experience) are generally intelligent and hard working individuals, would not simply flunk out of college?

I guess I'm just curious how you vet foreign athletes. Do you go by high school grades? How do you know they speak English well enough?

MidBest wrote:

I guess I'm just curious how you vet foreign athletes. Do you go by high school grades? How do you know they speak English well enough?

Never heard of TOEFL I suppose.

Rowl tyde...yee haw! wrote:

Oh, and another thing...

Alabama probably recruits the most talented football players in the nation. As I hope you know, some of those dudes are inconceivably dumb - like, how did you pass the the 1st grade dumb. Yet these guys often make straight As and Bs in all their "interdisciplinary studies" classes despite missing 50% of the fall classes for away games (then they go on to get a job in the athletic department).

Is it really that hard to believe that Kenyan athletes, who (from my experience) are generally intelligent and hard working individuals, would not simply flunk out of college?

Your last line here is getting at my question. Most of the Kenyans I'm aware of are intelligent and hard working people. I don't think most of them try to coast through college in the same way that the American football players do. However, I also suspect that most Kenyan high schools aren't at the same academic level as American high schools. So I'm wondering if/how that divide is bridged.

I know how American football players get through college, but I honestly know zero about the topic when it relates to Kenyan distance runners.

USA college educational "workload" = not much work.

American colleges have done a great job of convincing kids and parents that they need to pay 100 grand to take 4-6 years worth of high school level classes.

I was always amazed that Henry Rono had a college degree after reading his ramblings on here but then I realize the brojos do as well.

Rowl tyde...yee haw! wrote:

Ummm... have you seen the students at the University of Alabama... beer-swollen frat boys and sorority dumbies? Compare that to the (likely) very hard-working and grounded kenyan athletes... I think they'll do just fine.

Says a guy who's never been on the Alabama campus in his life. That statement is totally false but obviously you're dealing with some major issues. Good luck.

Newbs - schooling in Kenya happens in ENGLISH.

The high schools in Kenya are not worse than those in the USA. Actually, many there are probably more stringent than the average american high school.

drop that knowing stuff wrote:

Newbs - schooling in Kenya happens in ENGLISH.

So? That's just one subject...

drop that knowing stuff wrote:

The high schools in Kenya are not worse than those in the USA. Actually, many there are probably more stringent than the average american high school.

I talk a lot of crap about the educational system in the US but we do have one of the best educational systems in the world (Alabama jokes aside -- and there are several other programs with foreign runners). Some Kenyan schools may be better than some American schools, but that doesn't mean much about the average or about the specific athletes who were recruited to run here.

Everything in this thread is unsubstantiated so far.

I was thinking about my grandfather -- he went to college in 1944 or something and he didn't have basic math skills (for instance he had never taken geometry and didn't know the number of degrees in a circle or triangle), but he did have the normal US history, literature, etc. skills that you'd expect for someone of that era. I went to a good university and I took hard classes, so I can't think of anything I took that didn't require a high level of cultural context and years of previous education.

Stop while you're behind, dude. You have no idea what you're talking about. I have never encountered a D1 Kenyan student-athlete who was less than able academically.

almost incoherent wrote:

I was always amazed that Henry Rono had a college degree after reading his ramblings on here but then I realize the brojos do as well.

"If you're not cheating, you're not trying.

- famous military and Alabama track and field quote.

Correct, I have no idea what I'm talking about, which is why I'm asking.

They stay relaxed during school

The Kenyans on my team worked incredibly hard. On trips they would constantly be studying to understand the material. A lot of them wanted to become nurses so they could go back home and make a difference. Homework that took me an hour would take the Kenyans 2-3 times as long.

Its simple wrote:

They stay relaxed during school

Just as with football, they get personal academic advisers to help them (whcon means telling them exactly what's going to be in exams and giving them the answers.)

U of Oregon has a new building solely dedicated to keeping jocks academically eligible.

Do they all get full rides, and if not - how do they afford the costs? That's the question rolling around my head.

East African schools are full of very hard working students, many working with candles or paraffin lamps at night, without electricity, and their curriculum is set by the British commonwealth, modeled on British tests where you have to pass at least six subjects to graduate secondary school. It depends on the country but often students from very poor circumstances do not have very good English (the language of instruction, at least after primary school) and so averages are not very high, but the same students make full use of their educational opportunities in the United States when they get them. Americans don't typically do that here, and our high schools are weak and getting weaker, whereas the universities are great but are very much beginning to pass everybody as a result of pressure from university administration and state funding models tied to graduation rate.