Running in college

[Anonymous]

My sophomore son mentioned that some of his track friends have athletic recruiting counselors. We don't need a counselor but would like a general timeline in case our son goes down that route. He currently has walk-on and recruiting times for some D3 schools, and he plans to continue improving his times. He would be academically qualified for those D3 schools. Is there a timeline when we reach out to coaches? What is the process? What is the process for walking on to a team?

This is new to us. Just about to send off older DC to college who is not an athlete, so we are familiar with college admissions but not athletic recruiting.

[Anonymous]

Set up an instagram account if he doesn’t already have one that is something that can be found by coaches. Have him follow teams and coaches he is interested in.

Set up a runcruit account

June 15 of his going into junior year coaches can start communicating. He can also reach out- emails, fill out interest forms. Draft an email that has a subject line like: class of 2028, 4.0 GPA, mile time 4:50 with a simple email saying he is interested in the school, list times and potential major.

Track contact via spreadsheet. Follow up if no response

[Anonymous]

Walk on is a lot harder now- might be easier at D3-l

[Anonymous]

You may get more responses if you move this to the college forum.

[Anonymous]

Thank you to the three PP above. I will post on the college forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Set up an instagram account if he doesn’t already have one that is something that can be found by coaches. Have him follow teams and coaches he is interested in.

Set up a runcruit account

June 15 of his going into junior year coaches can start communicating. He can also reach out- emails, fill out interest forms. Draft an email that has a subject line like: class of 2028, 4.0 GPA, mile time 4:50 with a simple email saying he is interested in the school, list times and potential major.

Track contact via spreadsheet. Follow up if no response

The June 15 date is for D1 and D2. D3 and NAIA can communicate any time.

And students can reach out to D1 and D2 coaches before that and share their film, stats, HS coach info, the college coaches just can't communicate directly with students before them.

[Anonymous]

Running in college is way more straightforward than other sports- it is all based on times. Schools publish their standards and if your runner meets those (or is very very close)- reach out and coaches will usually respond

[Anonymous]

Fwiw, DD didn't opt to run in college even after years of XC/track in HS, running camps in the summer, local 10k/half marathons, etc.

She considered the intramural running team, but that was a big time commitment (and surprisingly a lot of travel). There was also a running club, but with her class schedule it didn't really work out.
Dd kinda wanted to enjoy college life - going to football games on Saturday afternoons instead of traveling to XYZ for a meet. Going for a long run at 6pm (when her classes are over) instead of 6am with a team/club. That type of thing.

Having said that, she still runs religiously. And meets up with her 2 of her HS teammates on campus in the same boat to run.
It's just not as serious and hyper focused as it was in the past.
There are so many great options at college that are piquing her interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fwiw, DD didn't opt to run in college even after years of XC/track in HS, running camps in the summer, local 10k/half marathons, etc.

She considered the intramural running team, but that was a big time commitment (and surprisingly a lot of travel). There was also a running club, but with her class schedule it didn't really work out.
Dd kinda wanted to enjoy college life - going to football games on Saturday afternoons instead of traveling to XYZ for a meet. Going for a long run at 6pm (when her classes are over) instead of 6am with a team/club. That type of thing.

Having said that, she still runs religiously. And meets up with her 2 of her HS teammates on campus in the same boat to run.
It's just not as serious and hyper focused as it was in the past.
There are so many great options at college that are piquing her interest.

This sounds great. Personally, I would prefer this for DC.

[Anonymous]

After June, set up an NCAA profile and start filling it out and posting stats. It costs $110.

My daughter has talked to various coaches for two sports she plays at a high level. She could maybe get recruited at a lesser school, but at this point I think we are more likely to try to get in somewhere good for academics and then walk on. Coaches only have so much aid they can give.