<p>hi, I am a senior who is interested in running cross country and track in college. I have looked at the teams, and I am fast enough now to be either one of the fastest girls on their team or in the middle of their teams. All of these schools are matches or safeties for me.
I've emailed and called the coaches a few times from a bunch of d3 private schools. The only school that responded was Clarkson, and the coach was very sweet and told me to continue emailing her updates throughout the year.
The other schools that I emailed have not responded, and I'm not sure why. Is it because the coaches are not good at recruiting? Could it be that the coaches have a prejudice against my school and coach because some girls on my team have gone to these schools and run for them?
I know that there's a school in my area with one of the best teams in the whole country that many colleges refuse to recruit runners from because of the coach, the training he makes them do, and the fact that the athletes burn out or get injured after a year or two of running in college.
What should I do? Should I wait until I get accepted into these schools or confirm that I'm attending school there?</p>
<p>When did you start emailing them? To be honest, they might just not be interested (especially if they are well-known and top programs). Have their been recent coaching changes? Do the websites look updated? Any other social media seem active? If your times are good enough, then that’s great, but if you just started emailing these coaches may have already figured out who they want to recruit and you might just be a bit too late to the game. I’m sorry</p>
<p>I started emailing around the end of July/ beginning of August. It doesn’t look like the coaches have changes recently and their social media is active. I didn’t try anything sooner because I was struggling with anemia most of my junior year, so I didn’t think anyone would want me because I was slow then. </p>
<p>Unless a specific coach has told you that he/she is not interested, keep at it. Most coaches have not solidified rosters yet and communication may be sparse if coaches are currently consumed with the current season. Also my experience was that coach communication was terrible at best. Only a handful ever “just called” and those weren’t ones my son wanted to talk to anyway.</p>
<p>At this time if your academic and athletic performance is in line with the other athletes at the schools you are interested in, put in your application and keep sending the coaches updates on your status, performance, etc. At worst, you will be out the time and money for the application. Since you haven’t heard anything, you want to keep your name in the mix in case other recruits that the coaches may be pursuing decide to go elsewhere. We saw that a lot, as you hopefully improve or catch the eye of a coach, another athlete may change their mind, and you may find yourself at the right place at the right time. </p>
<p>Persistence is good when it comes to recruiting. Our experience was very different than CardioParty, it is WAY too early to give up on anything. Track coaches will be recruiting for next Fall for quite some time. </p>
<p>I think trying to figure out why a coach didn’t return emails is like trying to figure out why a college didn’t accept you. There are so many possible reasons, not to mention no reason at all. </p>
<p>If you think a particular college is a good fit grades and times wise (and you want to be a student there), I would take a step beyond emailing the coach. Call the coach and schedule a meeting. </p>
<p>The funny thing is, I do believe that there is a generally accepted “coach speak,” but athletes only are recruited to college once. It makes it tough to understand what the coach means. Combine that with the fact that coaches are charged not only with having a winning team, but also with generally increasing a college’s application numbers. The result can be a glossy description by the coach of how wonderful the school is. Naturally, the athlete thinks the coach is encouraging him, and thus thinks he is being recruited.</p>
<p>Ask the direct question: Would you be interested in me as an athlete? The coach may reply “I have three girls faster than you that I am recruiting. If one doesn’t get in then yes.” Or the coach might say “you can try out if you get in,” which usually means that you are not being recruited. If you can’t make the visit, then at least try calling the coach.</p>
<p>Be just as aggressive with recruiting as you are with your running. You have a short window of time to get the coach’s attention. </p>
<p>I’ve told my son, if he doesn’t get a definite before ED is due, he has to apply ED where he wants to go, sports or not.</p>
<p>However, if he is VERY sure that playing sports is more important than attending a particular specific college, he should not apply ED until he has a verbal commitment from a coach. </p>
<p>There are plenty of kids recruited between now and January via D3. But if you think you want to go ED somewhere, and don’t have anything definite now, you have to decide. Operate under the assumption that you won’t get a verbal by November 1, and plan to do what you want - apply ED somewhere or not - by then. On October 31st, if you get a verbal offer, you can change your mind about applying ED elsewhere.</p>
<p>@rhandco I won’t be applying ED anywhere as I just want options.
Also, one of the coaches called me a couple days ago and we talked on the phone for like an hour. We seemed to hit it off since he wanted to talk to my coach and see if it was okay with him if he came to one of my meets. </p>
<p>Sounds great! I think D3 athletics don’t need ED, IMHO, unless there is some benefit such as being eligible for merit scholarships or so on.</p>
<p>@rhandco, really? I feel my kid has to apply early (D3) because of the coach’s tip. My understanding is that coaches all recruit in the ED round and even if she makes it in in RD, the team roster will be filled. Makes it so hard to compare packages this way.</p>
<p>acemom, that really depends on the school and sport.* My D did not do ED and is playing her sport, and would have been at her 2nd choice as well. She may not have been able to play at a NESCAC where they are much more competitive, but she did not feel her skills were up to that level either. (She was admitted to several NESCACs RD but had not been in contact with the coaches at those schools.) </p>
<p>*You are correct in that it may be easier to get accepted ED, but whether or not she can play if accepted RD will depend. We were sweating admissions results because she applied to many tough schools to get into, but she was not certain enough to apply ED anywhere.</p>
<p>@mamabear1234, that is exactly where my D is right now. She has a couple D3 schools she really likes and the coaches seem to like her but none that she is ready to say is “the one”. So she is likely to lose any advantage being on a coach’s list would give her. But these are not NESCAC schools and are not the most competitive in her sport. And she has a range of schools that are in her sweet spot academically. So in the end, we are relatively confident she will get into a school that is a good academic fit and be able to play her sport. </p>
<p>OTOH, her friends who are going D1 or NESCAC have committed. But that was not a good route for my D.</p>
<p>Are you registered in NAIA, etc?</p>
<p>Rh,</p>
<p>My experience has been that with D3 schools ED is part of the quid pro quo of coach support though admissions. The NESCAC is the perfect example with its tips and slots system. A coach doesn’t want to waste a tip/slot on a student if the kid is not willing to commit to attending the college through applying ED. Of course, this will vary depending on the school, where you are in the process, and the academic achievements of the student (i.e., if the student doesn’t “need” coach support with admissions). But, since a NESCAC coach can’t offer more than his or her admissions support, I wouldn’t call it “committing.” It is more like an act of faith.</p>
<p>There is a WIDE range of D3 schools out there. Many outside NESCAC are happy to take walk-ons. It really depends on what schools the student is interested in. My kid wasn’t sure and applied RD. She had great academics which is what got her in. She didn’t start as a freshman the first half of the season, but was by the second half. Not applying ED did not hurt her with the team. If she had decided to go to the NESCAC schools that admitted her, she may have tried to walk on.</p>
<p>With the very selective D3 schools,where it is a total crap shoot whether your child gets admitted or not ,going ED with the help of a coach is a great benefit. Granted that school needs to be your childs first choice but the percentages of the freshman class filled after ED is amazing. Many schools fill 40% of their class at that time
Below is a link with some great information,its put out yearly
<a href=“Early Admissions Statistics 2013 - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com”>Early Admissions Statistics 2013 - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com;
<p>sorry, forgot to add for the original poster, email the asst coaches
you might have better luck getting some additional responses</p>
<p>I agree that it depends on the school, and the weird thing is, my son has a recruit camp within a few days of ED and the coach is encouraging kids to attend so they are “in time to apply ED”. Five days to put together an ED application for that school. We did have his scores sent to them though.</p>
<p>Also agree about assistant coaches. No guarantee they will respond, but they might.</p>
<p>My son has gone to combination recruit/walk-on days for some schools in the summer. Also, there was a walk-on sophomore at a D1 school who scored a goal early in the season this year. A school that is academically challenging can lose freshmen who were admitted ED with the athletic bump, but they couldn’t maintain grades.</p>
<p>My comment was based on our experience, but it may just be that he isn’t a top choice so far so there is no push for ED. Which is okay for now, there are a lot of tournaments coming up for him in November and December and having extra time for essays and so on might be a good idea.</p>
<p>It’s a leverage game, some coaches want ED because it is binding and they know who they will have. The proportion noted by my son’s top D3 choice was something like 3 ED and 6 RD each year, with some leaving each year due to academics or other reasons. The coach even said that he doesn’t suggest applying ED to get a spot on his team unless the student is sure it is his first choice. Maybe that coach is an outlier. </p>
<p>It’s hard to judge if the soccer or the academics is more important to him. There are a few D1 schools that might not want him for their varsity team but they have a well-organized club team that plays at different colleges.</p>
<p>He’s so up in the air right now that maybe it is comforting he isn’t forced to choose yet.</p>
<p>PS - he has a friend recruited to D2 with a nice scholarship, and the kid has 20 minutes so far in 5 games. This kid played every minute of every game they played last year on the same club team. Even if you end up recruited, there may be a lot of sitting. One reason we are talking to him about club-level college soccer.</p>
<p>This is not a full list of colleges with club soccer:
<a href=“http://www.nirsa.org/wcm/_play_soccer/links/wcm/_Play/Soccer/links.aspx?hkey=42589de2-71c4-4d2b-b33f-0bd038986a66”>http://www.nirsa.org/wcm/_play_soccer/links/wcm/_Play/Soccer/links.aspx?hkey=42589de2-71c4-4d2b-b33f-0bd038986a66</a></p>
<p>best to check on your specific college.</p>
<p>Same thing for track, club track:
<a href=“Membership - NIRCA”>http://www.clubrunning.org/membership/</a></p>
<p>(for my son, we are trying to find schools that have both varsity and club levels, in case varsity is too much for him or he sits more than he would want to.)</p>
<p>RE: D III Walk-ons:</p>
<p>My niece just transferred from one DIII to another D III since the academic program she wanted to study in is stronger at the new school. She played 2 years of softball for the old school and walked on and is playing field hockey for the new school -she plays in every FH game an sees ample minutes of playing time. The new school is just thrilled to have her on the roster. </p>
<p>We also encouraged our son to look at club soccer teams at the schools he was interested in, but he was determined to play at a higher level. Club teams at many schools are extremely competitive, and often include players who could potentially play at a varsity level but choose not to for many reasons. Fortunately, he was picked up by his D2 dream school and is loving every minute of it. His particular school does not do much recruiting until after their season is over in December, for the next year, so it makes it hard to plan. My son did not do any ED’s because he was willing to take a chance on this school, but it was pretty risky. However, even after it finally all worked out for him, he still was given opportunities by several D3 schools to submit a late application and play soccer for those schools, so even if he had not been picked up by his current school, he could have potentially moved on to other programs.</p>
<p>As far as the OP’s original question, just keep sending out emails and the making follow-up calls. Be sure to include specific info in your emails regarding GPA’s, test scores and times. Cc all emails to both coaches and all assistant coaches, as often the coach designates an assistant to do the preliminary recruiting. Don’t be shy about following up with a phone call, and if they don’t answer, keep calling rather than leaving a message, or if you leave a message, give a specific time that you will call back. Some coaches get dozens of emails each week so make your message short and concise with all of the information you can pack in. Always try to include a picture of your self (face shot) so they can connect a name with a face. There will be coaches who will never call you back, but just be sure to be persitent and don’t give up. After a while, you will have refined your list down and can concentrate on those schools which you are most interested in, and where you have a shot at running.</p>
<p>One time my son emailed a coach about the possibility of an official visit. The coach obviously meant to forward the email to an assistant, but instead hit, “Reply.” The email read something like, “This student looks good - arrange a visit for him.” Awkward! We knew the assistant hadn’t GOTTEN the email, so I told my son he needed to contact the coach to tell him about his mistake. One of those things!</p>