D1 Cross Country -- sending initial emails to college coaches -- unique situation

Athletic Recruits
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<p>Thanks so much for all the great advice given on this forum. </p>

<p>I'd appreciate any feedback that I can pass along to my son.</p>

<p>Background:
My son is a HS sophomore XC and track athlete. As a freshman and sophomore, he has ranked in the top .5% of his grade level in our state (using Milesplit database) for cross country 5K and 3M events. He continues to say that he wants to run in college, hopefully D1. His high school has produced a fairly large number of D1, D3, and Ivy League athletes in cross country and track over the past 10+ years.</p>

<p>Next weekend he will be racing in the Foot Locker Regional Championship and is hoping to break into the 15s on his 5K. His 3M PR is very low 16s. He has received a number of emails, letters from local D3 coaches who saw him race in Championship events recently. While he is excited to be on the radar for local universities and colleges in our state, he says he wants to go out of state to a major (i.e., large, well-known) university...</p>

<p>My husband is an Active Duty Military Officer with 25+ years served. He has transferred his Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to our two sons. This means that each son has the equivalent of two years of college tuition funded through this program; the other 2+ years we would be paying for out of pocket. In the event that our older son would receive a significant scholarship (either athletic or academic/merit), it is possible for us to transfer older son's 2 years of educational benefit to our younger son.</p>

<p>Questions:
1. From reading this forum and researching online, I am very aware that only a small percentage of D1 athletes receive significant scholarship money. While it would be nice, my son is not really in need of athletic aid -- he just wants to run, race, train, etc. with the best program that fits him.</p>

<p>He is planning to send out a series of emails to his "top target colleges" next weekend, assuming he has a good race at Foot Locker. Do you think he should mention anything about him receiving an educational benefit given to him by his Dad (in other words, should he mention that he's not really looking for scholarship $$.....)? Or, should he just send out his athletic and academic stats? Academically, he is fairly strong (4.2 WGPA, Honors/AP courses, has not taken SAT/ACT yet). </p>

<ol>
<li> Do you think mid-sophomore year in high school is too soon for him to start sending emails? He is aware there are certain rules about when D1 and D2 coaches can start contacting him. He has a teammate who is a senior right now who is being highly recruited, so there's lots of talk about colleges/recruiting/OVs... His high school coach is very excited that he wants to continue running in college and has built many relationships with different programs, both within our state and out of state. Knowing this, I think he should just hold off before sending out emails and just wait until his junior year. He, however, is a teenager and (apparently) knows more than his mom. :)</li>
</ol>

<p>Any advice/suggestions....</p>

<p>Thank you!!</p>

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<p>It is fine to start looking. Nothing is final until he signs that NLI in the fall or spring of his senior year. Younger kids ‘commit’ all the time, but it doesn’t bind him. He can also make it clear that he’s just looking, just seeing what’s there.</p>

<p>He doesn’t need to mention the GI bill money. Lots of athletes have other sources of money -merit, grandparents, civic groups- but still want athletic money. A friend’s daughter has the same deal your sons do, 1/2 of money from both parents. She’s ‘saving’ that as her daughter got some athletic money for this first year, plus a merit scholarship. The mother wisely realizes her daughter might not stay at this school, or she might not want to play next year, so is saving the GI bill money for later years if needed.</p>

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<p>I have experience with a boy being recruited in a non-rev sport (swimming). I wish we would have told the out of state coaches that we were not looking for lots of athletic money right from the start (but not until after his junior year season in my opinion - lots of things change!). Now that early signing is over we see boys that have committed in state for teams that were recruiting my son - that are slower than my son. My guess is the coaches just assume that we couldn’t afford out of state tuition without a good scholarship - which wasn’t the case. Take a look at the roster of the schools that he is interested in and see how many on state guys are on it. This will tell you. Goodluck. </p>

4

<p>Thank you for the replies. Ahsmuch, that was exactly my thinking…that by telling the out of state colleges that he is not looking for athletic money, he would be “higher up on the radar” – if that makes sense. Several schools he is interested in have generous veterans/dependents benefits for which my son might qualify. I just didn’t know if sharing this information with college coaches would be beneficial or not. We have been checking the rosters to see how many in state vs. out of state athletes and comparing their high school PRs to my son’s.</p>

<p>Twoinanddone, you brought up a good point. He could save his 2 years of benefits for his junior/senior years or even graduate school. I think he has to use the benefit by 25 years of age (or something like that). I guess I’ve always had it in mind that he would use them the first two years of college.</p>

<p>For the time being, I am suggesting that he just keep his head down and continue working hard in practice and in school. The best way to entice coaches is to run fast consistently.</p>

<p>Another complicating factor is that we are not currently stationed in our “Home of Record” state. If he attends a university in the state where we are currently living, he would be considered “Out of State” but I believe there might be special provisions for an out of state tuition exemption if the Active Duty member is working in state. We still have a lot to figure out. </p>

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<p>Point out to your son, that the reason he has only from D111 schools to date, is not that there aren’t D1 & D11 schools that will love to have him, it is that it is too early for the coaches to have allowable contact.</p>

<p>While he can email the coaches of the schools he is interested in to get on their radar he will not get answers back until June 15th prior to junior year for D11 and I think it is now Sept 1st prior to junior year for D1. So there is no harm, but there is no significant benefit in starting in Sophomore year. </p>

6

<p>Coaches can’t initiate contact, but the athlete can. Right now, coaches are in the ‘dead period’ because of early signing (but that ends tonight). There is another dead period over Christmas break. There are all kinds of rules about head coaches initiating contact, but if the athlete calls and the coach happens to answer…it’s okay.</p>

<p>Often the coaches make contact through the club or high school coaches, so make sure your current coaches know that you are interested in certain schools. The club/hs coaches can also contract colleges on your behalf.</p>