Waiting for that surprise email or recruiting call will not happen for most athletes. My son never got any of those “out of the blue” recruiting calls, yet he ended up a very successful D1 Track/Field athlete at a school he loves. I am the parent that helped him through the recruiting process.
My son is still connected post eligibility with his sport/university as a volunteer coach in his TF event. I have shared a few times that recruiting for non-ivy’s runs a little later than other sports and have confirmed this from the other side now as well.
I had a recent lunch with my son and his former collegiate coach (who is now continuing to coach him for free, with access to trainers and facilities in return for him helping coach the team) and heard at length how difficult recruiting has been for this school. (The coach is much more open now that my son is not a scholarship athlete on his team). This university is what I would call a moderately successful D1 program, having sent 6 athletes to NCAA Outdoor nationals (combined M & W) but the team itself is not ranked. They have always placed one or two in their conference, but it is a smaller conference, not an ACC or SEC type powerhouse. Coach and minimal staff do not have time for recruiting and typically recruit kids they meet at events or who take the time to contact/email them personally.
The staff was “bummed” that they just had two recruits sign with bigger conference schools and now had a least 2 scholarships that would go potentially un-awarded for next year. They need athletes in certain events and had budgeted dollars to fill voids left from athletes graduating. They are now struggling to find athletes that they feel have potential. They shared that they traditionally look at athletes ranked ~ 25-100 nationally in their events (the top 25 in most events are taken already) wiling to come on a partial scholarship, but they just don’t have time to go through and learn about each possible student athlete. They complained that there is just no way of knowing who on the rankings list has solid grades, even wants to go to college, and a good work ethic, etc.
My point in sharing this, is not to recruit for this school, as I will not for confidentiality reasons, even in a PM, share who they are, but to call out that this cannot be an isolated case. Coaches do not have the time to fully explore all of the athletes that may in fact want to attend their school. So if your son/daughter is still looking for a good fit for next year, make sure they explore all options. Contact coaches that have their sport at a school that has their desired major. Consider completing applications for all schools on that list, you may find a good fit.
Do not wait for opportunities to come to your athlete. At this risk of sounding a little like a motivational speaker, “now is the time to reach out and pursue all options, you have nothing to lose”!
Yes, this is good advice. I know several excellent 2018 grads who did not sign their D1 LOI until after winter track season.
My son has verbally committed to a DIII school and we are awaiting an ED decision, but if it falls through we will be executing your suggested plan of action. We actually talked about this last night and made a list of schools he would contact next week if he is rejected/deferred in the ED round.
As a side note, most coaches in (all Divisions) that we talked with spoke of how they frequently had open slots left in the RD and they can offer help with admissions/scholarships still ( where applicable) . Even the Ivy coaches said they sometimes have room in the RD rounds.
Agree. My S’s HS GF got a track scholarship at a small DI. She was a good HS runner but not outstanding—think tops in the league but not competitive at the state level. Money was a big issue and she got some nice money running at this school. Especially for girls the schools need to pull them in to balance out their football programs. She made her decision in the spring when she could compare offers.
Agree, this is excellent and timely advice. Plenty of track athletes get good offers into the spring but they need to be proactive. I’m always amazed when I talk to good track athletes who haven’t sent out any emails, assuming all the coaches know about them. It’s too bad, but good news for the organized and proactive athletes…
I also wouldn’t hesitate to contact Ivy schools if interested. A few of those coaches likely lost recruits to other programs right before ED deadline and might not have used their slots (don’t get hopes up, but worth checking if interested).
For my daughter’s sport (not track), there are non-school affiliated websites that track which schools still have scholarships available for each entering class year. It might be something to do some research on with your child’s sport to see if that resource is available. I know it is helpful for my daughter’s teammates who haven’t already committed to a program to know which programs are still recruiting/still have money available.
Yes, that’d be a tough resource to put together for T&F.
One additional note for athletes still waiting: paying for a recruiting service to make a web page and blast out spam to coaches is neither necessary nor sufficient to find a good fit. You need to identify schools where you fit, fill out recruiting forms, and call or send personal emails to the coaches. I had a conversation last week with an athlete who (falsely) assumed that as long as he had a web page up on ncsa, coaches knew about him. It’d be great if things worked that way but they don’t.