<p>watsup ccers
i have a question about talking to college coaches for athletics...</p>
<p>i've been swimming on a ymca/club team since i was 12 (this is not high school swimming, although i do that too)
this year (senior year) my team fell apart and many people quit, including me...
and im not swimming on any club team this year (im only doing high school), im also self training</p>
<p>well...after a while of thinking, i decided that i'm probably not good enough now to swim in college, (i might just swim on the intramural team for fun)
so should i still call the coach of the university or anything? i don't even have times for this year, (only from high school swimming)</p>
<p>i know from my older friends that the ymca coach is usually the person to contact the coaches of universities for recruitment and such, but since i do not have a coach, what should i do?</p>
<p>I would swim if i was good enough for the team...</p>
<p>Also- i want to play water polo in college, (although i have no past experience), would talking to a college coach and telling him that i used to swim help at all?</p>
<p>sorry for so many questions...but any response would help, especially if you've seen this before</p>
<p>depends what colleges you are applying to and what division they are in. If you are applying to California schools, don't bother about talking to the coaches for water polo because Cali has the best water polo teams. You have to be good to actually get recruited or for the coach to vouch for you. As a water polo player myself, being a good swimmer does not mean you will be good at water polo. They are two totally different sports. BTW if you didn't know.. club teams don't have coaches, the players do their own thing</p>
<p>here's my list:
Duke (ED deferred)
Cornell
Brown
Northwestern
University of Virginia
UNC-Chapel Hill
Boston College
Penn State-University Park
U Maryland-College Park
U Pittsburgh</p>
<ul>
<li>no cali schools :)</li>
</ul>
<p>I'm most concerned about talking to coaches for Cornell, Brown, and Northwestern because I know that state schools have amazing athletic teams in any sport. Also, I would really need the advantage of a sport to get into Cornell, Brown, and Northwestern. </p>
<p>I didn't know that about the club teams thanks...but I would try to swim on the NCAA team if I was good enough
So do you think I should call these 3 schools? and how should I go about that? Should I just call admissions and ask them to speak with the swim coach?</p>
<p>Yea, i figured it would be hard to play water polo with no past experience...but if anything i would just play for the club...and i guess i don't contact any coaches for that</p>
<p>Chances are, if you're going to get money to play they would contact you. I'm semi in the same boat, not sure if I want to swim in college or not, not good enough for Texas to be throwing money at me. A lot of "more academic" schools that are D1, you can honestly just walk on. It's not going to be easy, but if you're good enough then you're good enough, they don't give enough out in sports for them to play a kid just because they put so much money into it. When I visited Brown, my tour guide was a starter on the basketball team and he walked in during his junior year.</p>
<p>D3 schools will usually give a bit of contact (but they can't do much legally) and you have to make the connection. But, you probably of plenty of those. Honestly, I can't see it helping you get in beyond the fact that dedication to something is always good to see. For me, and especially for swimming, I decided I wouldn't push anything. D3 and D1 aren't all that important in swimming. A record is a record, an Olympic cut in an Olympic cut.</p>
<p>you can call the coaches themselves, or maybe keep an email contact with them. Just tell them your times and what your best stroke is. Are you looking to get the coaches to actually "help" you get into college, or do you just want to swim for them. Like student92 said, you can just walk on. In general, just research how good the schools are in swimming and ask yourself if you really are good enough for team. If you think you are, then call the coach.</p>
<p>Go the the athletic programs area of the colleges' websites and look at the times the freshmen are swimming. If you want to go a little further in your research, look up some of those freshman by name (particularly those swimming your best events) on the USA Swimming database, and see what times they were swimming as high school juniors and seniors.</p>
<p>That will give you a pretty good sense of how the coach might look at you relative to other applicant/swimmers. My son also left his club team in his senior year of high school because it was falling apart, so I understand what you're dealing with.</p>
<p>After doing a lot of research, he decided on a good D3 team because he thought it would both challenge him but also that he could make a contribution there. But swimming was a big factor for him in finding the right school. If there was a school he was interested in academically but the team wasn't going to be a good fit for him, he didn't consider it any further -- for example, Stanford was too fast, Pomona was too slow. I don't get the sense that swimming all by itself is such a determining factor for you, and given the schools on your list you may be looking more at something like walk-on possiblities... which wouldn't be any help in getting accepted.</p>
<p>And Ruskie, our local water polo club teams just won state --both the boys and girls teams!-- and they most definitely have a coach. In fact I don't know of any water polo club teams first hand that don't have a coach. This is something that may vary by region, not sure.</p>
<p>My kid never was interested in water polo, although many of his swim buddies were/are polo players. He was (and is) just a dedicated swim guy.</p>
<p>^ really they have coaches? All my friends who play on club in colleges like UCLA, USC, Tufts... have no coaches. The seniors usually pick a captain and then he basically runs the thing. And my friend's club team at UCLA almost won nationals...</p>
<p>Maybe it's a difference between college and high school? The club teams here are high school aged students. That would make sense since they would still legally be minors, and college students would almost always not be.</p>
<p>oo lol you meant club teams on the highschoolish level. I meant college club teams. They could have coaches, but the players will have to pitch in a lot of money for that because the school doesn't pay for it.</p>
<p>i checked the times...and i'm really not that close. 100 fly i'm like 4-5 seconds from the slowest guys at brown, cornell, and northwestern. i go a 58 low (from last year)
200 im, i'm about 6-8 seconds slower
these are my best events...
should i even call the coach to tell him my times?
at this point i wouldn't really mind if i didn't make the team, but it might help me in admissions...</p>
<p>You're expected to drop time in college. There's no harm in calling, but I don't think'll it gain you a ridic amount of favor or earn you any cash.</p>
<p>on second thought, i think i'm not gonna call...
i checked usa swimming and i really think that my times just don't compare
thanks anyway guys
hopefully they just see the dedication that I put in the past years for swimming</p>