<p>Parent of a freshman boy who has aspirations of running cc and track at a D1. Likely has the talent, athleticism, and determination. In brief, he's running faster as a freshman (on the same courses) as the Juniors and Seniors who won and placed high at State this year did when they were freshman. He was first team all-conference this year and the weekend before the conference meet he ran the 1600 in 4:42 (just to see where he was). He ran the 1600 in 8th grade track in the spring in 5:02. </p>
<p>Assuming he hasn't peaked and continues to improve and eventually wins conference, sectionals, places high or wins State, I have a question for those who have gone through this. </p>
<p>Can you briefly (or not so briefly if you want) outline the recruiting timeline your son (i'm sure it's a little different for girls - don't they peak by 10th grade usually?) experienced? I know D1 can't call etc before July 1 before Senior year but they can contact you through your HS coach, notes, brochures, etc. Also, did he receive a lot of information and calls from D3 coaches before the D1 stuff came rolling in? I know the process is quite different than football, basketball, etc. It also seems hard to find information on individual runners until they roster in college. In other words, if you Google your top senior football/basketball players in the area you can find a list of the schools interested in them. But I've never been able to find that for CC / Track guys.</p>
<p>Also, can you give any advice on how to contact coaches/if you should contact coaches/what camps should he attend/etc. ANYTHING would be so appreciated! I want to be as informed as possible when/if it starts.</p>
<p>Hi confusion,
It’s wayyyy too earlier to worry about college recruiting.
His 4:42 is pretty fast, and would be a DIII recruitable time, which you may already know.
He looks promising, but must stay healthy and not burn out. This is harder than it sounds.
Be careful about extending the post-season track and XC schedule too far. Let him have lots of rest and recovery time. His key season will be junior year, so let him develop slowly over the next year and half.<br>
If you think your high school coach is not over-working him, then you’re all set. If there is a running club in your town that has a reputation for NOT pushing kids too hard, but helping them keep base mileage in a fun atmosphere, and learn to do pool and core work, that would be great.
Keep in touch!</p>
<p>RIVER - Thanks so much! I agree it’s way too early to worry…and I’m not worried. I’m just excited I guess. I just want to be as prepared as possible and have as much information as possible going into the next 2-3 years. Since the season ended he’s cut back his miles a lot but is doing two fall races in November. After that, for a few months he’ll do very little running (a speed camp once a week), but he’ll probably do some, he’ll lift a lot and is doing a prospect camp in baseball one day a week for the whole winter. I’m sure his track coach will contact him with what he wants him to do to get ready for track. After the track season, his concentration will be solely baseball for 2 months. Then probably run a lot of miles at the end of the baseball season and all the way up through cross country. Maybe that is too much? Thoughts?</p>
<p>Kids are so different in how they respond to training. Especially when he’s doing two very different sports! If his real love is running, he will probably end up leaving baseball to focus on it, but most kids who also do team sports have a hard time walking away from them. Don’t be surprised if his track/XC coach starts hinting about stopping baseball to focus on running year-round. This may be a difficult decision but something you should start anticipating.</p>
<p>I don’t know what schools your son would like to go to, but the most important piece of all of this is the academics. He can’t be recruited if he can’t be admitted. A fairly rigorous schedule and good grades will keep doors open. Many things can happen to derail this train, and I know you aren’t naive about them: injury, loss of interest in competing, or stalling out on athletic improvement are all real possibilities. </p>
<p>If you need someone to explain the importance of academics to your son, try and find a current college athlete or coach to take out for coffee. Also, men’s track scholarships are rarely (if ever) “full-ride” so some combination of that plus academic merit can really keep all possibilities open.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’re starting too early with your as long as you don’t let it turn into an obsession or put pressure on your kid. There is a lot of research to do on the various schools and the type of experience your child might have there, and I can attest to the fact that you can NOT depend on your h s coach to know the ropes. We’re lucky in that ours at least wants to be involved as some also lack the desire or the time.</p>
<p>I also second the idea of looking into a club. Our son found and joined an elite club team in the nick of time as a rising junior. The head coach really knocked herself out and pulled strings to get him into qualifying meets that were technically closed and the next thing we knew he was swimming at his first national event, one we didn’t even know existed four months ago.</p>
<p>Others on the board can speak to this better than I can, but unless your child is truly a superstar the D1 materials probably won’t roll in on their own. You and your child will want to do a lot of outreach when the time comes. As a practical matter it is a lot of work for the coaches to find the talent, find out how to contact them, and then maybe find out they are not interested. Far easier to let the talent seek them out. (The older swimmers on our club team however are receiving anough materials from D3 teams to wallpaper their bedrooms )</p>
<p>Thanks for all the information. Certainly the nice thing about cc is that all the times of all the races are posted and ranked by grade, race, etc. I think that gives you such a great sense of where a runner stands against his/her competition (especially at the exact same race or even same course). I’m still learning so much about the sport as neither my wife nor I did cc or track. I was baseball in HS and college and she was basketball and vb in HS. Son did very well in middle school track and cc and now loves it and the group in HS. The coach seems like a very nice guy and committed to the team. I’m not sure he’s and elite coach and can get anyone great. I hope I’m wrong, but maybe I’ll look into a running club. He’s going to do at least one camp this summer and a major cc school (here in our backyard). I think before we send his registration we’re going to email the coach and give him some highlights from freshman year. Think that’s a good idea? From what I’ve learned it’s a good idea (to contact coaches and promote yourself) but it kind of is the complete opposite of my personality. I’m kind of the guy who says just do your best and if you’re good enough, they’ll find you. Back to his duel sports - Yes, he’s going to do baseball and we think he has the time to train for all three sports. He just gave up his winter sport (that he’s been doing since he was 4), and he would have been an all-conference player in that by junior year (if not sophomore year) - and it KILLS me that he’s not going to be doing that anymore. But it’s not his true love and probably takes more time outside the season than any of the others…so I understand.</p>
<p>A solid and healthy cross country season is established on the mileage gradually built up during the summer months. I’m unsure of when your son would be planning on playing baseball (mid June to mid August?), but would like to warn you about having him try to squeeze in all his xc training in the 2 or 3 weeks in August before high school practice begins. That’s a recipe for injury, especially since the running done in baseball is the explosive sprinting variety.</p>
<p>On the other hand, you don’t want to have your kid burn out by doing the same sport year-round, especially as a freshman. Our kids always mixed up their sports during the year and were still (or perhaps because of that) highly recruited.</p>
<p>I wish I had a crystal ball! I bet everyone here said that at one point - maybe daily. I don’t think he would ever give up baseball OR running. If it means he can’t reach the upper upper levels, I think he would live with that. Espeically since he just gave up a sport he’s been doing since he was literally 4 years old.</p>
<p>post season races are officially over (he scaled back his running a lot after state and didn’t do quite as well in post season races as i know he could have done - no biggie - he’s a freshman). </p>
<p>So, asking those with far more experience and knowledge than we have, what’s a good amount of time to “shut it down?” He’ll continues to lift almost daily, does speed camp one day a week - he’s hits two nights a week with his summer baseball team. So as far as not running at all, or running very low miles? How long or when should he start running milage to get ready for track? Track starts on March 5.</p>
<p>I was thinking start back up on Feb 1? Gives him about 6-7 weeks before the first meet.</p>
<p>A week and a half of no running at all is a typical break between seasons. More than that and he will lose some fitness; less and there’s not enough time for the body to recover. Your case is different as it seems your son will not be participating in winter track, and he is currently cross-training for a different sport. Seek out some advice from his track coach or a good trainer.</p>
<p>CCC, allow me to throw a couple of thoughts in here. As I’ve established ad nauseum here, my son’s (and mine) first love is baseball, but his first sport in HS was cross-country. The two sports dovetail nicely (especially if he’s a pitcher, as running is a big part of their conditioning process, if for no reason other than that it saves their arms), but of course conflict in the Spring if he’s being pressured to run track. </p>
<p>As for academics, at many schools, like ours, the XC runners prided themselves on having the highest GPA of any sport. In fact they had a study hall for 45 minutes presided over by the senior captain before practice each day. HS is full of bad distractions and temptations; don’t underestimate the value of placing your kid in a culture that both enhances the ‘cool factor’ of good grades… and wears kids out too much to party or play video games. (My nephew was a rower and I think this fatigue factor is what got him Stanford-admittable grades.) They made the point that the structure of the team in fact made it easier for kids to get their studying done than if they weren’t working out two hours per day, and I have to agree, as counterintuitive as it sounds.</p>
<p>A good start for kids early in high school is a web site called ‘recruitingrealities.com’. They make their money not from blowing smoke at kids whom they charge to manage their recruiting, but rather from making presentations to high school assemblies about the process. But their web site has a bunch of videos and articles that give a good perspective.</p>
<p>There’s lots of good advice in this forum. I wish I’d found it a lot earlier. Good luck.</p>
<p>Wow! Only ten days off…that’s surprising…but THANK YOU for letting me know that! Like I said, I would have thought it was WEEKS!</p>
<p>Thanks for the information on recruitingrealities.com. I watched some of the videos (others wouldn’t load). Do you think his book is worth buying? I’m guessing yes.</p>
<p>CCCo, I haven’t reviewed the book, but it looks like a lot of it duplicates the free 24-page downloadable pdf-format “Guide to the College Bound Student Athlete” available at NCAA.org. Here’s the link directly to it:</p>
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