If his times are reasonably close I’d contact those D1 schools to be on their radar, and always include them on any updates on meets a times drops. It will be a lot easier to get their attention
If interested in a high academic D3, I highly recommend taking the SAT early this fall. The fact that coaches new that hurdle had already been successfully crossed definitely helped get some conversions going.
He is not going to be high academic unless he can get his grades up. He should be straight As and hopefully will be this year but didn’t put much effort in for 9th and 10th grade. He’s already taken the SAT once as a sophomore (1300, no prep) but he should take it at least a few more times for recruiting purposes (as you suggested) and to offset the mediocre GPA. I’ll see what he’s feeling on the D1 schools, I don’t want coaches to write him off out of hand because he’s not quite there yet.
The summer prior to Junior year is a good time to start reaching out. Fill out the online forms, and follow up right away with emails to the coaches. Email should include events and PR, test scores or dates of upcoming tests, and weighted/unweighted GPA. The subject line should include class, event and PR (eg., '25 4:18 1600). Include the head coach, event coach and recruiting coordinator on all emails until someone explicitly takes the lead on recruiting. Include an action item, e.g., ask what they are looking for in terms of grades and performances for their recruits. Then follow up over the track season to let them know about PRs or the meets his team is focusing on. The coaches expect improvement during Junior year, so they will not write your son off based upon Sophomore year times. Many coaches will be reading much more than they respond, and some will not respond until he reaches their recruiting standards. Some coaches recruit more than others, so try to not let volume of contact be a stand in for interest.
A full 75% of the programs my son was in contact with in junior year of HS had either the head coach or the assistant coach who took the lead in recruiting (or both) leave within 4 years. I don’t think this is at all out of the ordinary. That’s why it’s important to select for the school, the program, and then the coach, in that order.
Yes, agree 100%. That was our experience as well.
Good advice from @LurkerJoe above.
I’d just add that if you have a bit of video, that might be helpful to share with coaches for a young sprinter who isn’t yet fully developed physically. I definitely agree with the above that coaches won’t write off a sophomore; they know how puberty works with boys. But if you do have video that might help drive home the point that this is a fast kid in a kid’s body, not yet an adult body. Even a link to video on athletic.net or milesplit is fine.
Thanks Joe and PP. I guess maybe we’ll test the waters with some lower ranked D1s and see where it goes. This year should be so exciting for him. He’s also a state level swimmer and getting stronger by the day.
Based on being a great student and a very good athlete, as others have mentioned, I would also reach out to the Ivy’s or at least HYPs and see what type of response you get. It may tell you a lot for where would stand at least right now on recruiting for D1 and top academics.
I understand that cost is an issue which I can appreciate as it was a factor in our college decisions, though the Ivy’s do provide need based aid/scholarship.
Also, for what it is worth, for T&F recruiting, the action started picking up into their Jr. Yr. and summer before Sr. year, so a lot can still develop.
@murray93 I recommend that you create a separate thread to discuss your athlete’s journey, since the original poster’s athlete has a very different profile from your athlete. It will help you get more relevant advice from the amazing folks on this board, and will help other folks that have athletes fitting your son’s profile more easily find relevant information. Junior year presents an amazing opportunity for both academic improvement and athletic improvement, so enjoy the ride!
So we met with a college counselor who specializes in athletic recruits b/c I know that to preserve my relationship w/ my daughter and my sanity, someone besides me will have to run this process. Aside from the crazy price (and I can’t believe I’m actually considering it), the woman, who hasn’t had a T&F athlete but has had many other sports (half of her clients are high ranked swimmers) seemed to give me conflicting info… like, she said that she looked up my kid and she’s not even qualified for the higher ranked D3s…but I’m like, Um, I can see every time and score for the teams and my kid most def is Ivy/mid D1 times for her events. So while I think this woman might be great in helping to manage the process, I’m concerned she doesn’t have a clue about T&F. Assuming my kid gets coaches to respond, does this matter? Once the coach responds, the process is essentially the same for most sports, yes?
Does anyone know of a counselor who specialized in T&F kids?
You do not need a counselor to manage the process. Your D can send emails to coaches (head coach, event coach, and recruiting coordinator) and follow up, it’s not rocket science, nor all that time consuming. She does need to stay on top of the communication flow and follow up on things.
Would she meet with you once per week for 30 mins or so as a checkpoint for where she is with each school/coach on her list? She could also start a thread here separate from yours.
Are you using this site https://www.tfrrs.org/ to find athletic matches?
I sent a PM with a link to a recruiting consultant that has alot of good info posted for free. Read the blog on that site.
I completely agree with @Mwfan1921 that you do not need to pay for a consultant. Use tfrrs to identify some conferences of interest, and have your daughter reach out to the coaches herself.
If she is fast enough, has the academics, and you need financial aid, Ivy League is definitely a good place to look.
That counselor has already shown you she doesn’t know what she’s doing. I would not use a counselor!! I would buy THE ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP PLAYBOOK for $15 on Amazon and follow its clearly laid out and simple steps.
I agree that a counselor is NOT required for a T&F athlete. One suggestion to manage the process is to create a new email account (gmail is great) just for communications with coaches (something like janedoe2025@xxx). Both your daughter and you should have access to the account. Having those communications in one account, without any other clutter, saved us a ton of time.
Using folders to sort the emails within the account is a good idea, too.
this! We set it up so any messages would also be forwarded to my personal email, that way I could alert him if anything came in.
Yep, same here. My 2024 runner just committed and we did not use a consultant. Separate Gmail account that I could access as well - I did need to nudge her occasionally to respond (teenager time and real world time aren’t always the same). it was really straightforward. Track lends itself to not needing a third party to be involved.
I agree with all the posters saying you don’t need a counselor for Track recruiting.
All sports are not the same and Track is about as simple as it gets. Contact coaches with times and stats, stay organized as others have suggested, and the process is fairly simple.
I wouldn’t do it. The payment of money to a recruiting counselor will not fix the sanity issues. This is an insane process no matter who is driving the bus. My recommendation is that you retain what little is left of your sanity and NOT pay any price. The money could be better spent on any number of other things - like more running shoes or a shrink.
Ask yourself what is that recruiting counselor going to do for you. He/she is not going to write the emails for your daughter. He/she definitely is not going to meet with coaches or go on OVs for your daughter. Probably he/she will do what most college counselors do and that is to recommend that you lower your expectations (lower level schools) so that you can be a success story for the recruiter. I mean, you haven’t even retained this counselor yet and you are questioning his/her judgment.
Don’t worry about the school list. Do you know any kid who didn’t change majors? Most schools have English, coding and linguistics classes. And, there is no such thing as “pre-law,” you just graduate, take LSATs and go to law school. Probably the best major for law school is engineering, because engineers are so dang disciplined.
There is no magic in recruiting, only hard work. Reach out to coaches – as many as you possibly can. Draft up an outline of an email with the critical stats (GPA, ACT, times, results). Then add a personal touch directed to each school (e.g., I am very familiar with Brown because my uncle is an alum). See what kind of traction you get. I’ll bet you will do very well on your own.
@GimmeSomeCoffee if your daughter is for sure in Ivy range already, so low 14 or better 100 hurdler, I think your search is going to be pretty straightforward.
I don’t know how a counselor would conclude D3s aren’t in range but I think that’s an indication that this person could hurt more than help.
Assuming your daughter is motivated to run in college, I think there are ways for you to help her without much conflict. She will need you for the important stuff anyway, such as figuring out what schools you can afford.
I’d suggest discussing it with her and see if she’d be okay with you helping (not directing) identify schools, suggesting how she might approach the process, and acting as her assistant where she wants or needs help.
If her/your goal is an academically strong school with a good fit for athletics I think you’ll find it easier than you think to identify obvious candidates. Then it can snowball gradually from there.
If the Ivy League is appealing and the NPCs make it seem affordable for you, I’d start reaching out to coaches. Just start. You don’t need a comprehensive list before reaching out.
Then you can help her add to her list as she starts the reach out. Maybe you have her look at Duke and a few others one week, then some Patriot league schools another. Just keep adding layers and pretty soon it’ll be clear what she likes and doesn’t, where she might fit and where she won’t. Pretty soon she’ll be able to exclude options as not a good academic, geographic, weather, social fit.
Obviously, your in state schools should be on the list if they’d fit.
@GimmeSomeCoffee
As someone that went thru the recruiting process for T&F without any help from College Confidential at that time, I agree 100% that you do not need a college recruiting counselor.
And as others have pointed out, this counselor does not seem to know much about T&F recruiting and I would question if they know much about recruiting at all based on their response.
Despite what some may say, we did not find college recruiting all that confusing or complicated. T&F may be a little easier in that it is not as subjective as some sports where the coaches really need to see you in action to gage your athleticism and fit.
From our perspective, selecting the right and best fit, including the cost and value (i.e. is it worth the high price vs. a more economical school) is was what took the most time, and was the most important to us. We factored in the school fit first, without the athletics.
For one of our kids we did use a college counselor to help our D get a little more focused and found it very beneficial, but that was more for helping to focus and narrow down the colleges that would be a fit with the counselor providing good input comparing the specific schools. You could still do that and just take control of the recruiting process yourselves and keep the counselor abreast if need be. I would not involve them in recruiting, particularly for T&F.
The approach that @politeperson called out is what I would use.
For now, you could have your D reach out to a few Ivy (HYP?), perhaps a Duke, a few Patriot League or similar schools if they look like they could be of interest and see what type of response you get back. You could also reach out to a couple of D1 State Univ if those were of interest and a fit. I would start with a somewhat smaller and targeted list and see what you get for response.
Good luck!