Hi, I am currently a junior and I polevault. My PR from my sophomore year was 10’6" (I definitely hope to jump higher) Currenrly I have a giant list of schools I am kind of interested in however I want to know the academic integrity of these schools as well. I’m hoping to go DII and I hope to major in Biology or something related to biological sciences. Are there any websites I could use to refine my school list, or any schools you know of with a good biology program and are DII in women’s track and field. Your help is much appreciated!!
By deciding on D2, you’ve already narrowed your list a lot. Do you have a certain region where you are looking? You could look at the conferences in those regions and see which schools fit your academic and athletic needs.
Some of it, I think, is just luck. A coach sees you and shows interest or you find a school and fill out a recruiting questionnaire and a match is made. You then see if the school is affordable (all the D2 schools in my daughter’s conference are private schools, and the COA varies, the scholarship amounts too) and if your stats are a match for the school too.
You may need to do some data crunching to get the info you want –You can get the full list of all schools in any NCAA division on Wikipedia. Trim the list down to only include the schools that have the academics and majors that you want, then take a look at the NCAA website (NCAA.com) and filter on sports/women’s track /field (outdoor), filter on the division to see if the school has a women’s team, or just go to the schools athletic website and see if there is a track team listed. Unfortunately I have never found a sortable list already compiled, so you may need to check each school individually to define the list of possibilities for you. It is time consuming but you only need to do it once.
Finally, do a little digging on the school athletic website and track & field rosters to find out which schools may want a vaulter. There are many track and field programs that have a women’s track team but don’t support vaulting, they don’t have the facilities or a vault coach. If you just want to continue to vault for your own enjoyment, many schools will take you on the roster, let you compete and get a few points for them, but may not have a good pole inventory, or equipment for you to practice on. You will have to decide what kind of experience you want in college and if continuing to improve is something you want to prioritize or if you just want to vault at a school occasionally that you attend for the academics.
Vaulters tend to gravitate to where there is a committed coach and teammates to work with. This event, like javelin, is one where some schools intentionally decide to not support because of its specialty nature. Schools that fund the event and have a dedicated vault coach will typically have 5+ vaulters on the roster, don’t rule them out though even if you don’t vault at the level of the team yet.
For schools that look interesting, fill out the recruiting questionnaire, but then also email the vault coach with your academics stats and your heights. Regardless of your level of performance, don’t expect coaches to contact you, most won’t, you will need to take the initiative. If possible, send them a video of one of your better vaults. Some coaches will be interested in you if they see potential, even if your heights aren’t where they would like them to be. Also share with them if you have a good coach now or if you are self-taught and how long you have been vaulting. Share if you have any gymnastics or diving background (these sports tend to give you a little boost on the learning curve if you take up vaulting). Pole vault is a pretty small world, many coaches know each other and if you have a high school or club coach that attends big events (e.g. Pole Vault Summit) they can make inquiries on your behalf.
Also don’t rule out other division schools. In collegiate track, most meets have all divisions of schools competing together. It is just that smaller schools typically fund less travel, and are less likely to have a vault coach. Regardless of the division of the school you attend, there will be more than enough meets for you to compete at.
“Regardless of the division of the school you attend, there will be more than enough meets for you to compete at.”
I agree, but there may, just may, be more money for a track scholarship at a D2 school. There isn’t a lot of money for track, but those D1 schools slice and dice it pretty thin. A D2 school might have a smaller team, and maybe a little more money available.
Just a thought.