<p>Hi-</p>
<p>I haven't posted for awhile. My oldest happily completed her first year of college. I am thankful for all of the great advice I received from this site. I now have started anew with a high school freshman. He is a good student. As we discovered this year, he is a track star. Just won 4 gold metals in the all-county meet. This is amazing to all of us, because he has not shown any athletic ability in any sport until now. My question is, looking forward to college, what schools might offer scholarships? Any advice on this topic would be helpful.</p>
<p>Thanks!
Artspeak</p>
<p>artspeak- I don’t want to burst your bubble, and it’s great that your son is doing well in track. However, county competition is not a real indicator of an ability to compete at the college level. Your son will need to develop over the next couple of years and see what events he is most competitive in. He will need good coaching- perhaps by joining a club outside of his school that competes regionally and nationally. If your son does distance events he will also want to run cross country in the fall and indoor track in the winter. Injuries are a very real possibility for runners, so that will be a factor, too.</p>
<p>My son was a running recruit. He was not looking for scholarship money (very little of that for runners, especially if you are not a Kenyan) but wanted to run for the best academic school he could. To get a D1 scholarship, your son will have to be among the best in the country. D3 schools offer no money, and D2 requires a little less in terms of times.</p>
<p>If I were you I would not even think about college right now, but encourage your son’s running and see how it goes.</p>
<p>What about vaulting and hurdles? We always thought my DD would go to school and play soccer, but since she started HS this year she not only played Varsity Soccer as a GK (same as her club team), but became a Varsity hurtler and pole vaulter as well. We are thinking about putting club soccer on hold for a year to allow her to explore these other sports.</p>
<p>Thank You</p>
<p>My D is a junior and is in the midst of speaking/meeting with D1 college XC/track coaches (only the schools that she is interesting in attending). This is the first year she has ever run XC & track (she played basketball year-round for years) and has had much success. What we have learned is that you need to have very fast times to get scholarship money. Right now you should be concentrating on high school and get the best coaching you can get, if possible. He still has much developmental growth ahead of him. He needs to stay healthy and grow/develop in the sport. See where he’s at by the end of sophomore year. Is he a sprinter or a distance guy? If he’s distance, he should run XC in the fall.
Good luck!</p>
<p>He is a sprinter. 100m, 200m, 400m and 4x400m. Coach says he is the fastest freshman in 100m that he has had. He has done both winter and spring track. Got his varsity letter for winter track. He is working on his times and improving all the time. He is extremely passionate and his work ethic is amazing, hopeful he will grow and improve in the next 2 years. We are probably going to have him do speed training with another coach or group.</p>
<p>I am the only one thinking about college right now, 4 years seems to fly by!</p>
<p>artspeak, no it is not too early to “think” about college but it is too early to determine where your son may be eligible to run. Like momofwildchild said, it is not a big deal to be the best in your area. Example, my daughter was the star player and county player of the year and first team all CIF etc… tons of local accolades. She was the huge fish in a small pond… She is playing collegiately and is receiving some money but she is at the NAIA D1 level and struggling to get minutes as a freshman. She is now one of MANY standout athletes. It is a HUGE jump to collegiate sports. I don’t think many people realize just how much. My other kid is a D1 athlete on a full ride and he was competing at a national level in his sport by sophomore year of high school… For him local competition was nothing, it did him no good to compete against the county players, he had to do extensive travel to compete and grow his game at a national level. So its great that your son is doing well, but don’t get too wrapped up in the excitement of it all and keep a realistic view of what is ahead.</p>
<p>As editor said, track scholarship money is hard to come by. Fully funded men’s D1 track teams are allowed 12.6 scholarships to cover the whole roster - track and xc. That’s for freshman through seniors, so generally 3 or 4 scholarships are available each year. These are usually divvied up into partials, anything from books to total cost of attendance.</p>
<p>D is a D1 track athlete, was top 30 nationally in her event in HS, even with that there was more money available for her academics than athletics. So Artspeak and LadyDiian, encourage your kids, enjoy the experience, but don’t expect a big pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (unless they win NewBalance or JR Olympic Nat’ls as a sophomore).</p>
<p>Great reply from Varska. As a D1 coach just told my D and a group of recruits this past week, “You’re the mack daddy on your team now, but once you run in college, that all changes.”</p>
<p>Thanks, all good info. We’ll see what happens in the next couple of years!!</p>