XC and Track and Field in Boarding School Admissions

Hi everyone! As we continue to go down this path and are looking at the really, really low admissions numbers (even at so-called “hidden gems” schools - the admission rates can be lower than 50% or lower than 30%), I am trying to figure out if prowess in a non-marquee sport like XC or T/F is any kind of boost in admissions. Do schools recruit or can coaches support an athlete for admission in these sports? @Calliemomofgirls - any insight for me??

As an example, looking at both recent results (outdoor track from last year and indoor from this year for those schools that participate) and overall school records lists (from athletic.net), our daughter would be on the top 20 school record list for many boarding schools (even in the top 10 at some) with her results from last spring as a 6th grader. She did not have formal practices or training as our area was completely shut down during the pandemic for the entire 2020-2021 school year. However, in the spring, they did allow for some T/F meets to be held (not at her school, but for JO/AAU). Using those results, we can see that she would have fared quite well at most schools on her potential list, but does that even matter? For a sport like XC/Track, should she bother contacting a coach or does it not matter unless you are involved in something like football/basketball/soccer?

Right now, at her new school, they are doing Track, but will only have one meet due again to pandemic regulations. She has a chance to improve her time, but the way the team is run here, everyone just does the same training and then you choose your events for the meet. So she is doing sprinting, throwing, jumping training even though she is a distance runner and it isn’t clear she will actually improve. If she does, great. If not, would it make sense to just send a coach her “best” time even though it might be from when she was 10-11 years old?

Thanks for any advice!

As I’ve said before, it depends on the school, it depends on the coach at the school. But yes. Kids absolutely get admissions boosts for XC and track. We know several very obvious recruits in those sports at top schools. It’s actually one of the easier recruitable sports imo because it’s very clear cut. Times are times. Admissions can even figure that out themselves without a coach. Vs say team sports where a coach does need to say that a kid would make an impact.

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Definitely if the numbers are varsity level, I would provide even if it was in the past. I had a similar dilemma with a different sport and when my ds emailed the coach. He explained the scenario. He reached out to a few coaches I believe and 1/2 got back to him. It can’t hurt.

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@RoonilWazlib99
Thanks for paging me! I wish I could be more help here, but athletic recruiting is not something I’ve had any experience with. That said, I feel confident that being strong in a sport can only help an applicant’s profile so I would absolutely reach out to the coaches. One other piece of advice is to make sure the school you apply to have a very robust program if the sport is important to you. Our one disappointment in the school my daughters ended up choosing is that the JV team seems to ebb and flow depending on the student body skillset, so the result was she did not get to compete in her sport freshman year. This would not have been the case in some of the other schools we considered, and we didn’t even think to ask about it.

Yes, reach out. You may or may not get an admissions boost from the coach but the odds are in your favor.

Barring that, you will almost certainly get a plus from admissions for fully exploring how to engage with the community.

And worst case, it doesn’t help your odds but ensures that wherever you end up, the program is one that can help your child succeed in sometimes that is important to them.

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As others have said depends a lot of the school. Coaches that have been at the school for a longer time and have successful programs are likely to have more influence (if any) in admissions. However some schools / coaches are just not responsive at all even though your daughter might be a star there. Try not to take it personally. SPS and Exeter tend to have strong girls XC.