Hi again everyone, again first off congrats to everyone who ran this past weekend as some stellar times were run thorough the state. With two big weekends coming up at FLrunners and Pre-State I look forward to the whole state competing together and hopefully whoever hasn’t yet, can run the time they hoped for these next few weekends. Today I wanted to target the “younger” runners and talk about my experiences so far (as they are far from over) with the recruiting process. Here’s a list of important things in no order or just general advice I'm either glad/wish I did.
Contact the coaches early- If you’re a runner in high school, whether you’re a freshman or senior my advice is to email, email, and email again, and when you can call. Let that coach from whatever school you’re looking at know you exist. Coaches like athletes that aren’t shy to ask for what they want.
Web/Media exposure- By this I mean build your profile on flrunners or other running websites that can help people come across your name more often, not necessarily those “getrecruited.com” things, but really just anything that can help get your name out there. Hey maybe even write a blog. Something else you can do after having a good race or running a good time is contacting a newspaper, or local station. Who knows they may want to write an article about you.
Know the dates- As your seasons go by and you’re closer to your senior year do some research and digging to find out when application deadlines are as well as testing dates.
Junior year- DO YOUR TESTING I BEG YOU. This is something that a lot of my friends did not do and are suffering from it this year! Big meets tend to fall on SAT/ACT dates limiting your chances to take them your senior year. Another thing about junior year that I experienced/saw is how important it is for recruiting. Schools like to see athletes having very productive junior years as that’s mainly when the real recruiting starts.
Don’t let your studies suffer- As cliché as this sounds it is so very true. Any college, especially highly selective colleges want studentttttttt- athletes. Even though some of you may not feel that way and given I don’t know every school but every place I've heard of or talked too valued the student aspect just as much as the athletic side. That being said progress is a good thing, something I tried to do is improve my academic schedule a little bit every year by taking increasingly challenging courses and succeeding.
Go to summer camp(s) over summer- Summer camp is not only a time for you to get better but to meet people/coaches. Often a college coach is there and camp councilors are college runners. The information you can get from them not only from specific colleges but also about being a college runner in general. This is something that is hard to get anywhere else.
Narrow your focus- Definitely as you’re getting older start thinking about not specifically what college you want to go to, but rather what kind of college you want to go to.
Choosing your meets- Depending on your skill level and school pick meets that are appropriate for you, as well as mixing in “high profile” meets with a lot of the top dogs. In my experience it is more fulfilling to run a good time and PR and not win than run a trashy time and get a easy win.
NCAA eligibility- Every athlete being recruited needs to at some point get a NCAA clearing house eligibility number. By getting this done earlier rather than later it shows schools you are being proactive and taking this process seriously.
I’m sure there’s a lot I'm missing but I hope that with this I could help at least a few overwhelmed people. Sorry for the long post but if anyone disagrees/anything they would like/any questions to add I would love for you to comment below.
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