My S25 is a sprinter and making great strides so far this season but still only at “walk on” times for alotnof the schools he would be interested in. Are coaches still interested in kids that don’t meet “recruit” times yet? Like would it be a waste for him to reach out to those coaches now knowing he’s not at their published standards?
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What else does he have to offer in the communication ? Having strong grades and all set with standardized test scores could be of value to open up discussion along with showing time improvement.
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Not a waste of time, no.
The worst that happens is he is ignored now, which doesn’t stop him from reaching out again as times improve.
More likely he gets a few responses encouraging him to keep trying to improve and to stay in touch with new marks.
Coaches know how much improvement can happen in a few months. It’s good to be on their radar even if they just say keep me posted.
I would take published recruiting times with a grain of salt. They don’t always represent what the actual recruiting class will look like. Some coaches have lofty aspirations, others don’t even know they have these marks on the website.
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Thanks so much! Hes got a 4.1 GPA, 5APs through junior year and a 1420 SAT. Hopefully that’s enough to get some notice.
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He should. He still has the bulk of the season ahead of him. If he is dropping times, coaches will keep an eye on him.
Regardless, it’s easier to walk on if there is an established relationship.
Can coaches still Influence admissions if a kid is just a walk on?
I’d include PR and grades, scores in the subject line, then just a brief email indicating interest in learning more about the program and the recruiting process.
Something like:
Subject: ‘25 10.94 100M, 1420 SAT, 4.1 GPA
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Agreed. Unless specifically told not to, email coaches and keep emailing them with updates. Sometimes coaches will ignore you early on, and then be interested all of a sudden. Or might specifically tell your runner that they’d love to have them if they get accepted, which makes him no different than a recruit at that point and is a very different experience than showing up in the fall hoping to join the team, even if able to.
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Yes at most schools.
If you’re talking schools with low admit rates though, Ivies and the like, usually support is limited to recruits and walk-ons get in on their own.
But really April of Junior year is way too early to know how that’ll shake out with a male sprinter. Improvement curve is very steep at that age for some.
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Just as an example, let’s say a program is looking for sub 10.90 recruits.
Those guys easily could be running 11.10 right now and the coaches know that and act accordingly. 11.70 is a different story.
At the end of the day it really comes down to what’s available to the coaches across all events. So 10.90 might be the standard but if a couple 10.80 guys are interested along with a bunch of good jumpers and distance runners, then the standard that year might actually be 10.80. But that probably means some other team didn’t get those 10.80 guys and has room for a 10.95.
It’s good to cast a wide net and keep options open.
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Can you share some of the schools he might be interested in? Depending on the list, I’d encourage trying to raise the test scores to strengthen the application/academic profile.
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He has a very small list. Cal Poly, Wash U St Louis, Brown and Fordham. So it won’t take up too much time trying to figure out if there’s a spot for him. He’s way more interested in academics than just any school he can run at.
He definitely needs to raise that score for Brown IMO. Brown is no test optional. I am guessing Brown is also the fastest of the group?
That score is also on the low side for Wash U. It’s TO but the rest of the academic stats will have to be very strong to make up for it in the pre read.
Side note: that list strikes me as odd. I don’t think of those schools having much in common. What made him put them on his list?
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Yes, that 1420 was one sitting without any prep. He qualified for National Merit Commended so he should be able to get a 1500.
He just took a look at the lower D1s/D3s and researched them and felt those 4 (fordham being the least attractive to him). He’d love to do engineering at cal poly or washu and he loved the whole culture of brown.
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I’d expand the list quite a bit.
I find it useful to look by conference. He can use the tfrrs performance lists:
https://tf.tfrrs.org/outdoor_lists.html
Coaches within a conference are typically recruiting from roughly the same caliber of athletes, because after all what they’re looking for are conference points.
So if Cornell would be interested, some of the other Ivies likely would be too. If WashU then other UAA schools, etc.
Pretty easy to look through conference lists and filter out schools where academics don’t fit.
If CP-SLO is of interest there are a bunch of schools in CA I’d be looking at-Santa Clara, HMC, etc.
Are finances an important part of this? Is need based or athletic aid important or not?
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Is this the student we are talking about?
SAT 1420 with math 690?
Agree with polite person and recommend expanding the list, including some less reachy schools. He would need full coach support at Wash U and Brown for a chance of admission. Agree he should use tfrrs website to help target schools that could make sense. For engineering he might consider taking AP Calc BC rather than AP Stats senior year.
Does he have one year of fine arts (same discipline) for Cal Poly? High School Course Requirements | Cal Poly
Some schools he might check out include Union, CWRU, Stevens, RPI, Clark.
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Yup same kid. Hes more concerned w fit of school and if he can also run there, thats great but not a requirement. Thats why he doesn’t have a huge list. We have looked at other schools in those conferences and nothing else felt right to him.
We are not looking for any kind of financial aid.
He does have the one year of fine arts requirement.
I missed the implication. He is taking fine arts instead of?
I was just making sure he has satisfied calpoly’s A-G requirements.
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