@ThisNameNotTaken , I understood from your original post that you are looking in the Northeast. We are in Asia, so it’s all really far for us! But I would recommend in any event that you meet with the coaches whenever possible, even on the “yea or nay” round. That was something I learned on CC and it was really the best advice. Even though our S wasn’t pursuing recruitment - he had an injury junior year that affected his times - it was our experience that the coaches were universally happy to meet with us and spend time with our son. We found those encounters to be very helpful in capturing the real character of the schools, relative to the kind of packaged presentations by the Admissions department. At Denison, the coach took a lot of time with our son, invited him to watch the team practice and introduced him to a couple of team members. Those encounters were really an important deciding factor, and the impression we all formed on that visit has played out now that our son is there.
@tkoparent We may be taking your advice. I’m glad I started this thread sooner rather than later.
You can just view it as an opportunity to learn more about the school and program. But really, there’s not the bright line between that and ‘being recruited’ that I think you’re assuming. D3 track coaches at selective schools can’t build a team from supported recruits. So for them, recruiting involves also pitching the school and program to potential walk-ons who can get in on their own, getting them to apply, encouraging them to attend if admitted, and finally persuading them to join the team if they matriculate. I’d take advantage of the chance to get more info, but also approach it with an open mind. You really don’t know if your daughter will be in a position to be a supported recruit or a walk on at this point. But the approach right now is the same.
@politeperson (or anyone else): if you aren’t interested in being recruited, in the sense of trying to get slotted (if I have the terminology right), but are interested in finding out how you might fit on the team if you do attend that college, how do you go about making contact with a coach? Do you fill out the questionnaire behind the “recruit me” button? Send an email?
I’d fill out the questionnaire, then follow up with an email from your daughter to the coach. The email can be fairly casual. Do include times and grades/scores, but the main point is that she’s exploring schools and would love to learn more about the program. She can ask if there’s a good time to call or swing by for a visit. If you know you’re going to be on campus on a particular date, I’d let the coach know.
Some coaches use the questionnaire software quite a bit for tracking contacts, others ignore it. So I’d cover your bases either way.
@politeperson Maybe I’ll have her set up a profile on Recruit Spot (which all of the schools on her list seem to recommend) and see what electronic times she comes up with this year. Where we live hand timing is the norm, unfortunately. Thanks.
Back to the original qustion - Coaches may not be aware of hazing, particularly if it involves underage drinking. I know of several ivies/sescac schools where freshman are expected to host midweek parties in their dorm rooms. While they aren’t pressured explicitly to drink, there is certainly peer pressure plus the possibility of getting caught.
I don’t think the kids would call this “hazing” necessarily so it might not come up if you asked that question directly. I think you’d need to ask team members about social life as a freshman - or some other indirect type question - in order to get this type of information.
My guess is this is less of an issue with track. The team is so large and training groups so granular that I don’t see peer pressure/hazing being part of the experience because you just don’t have those relationships. Far more common in swimming or team sports like hockey or lax.
https://swimswam.com/ncaa-division-iii-ursinus-college-cancels-remainder-of-2019-20-swimming-season/
On a bit of a tangent… I can’t remember a year in recent history that at least one college swim team didn’t have its season canceled.
I have 2 daughters, both varsity distance at their schools. One is NEWMAC (DIII) and one is ACC (DI). I can’t speak for the sprinters , throwers or jumpers, but there is no hazing among any of the distance squads. There is definitely some drinking, maybe occasionally to excess, but the impact to athletic performance is so significant that partying is under control, never coerced, and in accordance with coach imposed dry periods (at least at the D1 school). I’d be surprised if NESCAC was different but team culture as experienced at official visits is a pretty good indicator. Both daughters took schools off of their lists based on what they saw/heard on the officials. So I would encourage the recruiting route if she wants to run in college. The D3 coaches know that $$ is an issue and some/many recruits won’t come for financial reasons.
Thanks again for all the responses. @jmk518 I have to confess I had to look up what schools are in the NEWMAC and I saw a few schools that may end up on Ds list.
@ThisNameNotTaken the Newmac is a decent New England based college sports league. Some pretty good teams in regards to T&F. MIT is very competitive. The Newmac teams often compete against teams from the Nescac. Tufts hosts a few meets a year where a lot of the teams compete against each other. There are also a few invite meets at BU where top performers from D3 can go and compete against some of the Ivy schools and other D1 and D2 regional schools.
Good luck, let us know how her season goes.
@RightCoaster I guess this is the year where she decides how seriously to pursue T&F. As is common with teens she’s started to fill out in the past year or so, so it will be interesting to see how that affects things. She’s solid and in really good shape, but whether that’s conducive to T&F remains to be seen. She had to drop XC (her choice), which she had done for years, because she just wasn’t competitive anymore (and has tons of homework) and got over it pretty quickly. I wouldn’t be shocked if the same thing happened with T&F, but who knows. Her team won the indoor state championship last year on about the most exciting finish you could imagine, and most of the kids are back, so if nothing else she should have a good time.
She has good grades at a tough school and is pretty well rounded so we aren’t worried about her getting into a decent college (so we aren’t pushing it one way or the other).
As we move farther along in the process I decided to revisit this thread. I want to thank everyone who contributed to it. She’s having a pretty good indoor season so far and has started talking more about continuing in college, which makes the advice and encouragement here that much more important.