@spachen first let me qualify. There are several sports that are “easier” to walk on. My son participates in one of those sports. The three that come to mind are Cross Country, Track, Swimming and there may be others. He simply had his high school coach contact the Amherst coach with his performance history. Times and distances in those sports are reproducible. So if you high jump x meters and that is as good as the current team members you are in. There are numerous examples of students on campus deciding to try one of those sports 2 or 3 years into Amherst. One of his teammates came out his senior year but he had times that were good enough. The coaches in all sports have limited recruiting at LACs so they listen to high school coaches if your child is interested the first thing is have there high school coach contact the Amherst coach on his or her behalf.
@spachen "There are numerous examples of students on campus deciding to try one of those sports 2 or 3 years into Amherst. One of his teammates came out his senior year but he had times that were good enough. The coaches in all sports have limited recruiting at LACs so they listen to high school coaches if your child is interested the first thing is have there high school coach contact the Amherst coach on his or her behalf.’
I’m sorry but this statement is very inaccurate for most sports. Football, track and a couple other less main stream sports are recruited through high schools but not most other sports. NESCAC coaches are out there recruiting and doing so from tournament teams. They don’t even look at high school teams or talk to high school coaches. They are going to tournaments and talking to those coaches. And walking on to those teams is rare. The NESCAC is one of the stronger D3 leagues out there.