Parents Corner - The First Steps

VOLUME TWO

Written by Ryan

Ryan’s daughter is a XC/T&F distance runner going into her senior year. Her top six college choices are four Power 5 DI schools, a top 50 DI XC program, and a top 5 DIII program.

When we first began to consider the timing on when to start the activity around XC/T&F recruitment, we really had no idea if we were too early or too late. We started the process at the beginning of her junior year and learned it was a perfect time to be reaching out to coaches to begin introductions and dialogue. There are so many resource options out there that offer assistance and guidance to help you, from various websites offering recruitment help, to consultants, to massive database companies that offer education, video training and other software tools. But what I would share with you today, is that the first step is something you can do on your own.

First, look at the schools your teenager wants to consider attending and compare their athletic performance to the Freshman class at those schools. If your child has similar or better high school performance numbers, reach out to the event coach at that school. When we sent emails to Head Coaches, we got very little response, so send your email to the relevant event coach. Most coaches have their email listed on the coach profile page, and if not, search on the athletic staff directory or call the school directly. Coaches want to be reached out to so their email can be easily found.

Second, write an introduction email and begin sending that out to coaches. I will offer more insight on INTRODUCTION EMAILS next week as there are some things we would have definitely changed if we had known better. We are currently heavily focused on receiving official visit invites from coaches and confirming those visits. Depending on the level of recruitment, interaction with and communication with the coach, this can be very easy or extremely frustrating. It is even made more complicated when the coach that was recruiting in the Spring has left the school before the Fall. This has happened to us at five different schools my daughter was talking to, so this is a real issue to have to manage. I will talk about managing COACH TURNOVER next week.

Right now, we have three confirmed visits, two DI official visits and one DIII overnight visit. Each of them was confirmed and booked in different ways. One is with a new coach who we had to quickly email, speak to, and meet with over the summer in order to keep the recruitment possibility active. The other two schools we’d been communicating with via email and telephone. and met with the coach on an unofficial visit over the past 10 months. More to follow on our progress.