How To Get Recruited
Before sending out any resumes or making any calls be sure to check the university’s Track & Field webpage to see if they’ve listed their Scholarship Standards on-line.
Initial Facts:
1) Written correspondence, including e-mails, cannot begin until the Sept 1st of the prospect’s Junior year
2) Phone calls, Contacts(face-to-face) and in-home visits can’t start until July 1st
following the prospect’s Junior year
3) Prospects can’t take any of their 5 allowable Official Visits until the start of
their classes their senior year (must present Test Score and Transcript first)
4) Track & Field is restricted to 12.6 total men’s scholarships/18.0 for women
So on a typical year schools will have about 1/4th of that available to offer.
HOW:
Don’t call the school you’re interested in. Coaches can’t keep up with the volume of calls and they often can’t hear your name and number clearly on the voice mail. Plus, they aren’t allowed to return a call to juniors or younger.
Instead prepare a resume with academic and athletic information and e-mail it to several schools of interest. Once they review it they can either write you back, refer you to their scholarship standards, call you, or recommend you to another school. E-mail it to both the Head Coach and the your event area Assistant Coach.
WHEN:
E-mail your resume at or near the end of your Junior year. The exception would be if you’ve achieved a Top 20 national time or mark earlier in the year. These annual rankings can be found at www.dyestat.com. E-mail performance updates as you improve your personal bests.
Cross Country runners should update their resume at the end of Jr+Sr XC seasons. WHAT: Send a resume with best times or marks, SAT/ACT and GPA, top finishes at State and National meets, and a brief history of your participation in the sport(# of years, etc.). If you’ve caught their interest they can always request more information (videos, training information, etc.).
KNOW THE PROGRAMS: It is very important to know the Track and Cross Country programs you’re writing to. Target ones that most closely match your abilities. You can spend a ton of time hanging your hopes on hitting the big performance in hopes of landing at your dream school and then you lose out on opportunities at another. Know the team’s NCAA finishes, the top kids on the team, the level of the coaches— especially in your event area, and the level of the team’s athletes in your event area. But remember that the scholarship limits might mean that little or few scholarships are being spent in your event area.
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