PARENTS’ CORNER

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 my daughter said to me last year, “I want to be recruited to run at a Division I school”, I had no idea what that really meant. Even though my oldest daughter had recently graduated from West Point, where she ran competitively for two years, I simply could not have imagined how my life was going to change in order to help her achieve her goal. Forget that researching, applying, and choosing the right college is already a daunting, high-stress, nerve-racking challenge in its own right, but to add being recruited took it to another level.

What I hope to share with you, on a weekly basis, is the recruiting process we have gone through over the past year; the good, the bad, and the ugly. You’ll also get to experience the conclusion of this journey when my daughter makes her final college decision this Fall.

There are so many different aspects of managing the recruiting process I did not even consider, or were simply unaware of when we started one year ago. There were so many questions and little answers at that time. Here’s a list of questions that come to mind:

……when should we start, how do we start, do we get help, what kind of help. which schools should she consider, which division should she target, how good was she compared to other athletes, how do we reach out to coaches, which coaches should we contact, how should we contact, how much athletic money can we get, do the schools stack athletic/merit/need, what IS stacking, how does this mold into the admissions process, how does the coach get involved with admissions-whether my daughter needed support or not, what about the connection with or feeling about the coach, did the coach recruiting her leave before her senior year and what to do next, what about the official visits from being invited to attending, should she target NLI day or not, should she apply ED or not, and so many more……..

With so many questions to consider, I decided to share my insights and learnings with you, regardless of where you are in the recruiting process.

Our first question last year was related to the TIMING of the recruitment process, and when to begin, and what specifically to do. As she was entering her junior year, were we too early, too late, or right on-time? I will cover this topic in next week’s post. I’ll also share real-time updates on what’s happening at this very moment. I’ll share next week how we are currently MANAGING OFFICIAL VISITS. Feel free to send any additional questions you might have to add to the above list, and I’ll try to answer them as best I can.

Until next time! Ryan