How To Get Recruited For College Track
The ultimate goal of many high school athletes is to get recruited and continue to compete in their sport after high school. The track recruiting process usually is a bit different than for other sports just because of how small the sport’s popularity is. There are really 2 main ways to get recruited for college track in high school, the first is by getting noticed by college coaches and the other, more popular route, is emailing coaches and sending them recruit videos.
In order to get noticed by college coaches you really need to be in the top 25 runners in your state. It also really depends which state you are in. Athletes in some of the more northern states are less likely to be noticed just because of the way the climate is, there is less opportunity to train and compete in good weather. For the most part though, you really need to be in the top group of athletes in your state to be recruited. Usually when college coaches are pursuing you, they will either contact you directly, if it is during the time period when they are allowed direct contact with you, or they will send a letter to you through your high school.
The other, and more common way to be recruited is by you initiating the conversation. This is how I ended up running college track and it has become easier to do this as the years go by. Many colleges will have a recruiting form that you can fill out on their website. This form will include your PRs and when you ran them as well as contact info and what year you are. If the coach likes what they see, then they will email or call you and chat about some different things regarding track and school. These calls really vary and I can’t give a specific set of topics but they are usually pretty general in nature. The coach will often guide you to fill out an application to the college and when you are accepted, they will offer you a spot on the team.
These are really the two main ways to get recruited for college track, you can always try and walk on once you get to college but there are no guarantees that you will be given a spot on the team or be able to compete in meets. I hope that this has helped guide you through the recruiting process.