1/30/2024 0 Comments Collageit track and field![]() The third factor is how athletes present the experience on social media while visiting and how they interact. The reality is if the athlete is not highly ranked on the program’s list, then they will be on the waiting list to determine if the higher ranked recruits will accept their offer. For that reason, the coaches are going to let the athlete make the other visits and continue having conversations with them as the recruiting process plays out. The second factor could be that the athlete is not one of the program’s top recruits, but the coach will continue to recruit the athlete in order to see if their top recruits will accept their offer. The first factor for why an official offer may not be extended prior to an athlete leaving campus is that college coaches are aware that an athlete most likely will not accept the offer if they have remaining official visits to attend. From the time an official visit begins, the athlete is instantly being assessed on how they carry themselves, how they interact with other people, and the types of questions they ask. There are many factors at play during an official visit. ![]() Yes, an official offer can be extended at the end of one’s official visit. One of the preconceived notions that many parents and athletes have going into an official visit is that at the end of the visit there will be an official offer extended to them prior to leaving the campus. As the conversations continue to take place with the college coach and the coach begins making home or school visits, attending your practices, and planning official visit dates, then you can consider yourself as being highly recruited by that program. When can you say you are officially being recruited by a college/university? When the college coach talks to you on a consistent basis through phone calls and text messages. It is a numbers game for college coaches because we know that we are going to get more no’s than yes’s, says Click To Tweet Among all the college track and field programs, there are only 69,710 student athletes competing in college. ![]() There are over one million high school athletes that participate in track and field. If we include NCAA Division II and III, plus NAIA and junior colleges, there are a total of 1,272 track and field programs. There are 341 NCAA Division I programs in the country. Let us look at the following stats to further drive the point home: It is a numbers game for college coaches because we know that we are going to get more no’s than yes’s and we only have a limited number of scholarships to give out. In all actuality, coaches are sending out hundreds of letters and questionnaires to kids across the country in order to gather information to create a profile for those athletes that will fit their program’s standards. They post their excitement on social media without understanding that receiving a letter in the mail, asking for basic information, does not mean they are being recruited by that university. ![]() Many athletes feel that they are being recruited or looked at if a college coach sends them a letter or questionnaire in the mail. Now that I have provided you with the reality that obtaining a college track and field scholarship is not a simple process, I want to address some myths that a lot of people believe when it comes to the college recruiting process. This will be different based on each institution and the cost of tuition. However, based on years of data from the NCAA reviewing national letters of intent (NLIs) and looking at the offers that have been given throughout the country, the national average scholarship amount is less than $18,000 a year. Unfortunately, many think it is quite easy to obtain a full-ride scholarship if the athlete runs fast. This is an important factor to understand when beginning the recruiting process. There are years’ worth of data, collected by the NCAA and other institutions, that has shown the percentage of high school kids in the country that get a track and field scholarship, at any level, as being less than 6% for men and women. The most important thing to understand is the reason why it is so hard to get a track and field scholarship. Every parent and athlete at the high school level dreams about obtaining a college track and field scholarship, but the realities of obtaining such a scholarship are difficult. As a former Division I track and field coach that has spent 14 years coaching in the Division I ranks and is now coaching in the private sector, I have come to realize that many athletes, parents, and coaches are not educated enough about the realities of college recruiting when it comes to track and field. College recruiting can be a daunting and stressful process for high school track and field athletes and their parents.
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