How to Research College Track and Field Rosters

College track and field teams vary greatly because teams take on the character of the coach recruiting them. If you study any college’s roster properly you should be able to figure out just what a coach is looking for and determine if you are a good fit for their team. There is no way around sugarcoating this, that researching rosters can be time consuming and is pretty hard work. But if you know what to focus on you can gain a lot of information really quickly.

Does the team need athletes who do your events?

Coaches tend to recruit based off of filling a need. Whatever your events are, you should look to see if the team will likely need to bring in new athletes to fill in when you will be entering college. If a program has a lot of projected juniors or seniors the season before you would be joining the program, it is likely that they will need to fill that position in recruiting. Conversely, if a coach has recently brought in a lot of freshmen the year before you would enter, then they will likely be less interested.

Consider that the transfer portal has made it even easier than ever before for coaches to recruit from other programs. Just because they need to fill a position, doesn’t mean that every coach will be interested in considering a high school prospect. Junior college athletes are also considered so use this as a guide to help learn which schools “might” be more interested.

The best way to review the team roster is on the website TFRRS.org. There you can view the performance list for any team, and see how those athletes are performing within their conference. It is worth noting that some programs do not prioritize every event. So there may be a team that is very competitive in one event, and not at all in another for their conference. This may be a sign that the coach is only looking to recruit in the event that is a priority.

Does the team match your “recruiting level”?

Many college athletes will not finish their career wherever they enroll as freshmen. A lot of this comes from athletes not knowing what a good fit is for them. The goal should be to find a team that you will be happy with. That requires knowing how coaches view your talent level, and then choosing a program that will prioritize what matters to you. If you are just barely good enough to make the team, you will likely have great challenge getting much opportunity to compete. Many track teams with larger rosters, do not even travel every athlete to each meet. Are your goals to be on a championship team regardless of whether you get to run? Do you want to go Division 1 no matter what the cost? Do you want the opportunity to be a star athlete for the team? All of these are questions you need to ask yourself to know whether any school is the right school.

On the team’s roster you can see which athletes are winning in the conference and at the national level. You can also look up what their high school performances were like. A quick google search of any athlete should give you great insight on what it takes to impress the coaches. Consider the following:

• Do your “measurables” match up? Look at the height and weight of rostered athletes. If the people who contest your events are similar in physical stature to you then you may have a better chance of getting the coach’s interest.

• Do your performances matchup? Your high school stats and performances should be similar to those of the athletes who are on the team already. Look up some of them to see their personal bests to compare with yourself.

• Do your rankings matchup? The SCA National list ranks athletes with a 5 star system. But national leaderboards are also available on sites like athletic.net. You should have a similar ranking to the athletes on the team to most likely show coaches you have what it takes to succeed.

• Do your team performances matchup? This is is not as common in track and field. But college coaches are hoping to find athletes who are the very best they can get. The easiest way to distinguish this is with athletes who win. The more you and your high school or club team wins, the better you look to coaches. Check the accomplishments of the athletes to see if many of them have competed in major state and national level meets, or even won major championships. If you have any of these things in common, it will give you the best bet of grabbing a coach’s attention

What regions does the team like to recruit?

Coaches tend to establish a “recruiting” pipeline. They do this by either building relationships with high school level coaches, or even working to recruit heavily in a particular region or area. Only the best teams can recruit nationally, and they can do so because they target top talent which is identified by ranking services. If most of the athletes on the team seem to be from a particular state, or region, then it demonstrates whether or not you may be within their pipeline. If you are not in the typical pipeline but you can identify that you may still have what the coach is looking for, then it is likely still worth it to reach out.

International athletes should consider looking for schools that already have international athletes on the roster. Coaches may not be interested in going through the process if they don’t already have any on the team. It can help you save time and focus on those schools with the best chance to work with you.

Who do you contact to get recruited?

On almost any college athletic website there is contact information for the coaching staff. The bigger the team, or the program, the more likely a head coach is to delegate their recruiting to other coaches. Try to determine which coach is the “recruiting coordinator” or coaches your event for you to know who to contact. Then be sure to use my secrets to catching the coach’s eye so that any school that is a good fit will land you on their target list every time.

Coach Rob is a recruiting expert and the Founder of SCA Recruiting. He is also the author of the book Winning the Ship: How to Win the College Athlete Recruitment Game. Available now on Amazon.