Whenever a high school recruit commits to compete at the D1 level, they almost always expect to one day become a national champion. It’s the reason why Jameesia Ford had a breakout season at South Carolina as a freshman. She won the NCAA indoor 200 meter dash in her first time there, in a race that was never really that close. But years before her Grant Holloway did the exact same thing, winning the 60 meter hurdles indoor and the 110 hurdles outdoors as a freshman. Even Trayvon Bromell also won the NCAAs as a freshman back in 2014 in the 100 meter dash. The reason why they were all  technically break out stars is because they won it all in their freshman season competing in the NCAA. But each of them would have rated as legitimate 5 star recruits on SCArecruiting.com at the end of their high school careers. 

What is the problem with track and field recruiting?

Track and field recruiting has a very big problem that nobody seems to be talking about. Because if you want to go D1 in track and field, I’m here to help you get what you want. But telling you the truth is the best way for me to do that. To become a 5 star recruit for college track and field is extremely hard to do! In fact it is pretty close to impossible for the thousands of recruits in every recruiting class. Whether you are on the boys side or the girls side, there are literally no more than 40 five star recruits in American high schools, for any given recruiting class. No matter how good you are after that you are at best a 4 star recruit! But most recruits aren’t even 4 stars, the majority are 2 and 3 star level. Which isn’t so bad when you realize that even 2 star recruits can end up in D1. Ultimately if you are a recruit, then you are probably not as good as you think you are. And the reason is because the high school track and field community has been lied to for a very long time.

However, there is good news. If you really want to go D1 then I want to give you the secrets to pull it off. That means you must understand what college coaches are actually doing in recruiting, and why they do it. Otherwise you probably won’t get anywhere near as many offers as you should, if you even get one at all.

When studied closely, recruiting for track and field isn’t much different from all the other ones, like football and basketball when you get into the details. But unlike those sports there weren’t any legitimate recruitment rankings for people to go off of. Just consider that in college basketball ESPN ranks the top recruits in the nation and they tell you who they think are the 5 stars. In the boys class of 2024 there are literally only 19 boys whom they called 5 star level. On the women’s side they actually told us there are 31 in total. But in college football, a sport where they give out 85 full-ride scholarships at the FBS level, they still only had 23 boys in the nation listed as 5 stars for the entire class of 2024!

The best player in most states for football or basketball is not a 5 star recruit. Which only makes sense when you consider that 5 star recruits are expected to dominate at the NCAA D1 level the moment they arrive on campus. Just consider that I used to play varsity basketball in high school before I committed to go D1 in track and field, and the number 1 point guard recruit back in my class was Kyrie Irving. He’s an NBA champion and an all-star. In fact among all the players at his position ranked inside the top 25 of the nation, he’s the only one still playing in the NBA. He’s 1 of 2 to become starters, and most of them who ranked between 20 and 50 never played a minute of NBA basketball.

What this is teaching us is that 5 star recruit in any sport is basically someone who is projected to be performing at almost a professional level right now. In track and field that is an athlete who can help a college team compete for a Division 1 national championship immediately. That is what Jameesia Ford is doing right now at South Carolina. And the woman who technically was the best sprint recruit in her class was Shawnti Jackson. Who didn’t win the NCAAs like Jameesia but qualified to compete against her in 2 events, and almost made it in a third.

Why is track and field recruiting so hard?

Without a 5 star ranking system, for years the only thing we had to go off of was who was winning national events through AAU, USATF, and even the high school competitions. If you consider those are at least 3 competitions that hand out all American status to any athlete who makes an event final, there are as many as 24 recruits in every event who think they are not only All-Americans, but basically 5 star level.

College coaches are pretty good at their jobs, and scholarship money is hard to come by. In fact, many D1 teams aren’t even fully funded to use all of the scholarships that the NCAA allows. But they can figure out who the best recruits are, even if they don’t have a 5 star ranking to go off. Just put yourself in the mind of coach Mike Holloway at Florida. Who would you want to join your team in the SEC? A recruit who was ranked 5th in the nation in 1 event and 12th in another or a recruit who was ranked number 1 in two different events, while still being top 10 in a third. That is why he chose Nicolas Crosswhite as his top recruit in the class of 2024, over every other jumper available. And it’s why their conference rival Georgia, signed recruits 2, 3, and 4, from the SCA top 10. All of those boys were basically the best in the nation in more than one event. That is what you have to do to become a 5 star recruit. When you consider most of them will want to go to the same few schools on scholarship, it also means that most D1 programs already know that they won’t be signing anybody who is a 5 star this season.

How much do recruit rankings matter?

There are about 300 D1 track and field teams on the men’s side, and even more for the women. So if you are not a 5 star recruit, you will still likely have options to consider. But remember that at the NCAA level there will only be 1 national champion in every event. It’s simple math that if there are fewer than 20 track and field events, and about forty or so 5 stars in a class, even all of them won’t become individual NCAA champions. And if you are not a 5 star like I just described, I’m willing to bet that you will do everything in your power to make sure that you prove all the rankings wrong.

Parker Valby was technically a higher level 4 star recruit when she left high school, and now she is a multiple time NCAA champion. Kalen Walker was a high 2 star out of high school whom this year became an All American and the silver medalist in the 60 meter dash. In fact, even Salif Mane was a baseline 3 star recruit at the end of his junior year of high school who chose to go to Fairleigh Dickinson University. But he is now a  NCAA first team All American at the D1 level and he did that a whole bunch of times.

Rankings actually don’t mean anything after the gun goes off in college. They won’t run the races for you and they definitely won’t win you a national title. But they do make a big difference on who commits to what colleges and why. After all college coaches have to go off something to determine who they will recruit and why. If you know anything about high school distance running then you know that Drew Griffith is legit. But he was a low 4 star recruit at the end of his junior year. He’s been winning a whole bunch of races since then, against the best high schoolers in the nation, and he has climbed his way up the national rankings as a result. He might finish the year as a 5 star recruit. But that doesn’t really matter because no matter what school he goes to he is going to have to get even better to win big in the NCAA. So no matter what your ranking is, going D1 is a privilege. Everybody at that level was somebody where they came from. So what does matter is that you find a coach who believes in you, and is committed to helping you win at the college level. Because your old high school PRs won’t help you at all when you are competing in any event within the NCAA.

LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, RUN GOOD.

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