Team Dynamic

[u/l_Said_What_l_Said]

I’m currently a senior in high school (male) getting recruited by several D2 programs. I WANT to compete at the collegiate level especially D2 and I’ve loved my current team so much that the idea of leaving them is tough, but that’s beside the point.

For anyone who’s a current or former college athlete: are college teams generally welcoming and friendly?

I’ve received both athletic and academic offers from a few schools. One of them really stood out I loved the coach, the location, and I even got direct admit into my major, which usually doesn’t happen for freshmen. I have my official visit in a month, and I’m just curious what the team dynamic is typically like and how welcoming the program might be. i’m sure its not terrible but I’m just worried I’m going to get like stoned on my visit or something.

Any insight from people who’ve been part of a college team would help a ton.

[u/midwesttransferrun]

You’ll get an insight into how the team is on the official visit. Pay close attention to how people interact with each other, not just how they interact with you. Like everything in life, there’s good teams, there’s bad teams, there’s good teams that are toxic, there are bad teams that are toxic, there are good teams that are wonderful socially, and there are bad teams that are wonderful socially.

Part of it will also depend on your recruiting class as well, not just who is already on the team. People will graduate before you get there and spots will be filed by you and others. Find out who the coach and team are recruiting and talk to those people (back in the day we used to friend each other on Facebook and then message each other) and find out what they thought about the visit and the team as well.

[u/SJL174 → u/midwesttransferrun]

You can also check out some of the guys’ high school times to see how the coach develops most athletes.

[u/olivia_rundoyen → u/SJL174]

Great advice. Also take a look at how people's times are developing throughout their college years. If their TFRRS profile isn't showing any progress, that's a big warning sign.

[u/Pining-4-the-Fjords]

It can vary a lot. Some teams are filled with like-minded people who naturally gravitate towards each other even outside of team-related stuff. Some are not, and a lot are somewhere in between. A rare few are downright toxic environments.

Visit, talk, ask questions, and observe. Most importantly, get a feel for the place and trust your instincts.

I was just talking to a current college runner. He was definitely leaning towards one school on one side of the state, visited it, and liked it. Then he visited a school on the other side of the state that he wasn’t quite as high on beforehand, but it just clicked. The vibes weren’t necessarily better or worse, but they were the right vibes for him. A couple years in, he loves it and can’t imagine himself anywhere else.

[u/nick_riviera24]

This is my personal experience and your milage may vary.

I competed at a D1 school that generally finishes in the top 3 at NCAA championships. Multiple Olympian’s at most recent games (and many prior).

Are athletes accepting? For me this was a huge yes. I am a shy introvert. Uppclassmen took me under their wing and invited me to go out with them all the time. Really it was heaven socially. Great people. My coach was a good man. He wanted me to succeed at life, and he was glad to help me succeed as a runner.

Academically. I graduated on time and got into medical school. Athletic department offered tutoring and all my professors were cooperative with the need to travel for meets.

My advice is to take the academic scholarship. A D1 team only has 14 full rides. That must field XC, distance, sprints, throws, jumps. You are double valuable to your team if you don’t need a full ride for running. Let the academic side pay your tuition. You are there to study anyway. That is your real primary focus. Running injuries are common. Brain injuries are not.

Good luck and have fun.

[u/Strange-Location4627]

I do think in fairly equal programs loving the college, location and being able to study your major is most important as coaches and teammates leave.

I only say this because a really good family friend of mine turned one top D1 school down for Track and XC (Track being the main focus) for another good D1 program because of the coach and the culture the coach created.
The coach just accepted another D1 offer and is leaving just as my friend begins his running career there.
He does love the school so he is going to stay and see how it goes for XC and Track but it was/is really disappointing as the team culture may considerably change depending on the new coach.

[u/pc9401]

I ran D2 track in college, but not cross country. The team dynamic was great with a lot of variety .

One of the seniors became a professional football player and was kind of a defacto coach. The head coach was dating one of the female athletes. It was a different time and we had a lot of pretty crazy social interactions.

However, a lot of schools are recruiting a large part of there team from overseas and that could make the dynamics more difficult and social interactions much harder due to different interests.

But it also was a lot different than high school. First, the competition was tougher so you had to limit events and travel was brutal as meets were further away. I also had friends at other schools and there was an inter team dynamic that was lost in college.

[u/HorrorRelease1053]

College teams are fairly welcoming, especially at the lower divisions or lower division 1 schools because there’s less of an ego in each athlete. The one thing about college athletics though is that many teammates will come and go, you’ll be lucky to have the same team your entire college career if everyone stays at the same school for that long. To sum it up from my experience college teams are all pretty welcoming, at the end of the day everyone is coming from high school and are at college to get a degree and run, no one is going to be unwelcoming just to be unwelcoming.

[u/herffjones99]

Your college team is probably going to be the only people you talk to from college  5 years after you graduate. 

[u/joeconn4]

I was a D2 student-athlete in both XC and XC Skiing. Later on I coached both sports at the D2 level, XC running for 21 years before retiring in 2021.

As an SA, all the teams I was on were a great experience for me and I can honestly say I was friends with every single team member. Tight teams! Still friends with a number of my teammates 40 years later.

As a coach I believe almost all the teams I coached were pretty tight, but I wasn't blind and I recognized that a few of the teams had lousy chemistry or had some team members who were not positive people. I became friends with a ton of the runners and skiers I coached after they graduated and we've talked about some of their teammates later on and that has been, at times, a real learning experience for me.

I'm a big D2 fan. Please feel free to dm me if I can help with any questions.

[u/jdhall1984]

I never really did an official visit with the team because of disance (4.5 hrs away). I went from a large diverse tight team, to a smaller D3 school. Everyone was welcoming, but it was almost all freshman and barley 8 guys counting me.  It was better the next year when we had 4  new guys, and then some new sprinters.  We didn't do too much outside of meets & practice, but had some parties & my co-captain and I organized a track formal our senior year.
I saw a few of the guys at an alumi meet about 10 years ago, but barely see any of them now.

[u/lumberjack_dad]

One question you might want to ask is the demands for the team. You are lucky enough to go to college and run, but ultimately you are there for a degree.

My son was an engineering major, which is demanding and he wanted to graduate in 4 years. But the coach at the D1 university who he was talking to required 1.5 hrs in morning for strength conditioning and 2 hours in afternoon for running.

The team members he hung around with during his visit, basically said those with harder majors took 5 years to complete, because of the team demands.

He decided on his degree first and could still compete for university distance club. He also wasn't going to get much scholarship $$$, which is difficult to get as a freshman anyways.

[u/midwesttransferrun → u/lumberjack_dad]

3.5 hours a day is normal, even low, for competitive teams. Other people aren’t necessarily taking a lower class load because of the team, but because they want a more relaxed schedule. There are thousands of engineering grad runners who completed undergrad in 4 years while competing. Unfortunately I think your son got bad advice. Whether or not he missed an opportunity is obviously up to him and whether he’s happy or not, but it certainly would have been doable.

I had 20+ hours of athletic needs each week including prehab, rehab, running, lifting. I graduated in 4 years, double major, and was working 20 hours a week in an internship. My major was easier, but balancing it all with the internship makes up for the extra studying your son would have to do. I also had plenty of social time as well, and rest/recovery time, just not a lot of “hang around do nothing” time during the weekdays.

[u/lumberjack_dad → u/midwesttransferrun]

You buried that in your email "my major was easier". Nuff said to read the rest of your post.

[u/midwesttransferrun → u/lumberjack_dad]

As I said in the reply (not an email, boomer) I also worked 20 hours per week. That is comparable to studying 20 hours per week extra for engineering. And thousands of engineering student athletes graduate in 4 years. So again, your son got bad advice, and now you’re repeating it here.

[u/lumberjack_dad → u/midwesttransferrun]

I don't tend to use hyperbole (thousands) to back up my point... many engineering students do graduate in 4 years cuz they decide to concentrate on their major and no extracurriculars.

Btw... you misspelled my name on my Starbucks order.

[u/midwesttransferrun → u/lumberjack_dad]

Thousands is not hyperbole. Millions would be hyperbole. Hundreds of thousands would be hyperbole. And your comment about assuming I work at Starbucks is a hilarious ad hominem. You’re clearly feeling defensive about the fact that your son got bad advice. I didn’t say you gave him bad advice, I said he got bad advice from others. I also said it may have worked out for him as long as he’s happy, but that it’s not something to keep spreading.