Deep in the Mountains
Growing up in the small ski resort town of Winter Park, Colorado, I was surrounded by athletes and outdoor enthusiasts. Like others in our community, I was always outside hiking, biking, skiing, and simply staying active. When I entered middle school, I began to play volleyball and found a passion for the sport.
Volleyball was a prominent sport at my high school, and I aspired to earn a spot on the varsity team. After making the freshman and C-teams my first two years, I dedicated extra time to honing my skills in order to make the varsity team my junior year. Although it is common for students at rural high schools to participate in three sports to stay active year-round, I chose to focus exclusively on volleyball. However, to improve my skills, I needed to play at a higher level, which meant joining a club team.
The nearest club volleyball program was two hours away in Denver, and quite expensive. I pleaded with my parents to allow me to try out for a club program; they relented, and I made the team. My sophomore year was filled with long drives (two hours one way) over mountain passes—leaving school early, doing homework and eating dinner in the car—to attend two-hour practices three to four times a week. Junior year came around and my hard work paid off as I earned a starting spot on the varsity team.
After playing club volleyball my sophomore year, I realized I wanted to continue in college. However, the recruiting process was completely foreign to me. My high school coach knew very little about the process, so I relied on my club coach for guidance. Recruiting required significant effort—creating a highlight video, mailing DVDs to dozens of coaches, contacting them directly, attending camps, and visiting many colleges to meet with the coaches in person. Through my hard work and dedication, I secured a spot on a Division II roster with a partial scholarship.
I share my story to illustrate the unique challenges rural athletes face. My experience highlights the critical role of parental support and financial resources in accessing club sports, which now seem essential for college athletics. For independent educational consultants (IECs), this underscores the need to explore alternative pathways and address financial barriers for rural student-athletes.
Mountains of Barriers
Athletes in rural areas are commonly limited by the geography of their location. They often must drive over a hundred miles for high school competitions, spending hours on buses and missing a significant amount of school. The geographic distance also reduces their exposure to high-level competition. In urban and suburban areas, the competition is more intense, and the talent pool is larger. Rural athletes who are “big fish in a little pond” quickly realize when they start to play for a travel team or attend camps/showcases that they are outmatched and often less skilled than their urban counterparts. When I started playing club volleyball in Denver, I was shocked at the level of competition, a common realization for rural athletes who transition to elite programs.
Rural student-athletes also have limited access to different types of sports. Most rural high schools are small with minuscule budgets and limited coaching pools. As a result, you will find many athletes in small towns playing sports they do not enjoy just so they can stay active throughout the year. If the athletes are not three-sport athletes, they might stay active by doing yard or ranch work or engaging in non-traditional sports such as skiing, rodeo, waterskiing, rowing, surfing, or mountain biking. Being a student-athlete in a rural area requires a lot of creativity, giving them skills applicable to the rest of their lives.
In many rural areas, access to talented and experienced high school coaches is extremely rare. Many coaches are parents, passionate former athletes who have not competed in their sport since high school, teachers supplementing their income, and/or community members eager to work with local youth with little experience in the sport. Because of this, coaches who understand the college recruiting process are few and far between, leaving athletes to navigate the process independently, often with limited success.
Another barrier for rural student-athletes who want to compete at the college level is the lack of exposure to collegiate coaches. Growing up, the nearest college was at least two hours away from my hometown, and college coaches rarely travel long distances to observe so few athletes in one trip. Coaches try to get the best bang for their buck and prefer to travel to “hot bed” recruiting locations/schools. Recruiting budgets are typically slim, and it is too expensive to travel to a rural area to only see one athlete.
For rural student-athletes, these challenges make it imperative for them to find creative ways to stand out in the college recruiting process.
Reaching the Peak: Tips for IECs Supporting Rural Student-Athletes
While urban and suburban areas often dominate collegiate sports rosters, the untapped potential of rural student-athletes is undeniable. Although the recruiting process (see “Athletic Recruiting: What Every IEC Should Know” in the Spring 2023 Insights) is similar for student-athletes in rural areas, IECs can play a critical role in helping students in these regions overcome their unique challenges. Here are my tips for supporting elite rural student-athletes:
If possible, and if it is accessible and financially reasonable, encourage student-athletes to compete with a travel team. Ideally, they should join a local club or travel team that participates in regional and national competitions. For individual sports, help student-athletes find regional and national circuits where they can compete. Travel club teams provide opportunities for student-athletes to gain exposure, as many collegiate coaches attend these regional and national competitions. Encourage student-athletes to continue their sport throughout the entire year, if possible, even if it is just playing pickup games at a local recreation center.
Encourage athletes to attend showcases and camps hosted by colleges. If travel teams are unavailable, attending showcases or camps at colleges may be one of the only ways to be seen by college coaches. Throughout my high school career, I would attend at least three volleyball camps each summer at colleges of interest. The exposure and interactions I gained from these experiences allowed me to understand my athletic abilities compared to other athletes and aided me in the recruiting process significantly.
Help your student-athletes create and maintain recruiting videos, social media, and recruiting profiles. In the age of digital media and electronic connections, rural student-athletes can use this medium to get in front of coaches more often. Encourage students to consistently record their performances and share them with coaches more frequently than their counterparts in urban regions. I typically recommend that student-athletes not only record competitions also create an introductory video showcasing who they are as an individual and student, take clips demonstrating the repetition of their skills and training, create a highlight reel, and include a full-length game (dependent on the sport) so the coaches can learn more about and evaluate them virtually. Many rural high school coaches do not record competitions, so student-athletes in these regions must get creative when compiling video by having family or friends film their performances (make sure the athlete is not relying on the school’s athletic department to do this).
Have student-athletes reach out to coaches first and be pleasantly persistent to build a strong relationship with them. Since student-athletes in rural areas likely have limited in-person contact with collegiate coaches, it is important for them to take the lead in communications. Most athletes, regardless of location, are not initially sought out by coaches—and in rural communities, student-athletes must be especially proactive. On average, coaches receive inquiries from more than 100 athletes per roster spot, so for rural athletes to be noticed, persistence is key. Athletes should reach out via all modes of communication (email, phone calls, social media, request their coach to reach out on their behalf, etc.) to ensure they are seen.
Make sure students are expanding their search and casting a wide net. Many rural student-athletes do not understand where their abilities match up to the level of play at the collegiate level. Encourage them to look at a variety of types of schools and levels and be open-minded about going to a smaller or lesser-known college. Many of the student-athletes I work with in rural areas create a college list twice as long as my non-athlete students. One thing I constantly discuss with my student-athletes is that they will likely have to sacrifice the large Division I college experience because their abilities fit best with DII, DIII, NAIA, or Junior College programs.
Athletes in rural communities will need to find ways to stand out in the recruiting process. In some cases, athletes who can maintain great grades, compete in multiple sports (if travel teams are not an option), actively engage in their local community, and showcase leadership skills are able to set themselves apart from their competition. Coaches like to recruit well-rounded student-athletes, so when students can do things to stand out, coaches are more likely to engage and pursue them.
Encourage student-athletes to share personal stories in their college applications. I encourage my student-athletes to write an essay explaining their unique experience and to provide context when the admissions officers are reading their résumé. The resilience and time management skills these students learn are also qualities they should articulate in their applications.
Enjoy the View
Ultimately, rural student-athletes are resilient, creative, and outstanding athletes who possess incredible potential and deserve the same opportunity to continue their passion at the collegiate level. I am so thankful for my experiences growing up in such a small, tight-knit community, and believe that my dedication and commitment to pursue volleyball at the collegiate level has impacted my personal and professional life in amazing ways. By understanding and addressing the unique challenges of rural student-athletes, IECs can play a pivotal role in helping these athletes achieve their collegiate dreams.
By Lindsey Myers, MPA, CEP, IECA Professional (CO)