WALKING ON TO THE BEST D1 XC TEAM: Tips and Advice

This video talks about not only my struggles as a walk on but my triumphs as well. Extremely proud of what I did and wouldn’t change anything for the world. The friends made, experience had and lessons learned made it WORTH IT.

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That I went home and I cried a little bit all right what is up YouTube Today’s content is a little bit different than what we normally do and I just wanted to give you guys a quick explanation as to why we’re going to talk about how I

Walked on to BYU what that whole process looked like how I addressed it to beu you know we’ll talk about what it was like to be a non-lds athlete at an LDS school and we’ll talk about a bunch of other stuff and I’m also hoping to give

Advice to people who are trying to walk on to teams or for people who find themselves in a similar situation as I was you see creating content for you guys is something that I always enjoy doing but every now and then there are those videos that are a little bit

Harder to make and this is one of those videos so we’re delving into some personal stories and experiences that I’ve had in my life there’s a lot of things that people can learn from this overall this is a very positive video this is a very authentic video about

What I did to walk on and um my experience in doing that as well and before we dive into that I just want to say a quick thank you to all those who have hit that subscribed button literally your guys’ support is what keeps this channel alive keeps me making

Videos I I’ve received many messages from people who want to support even more and I’m excited to announce that I have started a patreon page for this Channel and I’ve been working behind the scenes to create something special for those who want to support even more which include some awesome perks link is

In the description I’ll talk about it more at the end of video but let’s see where do we Start so in high school my times actually were not that bad I ran 9913 in the 2 Mile 417 in the mile and 156 in the 800 and at the time time that would be good enough to get you at least looked at by some division one schools

The problem was is that I was a late bloomer my senior cross country was bad I had Mono and my fertin levels were out of four so I was not running very good and then you know by the time that I got all fixed up and healed in track season

And I ran all these amazing times the recruiting season was over so basically by the time that I had graduated I had gone on zero visits and no school had even replied to my emails yeah and it wasn’t for a lack of trying I was emailing all these schools hey can you

Please let me on the team I work hard and I’m fast I promise you guys like please like let’s just have a talk but you know so I’m graduated zero prospects I don’t think I’m going to run in college anymore I don’t know what I’m going to do when two schools respond

Back to my emails first school was BYU briam Young University that’s a school here in Utah about 30 minutes away from where I live and then there was another school University of Portland also a D1 school with a pretty good program so I go on a visit to Portland I go on a

Visit to BYU my BYU visit one is the most interesting of the visits because I get there you know I’m hanging out with the team meeting the coaching staff all that good stuff taking a tour of the campus at the end of the visit the coach

Will bring you to an office they’ll talk about what they see for you and your future and then that’s where they start talking about the money and they said Adam we have scholarship for you um in two years when you get back from your mission and I said okay there’s just one

Problem I’m not going on a mission I get their confusion you know I am not LDS I was raised LDS up until my early teenage years and it’s not very common that a non-lds athlete is interested in going to BYU being the school that it is and

So I told them I said I’m not going on a mission they said I’m sorry you know we don’t have any money for you this year with BYU since most of their male recruits choose to go on to your missions BYU actually recruits 2 years out we actually can even guarantee you a

Spot on the team because you know we have so many people who are also trying to walk on so I said okay great I’ll think about it and you know I went on my way I want to put you guys in the mindset of young Adam okay here’s this 18-year-old who

Thought he was really fast who thought he deserved to be looked at by all these schools but didn’t get any of that ego was hurt a little bit and it was definitely a very humbling experience for sure I was just happy to get noticed by BYU and the University of Portland so

I knew that I had to pick and the thing with Portland is they offered me a spot on the team and they offered me scholarship as well problem was that I just did not feel good about Portland I don’t know how else to explain it besides that I just did not feel good

Yeah also you know a little embarrassed to mention but my girlfriend at the time was still in Utah she’s now my wife so it all worked out overall I just felt like Portland wasn’t a very good fit for me so I chose to try and go to BYU I

Texted the head coach and I said hey I want to be on the team like let me know what I need to do he said all right cool you’re going to have to walk on here’s the standards here’s what you’re going to have to do there was another problem

Though since I was so late in the recruiting process in just the School process as well I had missed the application deadline to get into to that fall semester so that meant that I would have to wait to try and walk on in the second semester in January and I know

What you guys are thinking at this time you’re probably thinking bro Adam why did you not go to the school that offered you a scholarship and that offered you a spot on your team and to be honest yeah I don’t know it’s hard for me to think about what I was

Thinking at that time all I know about 18-year-old Adam is that he was obsessed with running 18-year-old Adam thought he was going to be the next Steve Prefontaine I picked the school where I thought that I would be the best runner that I could possibly be so yeah that’s

Started my whole walk on journey to BYU that was actually kind of nice and a blessing in disguise because that gave me more time to get fit BYU was one of and still is one of the best distance running programs in the nation I knew that I had to step it up this is not the

Glamorous part of the story similar to what I’m doing now I got a job I had to start working at 99 to5 training on my own getting up early in the morning to get my workouts in all my other friends were either in college or whatever and I

Was sitting here working at Walmart so that time was definitely very hard on me and and and it definitely humbled me at the time because I definitely thought I deserve to be recognized by D1 schools and to be recruited and all these things and that just didn’t happen and so the

First thing that I did once coach isone told me how I needed to walk on the team was I increased my mileage in one summer I went from 40 m a week to 70 mil a week honestly I’m extremely lucky that I did not get hurt because that would have

Ended my dream much earlier went from 40 to 70 m a week and then I started upping the volume in my workouts because BYU high mileage high volume program and I knew that I needed to be ready to try and walk on so the head coach explained

To me the walk- on standard I would have to come to a home meet I would have to run a decent time and i’ would have to beat some of the guys on the team and the next home meet that I would be able to run in was January so you know after

Months of training alone after months of working at a Walmart it was finally time to line up against some of the guys on the team and it actually went pretty good ran the 3K I ended up running 8 33 beat a few of the guys on the team I’ll

Never forget this but coach eone he comes up to me after the race and he said oh yeah we’ll find a spot for you on the team and a little embarrassed to admit this but I was so happy that I went home after that race and I cried a

Little bit because I was just so stoked that all my hard work had paid off and it just felt so fulfilling few things I have done in my life that will live up to how fulfilled I felt the doubt Blood Sweat and Tears and all the the really hard things that

I had to go through in that fall and winter like paid off yeah that’s something I’ll never forget now I have made it on the team while sunshine and rainbows and that actually is not the case I’m not going to sit here and complain about anything

But a lot of people think that when a walk- on makes it onto a team that’s it they are a part of the team and things just go well for them while that’s the story that I wanted you know that’s not necessarily the story that I got I had

My first anxiety attack that past fall when I was trying to try out for the team I never really had problems with with anxiety in high school but after that fall they start to happen more frequently you know sometimes they would happen on the way to class when I’m

Trying to fall asleep at night or even sometimes during workouts you know shortness of breath the trembling heavy heartbeat all that stuff is a lot to deal with especially with that happening more frequently I don’t think running was the big thing that was stressing me out or the only thing that was stressing

Me out but I really enjoyed running but you know because I was having such a hard time managing my stress managing my emotions all those things running became something that was stress stress inducing and not stress relieving and so I suffered in silence for a bit for a

Long while it wasn’t until I one day was finally sick of it and so I marched right into coach ison’s office and I told him what was up and that was the best thing that I ever did he got me hooked up with a sports psych normal psychotherapist you know he did all

These things to really help me and you know after that my relationship with running got much better my relationship with school and everything honestly got much better my my life outside running got much better and that’s honestly why I’m still running now and why I’m posting my content

Um for you guys because I really learned to love running and that just wasn’t something that I wanted to give up so easily so but yeah it felt good to tell someone it felt good that someone who I was working with every day so closely knew and honestly it was a really good

Thing and I’m I’m really happy that I had that relationship with Coach Ione and the guys on the team I was able to kind of open up a little bit so you know you don’t realize especially in the NCAA how common anxiety and and those type of

Things are I wish just talked about a little bit more that’s why I didn’t say anything for so long cuz I was like well everybody else is doing just fine so I’ll try and Thug it out right but and it’s something that a lot of people go

Through and you know coaches see all the time and they definitely want to know it actually took me a long time to feel like I even belonged on the team this wasn’t the coach’s fault this wasn’t the team’s fault they all did a really good job at creating a space where I felt

Welcomed and a space where I felt like I belonged but there is just this thing I don’t know what it is I call it like the walk-on mentality where it puts a chip on your shoulder I had a huge chip on my shoulder once I graduated and I felt

Like nobody was looking at me and you know while a chip on your shoulder can be a great thing I definitely think taking to an extreme it can be you know something that’s not very good for you you know my chip really helped me stay motivated it really helped me develop

This work ethic and it really made me grateful for any of the opportunities that I that I received if you aren’t careful the chip can self-isolate you it can make you feel like you know you always need to prove yourself to be worthy when you don’t always need to

Prove yourself and it’s just not the most sustainable thing for your running career or for long-term performance so it definitely did take a bit for me to feel like I belonged on the team and you know I’m not going to say that I completely got over that feeling there’s

Always that thing in your mind where you’re like oh man but like I had to walk on to get here and that automatically doesn’t make me as good as some of these athletes who you know were pursued right out of high school you know it definitely got better but yeah

Definitely something that was still in the back of my mind that would come up every once in a while by my senior year I was voted team captain which actually meant a lot to me because it just reaffirmed that I belong there it reaffirmed that the guys on the team

Actually thought that I could help lead the team in some type of way you know it wasn’t as big of a deal as I always made it to be in my head but it’s just one of those things that I feel like doesn’t get talked about a lot you got it

Adam4 94 we got it Adam yes yes Adam yes 859 but anyways that’s how I adjusted to the team mentally and emotionally but let’s talk about how I adjusted physically to the Team as most of you know BYU is a high mileage program lots of Miles big volume big workouts all that good stuff I came from the opposite I told you guys that I went from 40 to 70 Mi just in a summer and cuz I knew that that’s just what I

Kind of had to do or be able to do to kind of make out on the team it was hard at first to be honest with you guys I got my butt kicked for two years two years straight I was getting dropped in workouts I was getting absolutely dadded

By my teammates and uh it was definitely an adjustment for sure even in my later years on the team I would still get my butt handed to me every once in a while that’s part of being on Collegiate team in general so my first year I finished

Out at 70 m a week that second summer I went up to 80 next summer after that I went up to 90 somewhere after that I went up to 100 it was definitely hard at first I feel like mileage was kind of the key to getting me where I needed to

Be to even handle these hard workouts in high school I was doing 3 by a mile which is three miles of work you know here at BYU we’re doing 8 Mile power runs or steady States at basically the pace I was doing these mile repeats at so definitely an adjustment for sure one

Of the hardest things I had to adjust to was the long run at BYU we usually would do kind of a moderate long run so not really a hard Pace but not really an easy Pace typically for the guys that ended up being anywhere from like 550 to

6:15 Pace depending on the day and and where we were running and so that is the thing that scared me the most was being able to go 15 mil at 6-minute PACE and be able to have a conversation and I’ll tell you what I got there but it was

Definitely a process to kind of get me to where I needed to be I would say overall it took me a little bit longer to adjust in what I wanted but for the most part I feel like I did get to where I wanted to be Eventually and another question that I get a lot is what it was like being a non-lds athlete at an LDS school and again I was raised Mormon all the way up until I was 12 13 whatever and so I was fairly used to kind of that lifestyle

Anyways I mean I grew up in Utah where like 90% of the people here are Mormon so yeah it’s definitely wasn’t something that was foreign to me for me and my experience it it was fine the team was great there’s actually a lot more non-lds athletes at BYU than you would

Assume so you know I definitely felt like there was a place for me there and I enjoyed my time there for Sure here is what I learned from walking on first thing I learned that I’m stubborn when I feel like I’ve worked for something and I deserve something I’m not going to stop chasing after it until I get it and that sounds really corny I learned that my work ethic is

Crazy and I learned that I had this belief this like core belief in myself that’s something thing that is huge when you’re trying to walk onto a team you’re you’re kind of by yourself you know the coaches can’t give you workouts and they can’t help you out and you’re kind of

Just running and and trying to get better by yourself and so it’s easy to think that nobody believes in you and and and sometimes the only way you can stay motivated and get out on these runs and do these workouts by yourself is to believe that you can do you know what

You’re trying to do my tips for people who are in a similar situation as I was in who are thinking about maybe walking onto a school here are my tips all right guys just a quick little note from the editing room um these tips were good and

All but I forgot probably like the most important one I’m going to try and make this quick because yall know I’ve been yapping for a long time in this video so basically walking on is a lot harder than you think it’s going to be if you’re trying to choose between

Scholarship and a walk-on you have to know yourself really well you got to decide if you’re going to be okay with you know some of the crap that you have to deal with with walking on and you also have to know that once you on the

Team it doesn’t just get easy from there and you know you kind of it’s just kind of something you have to deal with so it’s definitely the harder path for sure doesn’t necessarily make it a bad one and you also have to decide like if you

Want to be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond wait did I say that right a smallfish first tip obviously is to communicate with the coach I think it’s important to make sure that you know the standards to walk on you know how you’re

Going to do it and I think just in general if the coach knows who you are and the coach is trying to see if you’d be a good fit on your team I think having that communication will actually help get you on the team because you

Know a lot of schools they do recruit for times and how fast you can run but you know they are also recruiting for culture the culture of the team and and personality and that kind of thing so I think if you can talk to the coach allow

Them to see your personality a little bit I think that goes a long way in helping you kind of stay on their mind and and kind of earn that spot tip number two is to stay patient I wanted to walk on to BYU in the fall the very

First semester after I graduated it just didn’t work out that way and instead of not running or instead of you know going to Portland I decided you know I’m going to be patient I’m going to wait till January I’m going to train and we’ll see how that turns out patience is is huge

There’s actually this guy on the team Michael odison it took him 3 years to walk on he doesn’t regret what he did he doesn’t regret the time that he put in I just think when you realize that everybody is kind of on a different trajectory and a different Journey you

Need to have that patience with yourself because you never know what’s going to happen and you just don’t know the timeline and then my last tip is to mind the chip on your shoulder maybe not all Walk-Ons have this but I had a big one and I think that yes we’ve talked about

This earlier that can be a very good thing to help you stay motivated to get you inspired to work hard but you just have to be careful that it doesn’t turn into this thing that gives you anxiety and this thing that weighs you down watch for the chip on your shoulder and

Be patient with yourself is all I got to say so the rest is history I graduated from BYU I’m still running and honestly I would not change anything for a moment I would not be where I am today making content for you guys doing what I love

If it wasn’t for these experiences that I’ve gone through so quick little update start our workouts this week I’ll have a workout video for you guys next week explaining where I am with training and all that good stuff don’t forget to check out that patreon page it’ll have a

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