The Swamp

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Thu Aug 17, 2023 10:26 am Yeah, that's really interesting. I can understand why the student athletes were upset, but I can also see an AD that was prepping for entering the B1G building a new facility and trying to trim costs. Btwn transportation and the equipment, crew ain't cheap.

Yup...I see the budget from a high school team that buses from our school to Georgetown/regattas, cost of equipment, coaching, insurance. I am really good at selling mulch and writing checks.

I assumed the lax facility was fully funded by donation. I know David Cordish was the big donor. But costs have gone up on all sports.

Traveling to WV for a family wedding this weekend and stopping at GWU on the way for a visit with a coach and a tour. She’s pretty excited about this one just because she’s really liked the prior interactions with the coach. We’re bringing the dog so I think I’m stuck dog-sitting in the car for hours while they’re on campus. Leaving…. now.

rass wrote: ↑Fri Sep 15, 2023 4:45 am Traveling to WV for a family wedding this weekend and stopping at GWU on the way for a visit with a coach and a tour. She’s pretty excited about this one just because she’s really liked the prior interactions with the coach. We’re bringing the dog so I think I’m stuck dog-sitting in the car for hours while they’re on campus. Leaving…. now.

George Washington is right in the city. Weather is going to be great. Take the dog for a good walk either down the mall/ellipse or along the potomac and (va or DC side) Lincoln to Jefferson (past MLK). You probably can't go to the memorials directly, but you can get close. Since GW sits right at the foot of Georgetown, you could walk there too. The canal path is great and long. There are a couple of places down on the waterfront there that would be good dog sitting, reading, coffee drinking locations (the blue bottle coffee in Georgetown was my old startup company's office). Other option is to walk up towards Dupont Circle/Embassy row.

You could also drop them off, cross the bridge and head to Iwo Jima. Big grass area and the monument.

I love walking my dog at Roosevelt Island (right across the Potomac from Georgetown/GW) =---https://www.nps.gov/this/index.htm

There is a decent dog park in Rosslyn (Virginia side of the Key Bridge across from Georgetown)--- Gateway Park, 1300 Lee Hwy, Arlington, VA 22209

TLDR -You won't have to sit in the car.

Did I mention the dog has been weird about getting in the car since we took him to the shore last month?

And I parked just now at a spot where the curb is too high to open the passenger side doors…

Badly want this to be real time, where your family has to wait for you to post this before you move the car and they can get out.

Man they would have loved that.

It was after I dropped them off, but it meant I couldn’t get the dog out since I didn’t want to be in traffic if it was a struggle to get back in. I moved.

rass wrote: ↑Fri Sep 15, 2023 9:23 am Man they would have loved that.

It was after I dropped them off, but it meant I couldn’t get the dog out since I didn’t want to be in traffic if it was a struggle to get back in. I moved.

Go park on Ohio drive by the Potomac (near MLK). You will find parking this time of day and can sit with the windows down even if the dog won't get out. If you go all the way down Ohio Drive you can hang out in the East Potomac Park (road encases the DC muni golf course). Another great place to just sit.

Parked alongside constitution gardens across from Albert E. and got him out of the car for a bit to walk up the the reflecting pool. He fertilized the park. Felt weird about walking through the Vietnam Memorial with him, so I didn’t. Had to pick him up to get him back in the car.

Kid has an official recruiting visit with Rutgers track this weekend. It’s homecoming (playing Sparty), they’re going to the game, she’s staying with a student (a frosh she knows from HS), various other team activities and a run tomorrow.

Just parked in a lot and the tailgaters are getting set up. The car next to me was a Prius with Michigan plates in a Spartan Toyota frame. It was an old couple and they were reading.

Nice. Good luck.

That’s great, rass. I hope all goes well.

Thanks guys. The old couple was asleep when I got back to my car.

Dude I needed you to wake me up.

rass wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2023 7:52 am Kid has an official recruiting visit with Rutgers track this weekend. It’s homecoming (playing Sparty), they’re going to the game, she’s staying with a student (a frosh she knows from HS), various other team activities and a run tomorrow.

Just parked in a lot and the tailgaters are getting set up. The car next to me was a Prius with Michigan plates in a Spartan Toyota frame. It was an old couple and they were reading.

Very cool. Just to be so good that you are invited on an “official recruiting visit” is awesome.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2023 12:28 pm

rass wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2023 7:52 am Kid has an official recruiting visit with Rutgers track this weekend. It’s homecoming (playing Sparty), they’re going to the game, she’s staying with a student (a frosh she knows from HS), various other team activities and a run tomorrow.

Just parked in a lot and the tailgaters are getting set up. The car next to me was a Prius with Michigan plates in a Spartan Toyota frame. It was an old couple and they were reading.

Very cool. Just to be so good that you are invited on an “official recruiting visit” is awesome.

Yup

I'm pretty sure the NCAA outlawed having recruits play "pickup" during recruiting visits - at least for basketball. Maybe track is different? Or maybe Rutgers is cheating.

Shirley wrote: ↑Sat Oct 14, 2023 1:20 pm I'm pretty sure the NCAA outlawed having recruits play "pickup" during recruiting visits - at least for basketball. Maybe track is different? Or maybe Rutgers is cheating.

Huh. I’ll find out tomorrow. Maybe if it’s just the recruits? Or maybe I misunderstood her and she was planning on running casually with some of the 3 or 4 kids she knows on the team.


Anyway, hoping this weekend goes well. We want her to go where she wants to go, but being at RU would be nice.

Actually, it looks like recruits can work out with players, but it can't be organized and run by coaches. So a casual run should be fine. https://www.ncsasports.org/ncaa-eligibi ... ial-visits

Sounds like it was an incredible game. Hope you/she stayed. Article I read said there were only 15,000 fans and only 3,000 stayed to see the comeback. Really sad for a homecoming game, even on a cold and rainy day.

We were supposed to have plans today so didn’t take up the offer of tickets - I left well before the game. The track recruits left at halftime because it was absolutely pouring. She watched the end of the game at a dorm.

They got to go on the field which is cool but probably would have been cooler with a fuller drier house.

In all sounds like a really positive experience. She even got to do the whole photo shoot thing.

The coaches were present for the run thus morning but VERY hands off.

Her biggest concern coming home was housing. Because the track team is so big not everyone gets into the sweet apartment style housing right by the arena and track. I told her she’d just have to deal.

B1G would be huge.

rass wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 3:41 pm Her biggest concern coming home was housing. Because the track team is so big not everyone gets into the sweet apartment style housing right by the arena and track. I told her she’d just have to deal.

Tough problem to have.

In line for Frank Pepe’s

Ok yeah

I'm starving and immediately regretted that Google.

My wife took both kids and one of the oldest’s best friends to visit Fordham last week and all four of them fell in love with the campus. Bumped it up the list a bit.

Oldest had an official visit with NJIT yesterday and today. They weren’t really on her list at all, but their coach is friends with her HS coach and the NJIT coach really made her feel wanted. It was a lot nicer than I expected, and they have a very new and very nice athletic events center (the wall outside the basketball coaches office is plastered with photos from the 2014 victory over Michigan).

It’s a good school and they have what she wants academically and the coach arranged for her to have a meeting last night with a pre-med advisor that she says she got a lot out of. It’s D1 but an overall smaller XC/TF team than Rutgers, and she liked how close knit the NJIT team seemed to be.

Cons are how close to home it is, and that she’d probably join the team as by far (currently) the fastest mid-distance girl. And it’s urban, but it’s Newark.

So not at the top of her list but not off the list. Might be difficult for her if they give a ton of cash.

Good problem to have

Looking into NJIT was a revelation. I hadn’t realized how great a school it is academically. Then we watched the college tour show on Amazon Prime on NJIT, and I was really impressed. Son applied, but it’s one of the few we haven’t visited. Figure if he gets in we’ll look.

all the apps are out.
kid ran into the Rider coach at the XC MOC in Holmdel - they talked, he came home ready to verbally commit. we'd rather he wait to hear from some of the other schools he applied to --plan had to be to see what the indoor season turned out as there were other schools in the running for track -- he already has an offer (verbal) from Rider including $ - he likes the coach, has had an official visit, connected w the team.. wants to throw the plan away and sign now.. says he wants it over with and doesn't want the stress of having to do well in winter.. kid doesn't handle stress well (that whole ahdh, anxiety thing.. and the meds are still not quite right) told him it doesn't hurt to wait, good to have options, no reason to verbally commit now and then have to back out. the waiting game..

Gun to my head I would've said NJIT is D3 and competes in the NJAC.

Nonlinear FC wrote: ↑Tue Nov 14, 2023 9:54 am Gun to my head I would've said NJIT is D3 and competes in the NJAC.

Would have made that UM loss in 2014 even more embarrassing!

First official acceptance, from Rutgers.

rass wrote: ↑Fri Nov 17, 2023 8:09 am First official acceptance, from Rutgers.

Congrats!

Nice!

Congrats!

Man, this sucks.

Good stuff first. She also got into Pitt.

She had a great recruiting visit at Fordham this past Sunday/Monday, and we're heading out to Long Island tomorrow afternoon for another one at Stony Brook. They're putting me up in a hotel, which is nice. Just need to find a bar to watch what is likely to be an awful TNF game and hit no traffic and I'll be happy.

As for the this sucks part. We just can't afford to send her wherever she gets in no matter the cost, but make too much to garner too much (if any) need-based aid, and she's smart enough to not want to be hundreds of thousands in debt in 4 or 5 years, especially since she wants to go to med school. Just kind of hurts as a parent?

Then a Rutgers coach reached out to her this evening to see how it's going, and the kid wrote back and was like RU is still a top choice but I'm still going through the process and in addition to the opprtunity to run, the financials are going to be key to my decision so do you have any idea how my merit-based aid might turn out? And the coach was like yeah unfortunately our pre-read (unofficial but maybe thorough enough?) is that you won't get much - more scholarships go to out of state kids?

Kid is no worse than top 2 at a top magnet HS with grades that almost literally couldn't be better. Not sure what else is needed. This sucks.

She did laugh at me when she saw me typing up that HM review, so not a complete funk. For her at least.

Ugh, that’s rough man.

Good luck, bud.