When Sam told me he had received an contact from the cross country coach at Endicott College I was intrigued. First, where and what is that school? And second, it is unusual for a coach that far away to recruit a runner, so what was going on?

It came out later: a friend of Sam’s had been checking out colleges in the Boston area and he had sent in a request for general information and notification to the coach that he was a runner. NCAA rules allow only 3 unsolicited contacts by a coach until the beginning of the student’s senior year. This was a response to an inquiry. She set up a time to meet with her at noon, so we needed to hit the road a bit earlier than we wanted to make the drive from Burlington to the North Shore town of Beverly, 20 miles north of Boston.

Established in 1939, the school is located on 235 acres overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.   The college has been growing over the past ten years with a current undergraduate population of 2,300 and many new buildings. The original building was a “summer cottage” and is now the admistration building for the school. Another large mansion on the campus serves as a dorm, but all the other dorms are newer.  

They offer small class sizes, 60 majors and mandatory internships. Each student gets placed in an internship in their Freshman January, their Sophomore January and their Senior fall semester, with a Capstone report written that spring.

I think mandatory internships can really help those students who would just float through their college years without much effort to position themselves for the workforce. If for no other reason, this school will stay on Sam’s list (at least right now) but in a position nicknamed a “Safety.”

A “Safety” is a school where the entrance requirements are easily met with a higher achievement, so the belief is acceptance is almost a sure thing. With the cross country running coach also possibly wanting Sam, that would be an additional asset.

As it turned out the coach was not available but we met with the Athletic Director, took the tour and then met with an Admissions Officer who helped the guys feel very comfortable and it was easy to share concerns and questions. 

Neither Blake nor SamE felt this school met their needs and Blake went one step futher.  He opined that he might end up majoring in “Beach” if he went there. There are 3 beaches on campus.