Walking On: A Guide to College Sports Tryouts

For high school athletes who weren't heavily recruited but still dream of competing at the collegiate level, "walking on" to a college sports team presents an exciting opportunity. It's a chance to pursue your passion and demonstrate your abilities, potentially earning a spot on the roster without an initial athletic scholarship.

Understanding the Walk-On Concept

In American and Canadian college athletics, a walk-on is an athlete who joins a team without being recruited or awarded an athletic scholarship. These players often face an uphill battle to prove their worth, but success stories do exist.

Walk-on players are generally viewed as less significant compared to the scholarship players and may not even be placed on an official depth chart or traveling team. In other situations, a walk-on may so impress the coaching staff with their play on the scout team and in practice that they are rewarded with a scholarship and made a part of the regular depth chart. Often, it is the players who achieve success in this manner that are the inspiration for future walk-ons.

One significant college football national award, the Burlsworth Trophy-named after the eventual All-American former walk-on guard Brandon Burlsworth who played for the Arkansas Razorbacks-has been awarded since the 2010 season to the most outstanding player in the top-level Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) who began his college career as a walk-on. The only two-time recipient of the Burlsworth Trophy, Baker Mayfield (2015 and 2016), won the 2017 Heisman Trophy. Also, there are times where a walk-on will be a dependable member of the team's practice and scout teams for several years. Finally, in rare cases, an established scholarship player may give up their scholarship and become a walk-on in order to open up the scholarship spot for another player. In 2014-15, Xavier starting center Matt Stainbrook enrolled in the school's Master of Business Administration (MBA) program and gave up his scholarship for his younger brother Tim, who had been a walk-on at Xavier the year before, in order to save their family a five-figure amount in school expenses.

How Walk-On Tryouts Work

Generally, walk-on tryouts can be an open opportunity for students enrolled at the college to demonstrate their abilities in hopes of joining the team. While the specifics of walk-on tryouts can vary widely by school and specific sport, in many cases, they involve a series of drills, workouts, and skill assessments designed to evaluate your athletic competency.

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Factors Influencing Your Chances

The chances of making a team as a walk-on can depend heavily on factors like the specific sport, the size and competitiveness of the team, and of course, your individual skill level. Keep in mind, many colleges have both relay and non-relay sports, and it might be easier to walk-on for a non-relay team where more player positions are available.

Preparing for Walk-On Tryouts

In terms of preparing for a walk-on tryout, there are several steps you can take to increase your chances of success.

Physical Preparation

Firstly, make sure you're physically prepared. Regular conditioning, skill practice, and cross-training in the months leading up to tryouts can increase your physical preparedness.

Cognitive Preparation

On the cognitive side, learn as much as you can about the team's tactics and dynamics. Is there a certain scheme or system they favor? What's their overall style of play? The more you know about the team's way of playing, the better you can demonstrate how you'd fit into that framework.

Showcasing the Right Qualities

Additionally, remember that many coaches do value qualities like work ethic, team-spirit, and positive attitude along with technical skills. It’s essential to show up to the tryout determined, ready to give your all not only physically but also in terms of teamwork and sportsmanship.

Understanding Eligibility and Procedures

Lastly, and importantly, be sure to investigate the specific walk-on tryout procedures and eligibility requirements for the team you're interested in at your college. You’ll want to make sure you have all the necessary paperwork, meet any academic criteria, and understand the individual expectations for your sport’s tryouts. It’s not a bad idea to reach out to the coach or athletics department before the tryout to ensure you have all the pertinent information.

Types of Walk-On Status

It’s important to understand the distinctions between the different types of walk-ons as you navigate the recruiting process.

Unrecruited Walk-On

Typically, an unrecruited walk-on offer occurs when a student-athlete qualifies for admission to the school and plans to join the team through an open tryout.

Preferred Walk-On (PWO)

A preferred walk-on (PWO) offer promises you a roster spot, but you won’t receive any athletic aid. A preferred walk-on is the highest status a recruit can get outside of receiving an athletic scholarship. Some student-athletes will turn down scholarship offers at smaller schools to play for a bigger program as a preferred walk-on. Technically, preferred walk-ons don’t have anything to sign on Signing Day, as they aren’t receiving an athletic scholarship. However, walk-ons are an essential part of a successful team, and college coaches want to celebrate their signing, as well. Ask your future coach about having something to sign, especially if your school is throwing a Signing Day party.

Factors Leading to Walk-On Status

Several scenarios can lead an athlete to pursue a walk-on opportunity:

Lack of Recruitment: The athlete wishes to join one particular team that is not athletically interested in them. The target team may not have been impressed by the athlete, or it may already be saturated at the athlete's position. The athlete applies for the school the normal way and joins the team as a walk-on to try and win the coaches over.
Limited Exposure: The athlete has not been noticed or taken seriously by recruiters. This can be the result of either not playing the respective sport while in high school or, more commonly, the athlete played the sport in high school, and perhaps even at an exceptional level, but the level of competition around them was subpar and led scouts to dismiss the player's ability to adapt to the college game (this is often the case in rural districts where the local public school is often the only option for high school other than homeschooling).

Scholarship Opportunities for Walk-Ons

Yes, scholarships can be earned going into a second season, but nothing is guaranteed.

Managing Expectations

Remember to keep realistic expectations and understand that waling-on might be a long process starting from proving your skills, fitting into the team, growing as a player, and consistently demonstrating improvement. Even if you do make the team, there might not be a guarantee of substantial playing time initially. However, don’t get disheartened. Walking-on to a sports team, besides being about competitiveness, is as much about cherishing the sport, enhancing your college experience, and pursuing your passion.

The Impact of NCAA Scholarship Rules

With the new NCAA scholarship rules and roster limits starting in 2025-2026, the exact impact on walk-ons is uncertain and will vary across different sports and schools.

Understanding Athletic Status: Beyond Walk-On

While “redshirt” may be a familiar term to many student-athletes and their families, there are a number of different shirt color terms that designate a student-athlete’s eligibility status.

Redshirt: A redshirt athlete is on scholarship, practices but does not compete for one year, preserving eligibility for four seasons in five years. Typically, a redshirt athlete will have a scholarship but cannot compete for one year. They will participate in all team activities like practice, training, and receive benefits such as academic tutoring, but they will not see any playing time.
Grayshirt: A grayshirt postpones full-time enrollment and is not on scholarship or part of the team immediately. A grayshirt is a student-athlete who delays full-time college enrollment until the second semester of their freshman year, typically taking part-time classes in the fall. During this time, they are not part of the team, do not practice, and do not receive a scholarship. Grayshirting is often used by programs that oversign-bringing in more recruits than available roster spots-with the intent of officially adding the athlete the following season. Sometimes, injuries and roster changes can mean grayshirt status can be rescinded and an athlete will be offered a roster spot earlier than expected.
Blueshirting: Blueshirting is becoming a more popular (but hardly common) way to creatively manage the number of athletic scholarships. Blue shirt rules allow unrecruited players to be awarded a scholarship at the start of freshman practice. Like a redshirt, they will practice with the team but won’t be allowed to compete for a year.

The Coach's Perspective

Coaches assess talent based on athletic performance, academic achievement, and a player’s potential to contribute to the team’s culture. If you’re wondering how to get offers from college coaches, preparation is key. Start by focusing on your training and academics, then create a compelling highlight video and attend recruitment events.

Navigating the Recruiting Process

A D1 offer is when a Division 1 college athletics program offers an athlete a spot on their roster. Receiving an offer does not guarantee the athlete admission to the school. While it can vary by sport and individual performance, Division I coaches often start their evaluations during the junior year, with many formal offers extending in the fall or spring. While it’s uncommon for freshmen to receive college offers, early exposure and exceptional performances can sometimes attract interest. Walk-on opportunities can still lead to a roster spot, but may not include athletic aid. A verbal offer is not binding-only a signed NCAA financial aid agreement is official. Communication with coaches is key.

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