Why should any athlete choose Florida?
-ROI: The likelihood of becoming a professional athlete is rare. If things don’t work out for you athletically, Florida offers a solid education. Florida is ranked #4 in the country for return on investment. Not that this particularly matters for Valby as, let’s face it, she could get a full ride to any school in the country at this point, but was probably a factor coming out of high school as she is is from Florida (in-state tuition less than $7k per year)
-Athletics: Florida has a rich history of winning championships in multiple sports. Track and Field is probably it’s most successful sport since the turn of the millennium winning multiple championships and producing multiple olympians and medalists. At Florida, you have the option to become the best athlete you can be and have all the resources at your disposal.
-Weather: everyone rags on Florida for being too hot, and it is… in the summer time… when the majority of school is off for summer break. September to April is a dream (especially for distance running). The temps are often between 50-70 degrees with plenty of sunshine.
A couple of points specific to Valby.
-Holloway and Solinsky: you have two world class coaches looking after your training. This is a no brainer.
-“Florida doesn’t have hills”: I hate to burst everyone’s bubble.. it Gainesville does have hills. The team uses the school golf course for workouts frequently which has rolling hills (a couple of 20-50ft rolling hills over a 2 mile loop. The team also uses The Micanopy loop, which has over 400ft of elevation gain (rolling hills) in less than 5 miles (route below). Not to mention tons of other routes.
-Proximity to home: I can speak on this specifically because I grew up a high school away from Valby in Tampa, which is only a 2:30 drive from the university. Florida was the best of both worlds for me. I was close enough to home to visit on holidays and weekends if I wanted to, it far enough away to feel like I was going off to school.
There are tons of other reasons to choose Florida. These are just a couple top of mind. This is my first and probably last time posting on here. I spent too much time writing this. Time to get back to my job.
*Disclaimer: I did go to Florida and was a part of the Track and Cross Country program.