How Streamline Athletes simplifies the collegiate recruiting process

The life of a high school athlete can be quite stressful. They have academics to worry about, daily training and practices to complete, and competitions to attend. Adding the search for post-secondary education and athletics is just another stressor that no student-athlete needs in their already busy life, which is where Streamline Athletes comes in to help. Founded by former collegiate track athletes Brett Montrose and Alexandre Paré, Streamline Athletes is a free service that helps connect high school track and field athletes with collegiate coaches and programs across Canada and the U.S. 

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Helping athletes 

Montrose and Paré met at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in B.C., where they both ran track. After graduating, the two former teammates decided to link up once more and put their knowledge of collegiate athletics to use. “We did a lot of research,” Montrose says. “After speaking with current and former collegiate athletes, we saw that a lot of them made post-secondary decisions based on the advice of their high school coaches, which schools were located nearby or wherever they would receive the best scholarship.” Montrose notes that there are about 1,700 post-secondary schools across North America that have cross-country and track and field programs, but so many athletes only know of a handful of these programs. 

RELATED: The Rundown: Navigating the collegiate recruiting process for runners with Streamline Athletes

“We also spoke with more than 100 collegiate-level coaches, and we found that they could save a lot of time and money in their recruiting process,” Montrose says, which is exactly what Streamline Athletes does for collegiate programs. While saving schools money, they still cover the majority of the Streamline Athletes fees, which helps to keep the service free for high school athletes. “More than 90 per cent of our revenue comes from universities and colleges themselves. Our goal from Day 1 was to give high school athletes a free service that helps them get where they need to be.” There are paid options offered to athletes, but Montrose says he and his team recommend the free plan, as the paid versions don’t provide any extra services to athletes, instead just helping with the process if an athlete has a short window in which they need the process completed. 

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So far, Montrose says he and the team at Streamline Athletes have helped over 100 athletes in the recruitment process, and they’re apt to reach many more individuals thanks to the company’s new ambassador program, which they recently launched. This team currently consists of five Canadian athletes, all of whom competed in the NCAA and took various paths to their collegiate programs. 

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Streamline Athletes ambassadors 

The Streamline Athletes ambassador squad is stacked, with sprinters Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown, pole vaulter Alysha Newman, and runners Justyn Knight and Ben Flanagan, all of whom are some of Canada’s top athletes. Montrose says he and the Streamline Athletes team are thrilled to welcome these ambassadors, and he knows their experience in the world of recruitment will help the next generation of athletes. 

“The ambassador program is an opportunity for us to work with some elite Canadian athletes, learn about their recruiting journeys, share with our audience and to get our platform in front of more student athletes,” Montrose says.

Flanagan has the unique role of ambassador and Streamline Athletes employee, as he has been working with the company since last October as a business development representative, speaking with coaches across all collegiate divisions in North America. Now, he’s adding to his responsibilities with Streamline Athletes. 

“Not only will I be able to increase awareness for Streamline Athletes, but it’ll also give me the chance to tell people about my experience with recruiting,” he says. In Flanagan’s case, he was lucky enough to have a high school coach who had competed at Villanova University in the NCAA and knew the ins and outs of the recruitment process. With her help, he eventually chose the University of Michigan, where he ended up winning the NCAA 10,000m championship in 2018. 

RELATED: What do university coaches look for when recruiting?

Flanagan was lucky to happen to have a knowledgeable support crew to guide him, but the process was still far from easy even for him, which he wants today’s students to know. “I feel like athletes in high school who look up to other athletes, they see that they got a big scholarship and just assume that all comes together and that it works itself out,” he says. “But it really doesn’t.” 

Montrose echoes Flanagan’s words, pointing to De Grasse’s career. “Students should know that Andre didn’t start competing until he was in Grade 11,” Montrose says. “He didn’t just walk onto the track at a Division I school. He went to a junior college, eventually moved up and had to keep developing.” 

RELATED: Ben Flanagan looks ahead to 2021, Tokyo Olympics

Flanagan says he thinks the current recruiting process is much harder than it needs to be, and “there are so many athletes out there who have the ability to run in college who don’t know it.” The Streamline Athletes ambassador program will only further help the company demystify the world of collegiate recruiting, which will lead to many more high school athletes finding their ways to collegiate track and field careers in the years to come. 

To learn more about Streamline Athletes, check out the company website here, and to read about the ambassador program, click here. Also be sure to check out the latest episode of The Shakeout Podcast, which features Montrose and Natalia Hawthorn, Canadian Olympic hopeful and Streamline Athletes partnership coordinator.