After his third tour of the campus of Illinois Institute of Technology, track athlete Jeremiah Simons is ready to compete for the Division 3 team. During these tours, he met some of his future teammates, built bonds with them, and got to meet the coach he reached out to, who made him finalize his decision to become an IIT Hawk.
“I started the recruitment process the summer before senior year, on the NCAA recruiting site,” He recalled. “After chatting with one of the coaches, I was sent a pre-read for the college, and I ended up applying that same summer.”
His recruitment process was straightforward, and gathering up the courage to reach out to coaches was the most daunting part.
“Although I’ll be going to a different school, racing against former teamates [Illinois Wesleyan track commits Emmanuel Roache and Jordan Harvey] is super exciting and we cant wait to see each other at the upcoming meets and compete against one another in the same division,” Simons stated.
He considers the bond he has with his team to be family-like, and that track has always been something he could find himself in. With Track and Field being a no-cut sport, it brings together unlikely athletes and forms a unique community that Simons hopes will continue for many years to come at ETHS.
“While it is an individual sport, it all comes down to the team; that’s what I like about competing.”
Illinois Institute of Technology is a private university on the south side of Chicago, known for its STEM fields and research facilities on and off campus. Simons will be studying Mechanical Engineering, where IIT’s program is ranked #4 among schools in Illinois.
