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Courtney Fitzgibbon started running competitively in Year 10.
Not Year 7. Not primary school. Year 10. And in that same year, before she had posted a single standout time, before any coach knew her name, she signed up with Platform Sports and started the process.
She is now on a full scholarship at St. Mary's College of California, 40 minutes from San Francisco, competing in the 3K, steeple and 5K. The scholarship covers just over 80,000 USD per year. She pays nothing.
Josh Gill had one national road race title coming out of high school. His times on the track were not at Division 1 level. He knew it, his coach knew it, and rather than chase schools that were out of reach, he went to Hill College, a junior college in Texas, under the same coach who had developed him through his high school years.
Two years later he transferred to the University of Louisiana Monroe as a Division 1 athlete. That season, his team produced the best cross-country results in program history.
In a recent Platform Sports webinar, Josh and Courtney sat down to talk through what the US college track and field pathway actually looks like for athletes from New Zealand. Not the polished version. The real one.
The Career That Dies If You Stay
Track and field is an interesting sport in New Zealand. There is a pathway of sorts, but it is narrow, underfunded, and largely self-directed. If you want to keep competing seriously after high school, you join a club, fund yourself, and hope the environment pushes you forward.
In the US, it is a different world.
College programs are fully funded. Coaches are professional and fully invested. Training is structured, resourced, and shared with a team of athletes who are all chasing the same thing. The facilities at many programs exceed what professional setups offer in other countries.
"The career almost ends if you stay here," Courtney said. "In the States it's academic focused, but professors know you have competitions, things are funded, it's all supported. Here you're kind of on your own."
Josh put it more bluntly. If he had stayed in New Zealand, he would have quit running. The US college system gave him a reason to keep going and an environment that could actually develop him into the athlete he wanted to become.
Two Paths, Both Worth Understanding
Courtney's route was early and linear. She started the process before most athletes even know it exists, got her subject choices right, built her times through high school, ran national titles in her final years, and landed a full scholarship at one of the most beautiful campuses in the US.
Josh's route was less direct and equally valid.
Not quite at Division 1 level out of high school, he chose the junior college pathway and followed a coach he trusted to Hill College in Texas. The facilities were humble. The program was simple. But the development was real.
After two years at Hill College, Josh transferred into Division 1 at the University of Louisiana Monroe. He arrived, got injured immediately in his first semester, was told by his coach he would run through it, and by the end of the season his team had achieved the best cross-country result in the program's history.
"JUCO is humble and blue collar," Josh said. "Division 1 is the big smoke. The schedule is more demanding, the resources are better, everything is more structured. But you do not get there without going through the steps that build you up."
For athletes who believe junior college is a fallback, Josh is a straightforward counterargument. It is often the most direct route to Division 1.
What Coaches Are Actually Looking For
Times and grades open the door to a conversation. They do not carry you through it.
Courtney had coaches tell her early in the process that her times were not quite there. Several asked to keep her on their radar. When she ran national titles the following year, those same coaches came back and the conversations changed.
But when St. Mary's offered her a scholarship, the deciding factor was not a time. Her coach put her on a call with the full team before making an offer. He wanted to know if she was going to fit the culture he had spent years building. The conversation was relaxed, easy, full of laughter.
"Once you are in that call, they are trying to get to know you," Courtney said. "The times get you the call. Who you are gets you the offer."
Coaches are also watching for leadership at school, academic performance, how quickly athletes respond to emails, whether they show up prepared to calls, whether they have actually researched the program before picking up the phone. These are the things that separate athletes who look similar on paper.
Josh added a practical note on communication. The college coach network is tight and interconnected. Coaches talk to each other constantly. Burning a bridge with one program can travel further than athletes expect. Every conversation, regardless of whether you end up at that school, deserves respect and attention.
What a Day in the Life Actually Looks Like
Courtney's Tuesday at St. Mary's starts at 5am.
She studies for an hour before breakfast, gets on the bus to the front fields at 6.30, completes a full workout with the squad, heads to the dining hall for breakfast, attends classes through the morning, goes to team weights in the afternoon, and finishes in the recovery room with athletic trainers, acupuncture, compression boots and massage guns, before dinner and another study session to close the day.
It is a full day. It is also fully supported.
"We are pretty much treated like professional athletes," Courtney said. "I think we might actually have better facilities than some professional teams."
Josh describes the Division 1 schedule at Louisiana Monroe as morning team sessions followed by afternoon doubles, recovery together as a squad, weights together, everything structured and laid out. At junior college it was more self-directed. Good coaching, daily training, but less infrastructure around it.
The step up is real. So is the support that comes with it.
The Numbers Behind the Scholarship
St. Mary's College of California costs around 81,000 USD per year before any scholarship is applied. Over four years, that figure approaches half a million New Zealand dollars.
Courtney pays nothing.
Louisiana Monroe costs around 38,000 USD per year. Josh covers all his costs through a combination of academic and athletic scholarship funding. Neither figure is an athletic scholarship alone. Strong academic performance unlocked additional funding that made the full package possible.
For athletes who do not come in on a full ride immediately, performance improves offers. Josh watched a walk-on athlete on his 800 squad outperform every scholarship runner that season. The coaching staff reallocated funding based on results.
"If you are not on a full ride, just go over and prove it," Courtney said. "Coaches know that if you are performing and they are not paying you what you are worth, you are going to leave. The leverage shifts."
The Challenges They Did Not Expect
Courtney had no homesickness for six months. She was loving it. Then December came, campus went quiet during January term, and she stayed in California over Christmas while everyone at home was posting New Zealand summer content.
It hit her.
"You will get homesick," she said. "It took me six months, but you will get it. And you will get through it. If you find a university that supports you like a family, you lean on those people."
Josh's challenge was discipline. Not just the discipline to train and study, but the discipline to step back when those things were done and actually enjoy where he was.
"It is so easy to get consumed by the performance and the pressure," he said. "Have the discipline to do what you need to do. But once you have done it, take the time to enjoy where you are, who you are with, what is around you. Otherwise it can feel like a jail."
Both athletes were clear that these challenges are real. Both were equally clear that they pass, that the team environment helps carry you through, and that the athletes who make it to the other side of those hard moments tend to come back from them better.
What Comes After
Josh is going into his senior year at Louisiana Monroe. He plans to keep running. He has spent enough time in different US cities to see the semi-professional running scene that exists there, athletes getting looked after by teams and sponsors while holding jobs alongside their sport. He is watching that closely and keeping his options open.
Courtney is studying sports management at St. Mary's. She has already started conversations with professors about postgraduate options, is lining up summer internships, and has teammates from England who have stayed in the US post-graduation on work visas. The network that surrounds her in California is already opening doors she had not anticipated.
"I am going to be doing summer internships," she said. "There are real opportunities around the school. I do not know yet if I will stay in the States, but the options are there."
The Belief Piece
Both Josh and Courtney come from regional New Zealand. Both had moments where they questioned whether this pathway was really for them, whether they were good enough, whether something this far from home was actually achievable.
Josh's final piece of advice was simple.
"You can do anything you put your mind to. You are going to have doubts. You are not going to know what the next day or the next year looks like. Just keep your goals clear, work toward them every day, and believe you can do it."
Courtney's was equally direct.
"Start early. Go on visits if they are offered. Talk to coaches even when you think a school is out of reach. And know that when you get there, you are going to grow in ways you cannot predict right now. I trained on my own in Whanganui. Now I am in a team of 35 girls. That alone changes everything."
The US college track and field pathway is not reserved for national champions. It is available to athletes who are willing to start early, do the work, and go in with clear eyes about what the experience actually involves.
That conversation starts with a free consultation.
Interested in finding out where you fit in the US college track and field system? Platform Sports offers free consultations for athletes and families at any stage of the process. No pressure. No pitch. Just clarity on your next steps.
Book your free consultation here. lt’s talk.
