Sophomore Matteo Torres vividly remembers visiting Princeton as a middle schooler, though it wasn’t Nassau Hall or Blair Arch that caught his attention.
“We drove past the lake with the [crew] team practicing on it,” Torres said. “I said to my family that when I go to Princeton, I wanted to row.”
Torres joined the lightweight crew team by walking on rather than going through the traditional recruiting process. Despite finding a home in the boathouse months after his teammates, a large part of Torres’s Princeton life revolves around Lake Carnegie.
“This is my third year on the team, and I feel like I’ve been completely integrated into the team,” Torres said. “My teammates are some of my closest friends, and I can’t imagine my Princeton experience without them.”
Torres is a former News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
His path mirrors that of many Princeton student athletes who have taken up varsity sports after their first-year orientation. While these athletes may not be at the caliber of their recruited peers, they fill a crucial niche in the locker room — adding depth to the rosters of Princeton’s 38 varsity sports teams.
Around 18 percent of Princeton students play a Varsity sport, which is substantially more than peer institutions like Harvard at 11 percent, Stanford at 12 percent, and Brown at 13 percent. However, this figure includes walk-ons like those that are profiled here, and many of the other 80 percent or so of students have backgrounds playing sports. According to the 2027 Daily Princetonian Frosh Survey, 52.5 percent of incoming first-years took part in varsity athletics in high school.
No matter the sport, having competed at a high level in high school is a requirement to walk on. For example, the Princeton men’s swim and dive recruited vs. walk-on consideration is just 0.4 seconds apart in the 50 freestyle, roughly the same as the range across the Olympic finals this year.
Though Torres found his calling in the swimming pool in high school, he took to the water in a different way after arriving at Old Nassau.
“I was a swimmer in high school, so when I got to Princeton and was reintroduced to the idea of rowing, I had the athletic background to join.”
Much like Torres, junior goalkeeper for men’s soccer Sully Atkin knew he wanted to play at the Division I level from a young age. Atkin grew up playing for the Alexandria Soccer Association — one of the top programs in Virginia — and was in goal for a regional champion high school.
“In high school, I knew I wanted to play college soccer, but I also knew I really wanted to go to a really good academic school. So, I basically dual-tracked it,” Atkin told the ‘Prince.’ “[College soccer] seemed like something I might be able to do based on … the teams I was playing on.”
“[Princeton] said that they didn’t see me as part of the recruiting class, but they do have a walk-on process,” Atkin continued. “So, if I get into the school on my own, just send them an email, and then we can talk about a potential walk-on process.”
However, there’s wanting to play a college sport, and there’s the reality of making a college team. Princeton’s 38 varsity sports all compete at the Division I level and have racked up the most Ivy League championships of all schools in the storied conference over the last two decades. Due to such a high level of expectation for each sport and the lack of many openings, getting in is difficult.
“After I got in and committed to Princeton in April, I sent the coaches an email reintroducing myself and letting them know I got in, and [that] I’m still definitely interested in a potential walk-on process. And then they invited me to preseason,” Atkin said. “It was unclear when I first came whether or not I was on trial, or what the deal was.”
Now three years later, Atkin is a crucial part of the team.
“They contribute with their play on the field and with their character on and off the field,” Head Coach of Men’s Soccer James Barlow wrote to The Daily Princetonian in reference to walk-ons. “They have a voice, their opinions and thoughts are heard and respected, and they help make our culture better both on and off the field. Some of our walk-ons have become very important team leaders.”
Princeton soccer has been at the core of Atkin’s Princeton experience ever since. “I've met some of my best friends on the team; I wouldn’t change a thing,” he shared.
Though Atkin didn’t know it at the time, his spot was secure upon arriving at campus for preseason as a first-year.
“For some players who we are able to watch and evaluate and get to know before they arrive to campus, we may know that they are good enough to be on the team, and we may offer them a roster spot for preseason,” Barlow wrote about players in Atkin’s position. “For others, we may offer them a chance to try out,” he added.
Torres arrived on campus in a very different context — his spot had yet to be earned.
“During the first week of class my freshman year, I attended an info session about walking on to the team and promptly started the process,” Torres said. “It was a two-month process of daily training and test workouts with the other potential walk-ons, where they made regular cuts until just a few were left.” Now, Torres is a rower through and through and lives with several of his teammates.
Outside of a cap of 120 players every four years for football, there are no set limits on Princeton recruiting. According to former Dean of Admissions Janet Rapelye, though, coaches and admissions officers often face pressure to limit the number of recruits due to the already small number of spots available in each incoming Princeton class. As such, walk-on athletes like Atkin and Torres play a valuable role by essentially freeing up recruiting spots and adding depth to varsity teams.
Though some teams like soccer use walk-ons to fill bench spots, where players rarely see extensive time on the field, the role of the walk-on can vary. In fact, walk-ons form the backbone of some Princeton teams.
Women’s rugby is currently competing in just their third season as a varsity sport.
“We wouldn’t have a team without our walk-ons — they have been the heartbeat of our program as we’ve transitioned into Varsity,” Head Coach of Women’s Rugby Josie Ziluca wrote to the ‘Prince.’
“The walk-on players provide different perspectives on how to approach challenges, which has our team prepared for many tests and trials along the road of their four year journey,” she added. “They also provide inspiration and confirmation to folks who are curious about rugby, providing examples of people learning the sport for the first time to earning a starting position in a NCAA Division I league.”
For women’s rugby, which hosts open walk-on tryouts every fall and invitational tryouts each spring to fill out their roster for the season, the confirmation that truly anybody is welcome is critical.
“There’s a playing position for every body type out there, and through the training and skill-set building in a safe, fun environment, you’ll learn a lot about yourself too,” Ziluca wrote.
Developing walk-ons to start — and star — on a Division I varsity team is difficult; students who were unfamiliar with the rules just a year before face opponents who were recruited to play at a high level. There have been growing pains as the Princeton rugby squad, which played at the club level just a few years ago, faces opponents like Dartmouth, who heavily recruit their full team.
But their start this year has proved that their player development model does in fact work. This past week, they notched their first varsity win over Bowdoin, ensuing a massive celebration and proving that walk-ons can indeed find success — even with only a select few recruits on the team.
Walk-ons play for the sake of playing.Through varsity sports, many of these athletes get to pursue their lifelong passions as a part of the centuries-long tradition of Princeton athletics. Little slack, however, is cut for these non-recruits.
“The expectations are exactly the same with the recruits and walk-ons, and the treatment is exactly the same,” Atkin said.
And getting walk-ons into playing form, despite their athletic background, is no easy task.
“It’s a monumental challenge to prepare a walk-on athlete to have the mindset, courage, and skill sets to safely play against teams with rosters full of recruited players,” Ziluca wrote. “But when walk-ons can commit themselves to controlling those items and show up to get better every day, amazing things happen for them.”
Correction: A previous version of this piece stated that 18 percent of Princeton’s student body was recruited athletes, but this number includes walk-ons as well.
Diego Uribe is a head Sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
Tate Hutchins is an associate Sports editor, staff Audience creator, and News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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