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Post by pooldawg on Sept 26, 2013 21:58:21 GMT -5
My player is not in HS yet, but we have some friends whose son is a freshmen at a smaller non-Georgia college and got a scholarship to play soccer there. Just for kicks, I asked them about what they went through to get him to that point. I was particularly interested in the attention to club vs. HS soccer. Here is her response (keep in mind that this is a military family, so they traveled around a bit):
"They looked at his club play and only at tournaments. They tell you they will not come to high school games unless you go to state. The club tournaments are the big ones. The ones we got the most response from was one we did in Portland and one we did in Virginia. When we were in Hawaii we went to a tournament in California and he got attention there but it was not what we wanted cause it was from all west coast schools. You should apply to the camp called Exact Elite Sports Camp. That was one of the best showcase camps we attended in our years in soccer and that is where we started having coaches calling. It also gave is a full day of Q&A with all the coaches about how to go about the recruiting process. These were Clemson, Georgia State and more with div 1 plus div 2 and NAIA and then a few div 3 so you had a full look at how all do their stuff! "John" was looking for a school where he new he would not sit the entire freshman year and also the scholarship is few and far between even for all schools so we narrowed it down to 3 and then we loved the coach at "college x" and they are playing games even while they work to the varsity team so no sitting. It was a win-win for him and it was from this camp that we learned how to contact them so they would listen. One thing they all said is that they do not like those recruiting sites. Some don't even look and hate those emails from them because they are all scripted and feel like spam and they said they felt like it showed lack of work on the players part to get their attention. We had done that but we only received responses from the coaches we contacted personally so I guess that they were telling the truth. They have great info and the players are given a written evaluation from the coaches at that camp and we put that into "John's" packet we sent. Also a 2 -3 min highlight video. They don't want to see them kicking the ball into the goal in practice they want to no kidding see highlights from speed defense offense and handling but if it is longer than 3 min they turn it off."
(Names were changed to protect the innocent.  )
Any thoughts on or experiences like this? |
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Post by pooldawg on Sept 30, 2013 11:13:17 GMT -5
No thoughts huh?
What about club involvement in the recruiting process? I've seen where clubs provide college seminars or other avenues to assist their players with the process.
What specifically does your club do to get the players engaged?
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Post by soccerdad14 on Oct 3, 2013 10:25:32 GMT -5
Our experience is somewhat different. First off, I will address what I consider to be the "frauds". If your player is contacted by someone that makes you wonder where they saw your player.... ask the question. Where did you see my son/daughter play? We had 2 of these instances. Turns out, they got my childs name from a recruiting site and had never saw them play. Basically, the story was this..."I havent saw them play, but read their bio and WOULD LIKE TO INVITE YOU TO MY CAMP". Unfortunately we fell for this and sent our child to an expensive 1 week out of state camp. Turns out, the coach was rounding up campers and not necessarily recruiting. My child felt like they were one of the best at the camp, but never received any feedback after camp. Our satisfaction came a couple of weeks ago when our child started on their college team against this coaches team. And our team won handley over the coach that didnt think our player was good enough for his team. My child recognized only 2 players from the camp on the opposing team, and they never got in the game. Long way of saying "watch out for the camp recruiters".
We had a lot of success with our child getting exposure at State Cup, Disney, and CASL tournaments. Send the coaches of the schools of interest an email including your schedule and a little history about the player. If they dont see you at one, try again at the next. If your team doesnt go to these tournaments, send the coach a season schedule and a high school schedule. We did have coaches at our high school games.
Lastly, dont over estimate your childs abilities. Be realistic and ask the questions of yourself. What level can my child realistically play at? Will they be happy sitting on the bench at D1 or be happier playing at a D2 school? Are they committed to the extra work invovled at the college level? Know the answers to these questions before beginning your school shopping.
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Post by pooldawg on Oct 3, 2013 11:23:33 GMT -5
Thanks! This is very helpful.
IMHO, I don't believe our son would ever be a D1 player, so we would probably look at D2, D3, and NAIA. (There's also junior college, which may not be out of the question.) He says he wants to play soccer in college, but he's only in 8th grade and I don't know if he will continue that desire. As you pointed out, we just need to be realistic. We also need to make sure that his academics come first!
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Post by silverback on Oct 3, 2013 12:08:31 GMT -5
Great advice soccer dad! Also, make sure you kids do well in HS school! There are not a lot of full scholarships available, so money is often received from academic scholarships as a package. If you don't have the grades, you will not get the academic money.
A few numbers/comments based on my notes from a college recruiting session, which was offered as part of tournament package.
- There are about 5200 open positions available to play soccer and about 91,000 looking to play, which means about 6% will actually get money. It is competitive and you have to be proactive.
- Most D1 teams only have 10 scholarships available per team, which is usually split amongst the team, hence the academic scholarship to supplement.
- D3 does not offer athletic scholarships - only the academic scholarship portion. (same with Ivy League)
- In 2016, recruiting rules of changing. As of now, coaches cannot reach out to your kids until Junior year. In 2016, they will be able to reach our Freshman year. Also, players will be required to maintain a 2.8 GPA while in college.
If someone has more current information, let us know.
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Post by dadofkeeper on Oct 3, 2013 12:09:47 GMT -5
Thanks! This is very helpful. IMHO, I don't believe our son would ever be a D1 player, so we would probably look at D2, D3, and NAIA. (There's also junior college, which may not be out of the question.) He says he wants to play soccer in college, but he's only in 8th grade and I don't know if he will continue that desire. As you pointed out, we just need to be realistic. We also need to make sure that his academics come first! Yes, the academics are the main thing, because, most of the time, the soccer scholarships are only partials. My daughter is not that strong academically. She is VERY smart, but it does not carry over to testing very well. One reason I am excited about her playing somewhere is that along with her parents, there will be coaches, advisors, and tutors who will want to help make sure she keeps her grades up. Where she will be attending next year she is required to have 7 hours per week in the athletes academic center, until she carries a 3.25. I am thrilled, and I think she is also. |
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Post by lovethegame on Oct 4, 2013 12:02:39 GMT -5
My daughter recently committed early in her junior year to a small D1 program. She is a good player, but not one of the best on her team. I will say that once in high school it is not to early to start looking and narrowing down if you child (girls especially, I am not sure about boys) is sure they want to play in college. This is epecially true if they want to and have the ability to play in a large D1 program. Those programs are looking at freshman and signing sophomores. If they are looking at a smaller D1, D2 or D3, they have more time, but starting early can't hurt. My daughter did the most during her sophomore year. She put together a list of 10 to 15 schools. Five were reach schools. By the end of the year after visits (unoffical with a coupl of overnight visits, talks with coaches, four ID camps, and a few campus tours with no coach contact) just a few of those schools were left on the list. It was interesting to see that list change from larger schools some distance away to a smaller school close by. I would imagine others could well have the opposite experience as their child finds a school they never considered.
If you are going out of town for a tournament, tour a school even if it's not in the area your child wants to attend. They might find they like a certain type or certain size school simply by seeing as many schools as possible. Finding the right fit is overwhelming, but it gets clearer as the process goes on. I do think ID camps are a good way to see the fit and to let a coach know that the player has interest in the school. Don't go to all of them. Go to the one where the player is really interested in going. Otherwise you will just spend money for the sake of spending money. When it comes to summer camps, I have mixed feelings. My daughter almost didn't go to a camp because she didn't think she wanted to go to that school. She had been to the ID camp, liked a lot about the school, but just didn't know if it was for her. It was the camp that moved the school to the top of her list, and it was the camp that brought her before the coaches for several days. She committed shortly after going to the camp. Now, if she had gone to UNC or Georgia's camp, she might have come away convinced those were the schools for her, but that wouldn't have been realistic. So, from a recruiting stand point, those would have been a waste of money.
Ultimately, the player will have to send a lot of emails and make a lot of phone calls. Our club offers assistance, but no club can or will do it all for all of their players. My daughter is actually pretty shy and quiet, but she got used to making the calls and sending the emails. It was hard for her at first, but they have to do it. Invite the coach to the games. They will come if they think a player is a possible fit. Make sure they know your tournament schedule as well.
I agree that players need to be realistic but should also not sell themselves short. The top college programs are looking at the strongest players in the country. So, UNC, Notre Dame, Stanford, etc. are not likely for most. But, there is a fit out there for the serious soccer player that wants to play in college. Keep the grades up and look for the academic and the soccer fit. Let the player decide if playing time from the start is more important that just being on the team.
Good luck to everyone. As it turned out, it was a bit of an easier process than we imagined.
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Post by dadofkeeper on Oct 4, 2013 12:38:39 GMT -5
If you are going out of town for a tournament, tour a school even if it's not in the area your child wants to attend. Yes, I though that was good also. We visited Auburn, MTSU, Jacksonville State, and West Georgia while traveling around for soccer games. |
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Post by bpgbeieio on Oct 4, 2013 20:27:24 GMT -5
Some NAIA schools play better soccer than D1 school due to the foreign academy trained players.
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Post by lovethegame on Oct 5, 2013 16:28:46 GMT -5
I didn't mean to ignore NAIA. We just had no experience with it, but my daughter certainly wouldn't have ignored an NAIA school had it been one that was an academic fit and otherwise a good fit. She was open to playing all levels, and D1 wasn't important to us even though she did end up with a verbal commitment to a D1 school. I would say, keep an open mind. For almost every player, college is the last they will play competitively. Some will decide they want to have the chance to contribute from the beginning. Some want to be a part of the team of the school they've dreamed of to all of their lives. There is no right or wrong. It's a personal decision for the player and the family.
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Post by actualparent on Oct 5, 2013 20:18:23 GMT -5
Thanks! This is very helpful. IMHO, I don't believe our son would ever be a D1 player, so we would probably look at D2, D3, and NAIA. (There's also junior college, which may not be out of the question.) He says he wants to play soccer in college, but he's only in 8th grade and I don't know if he will continue that desire. As you pointed out, we just need to be realistic. We also need to make sure that his academics come first! I like your post - very candid. You sound like a normal parent, which is why I'm glad I found this forum. I'm in the same boat. My son is good at a GSA CL2 program but I don't know the ropes about the ODP and DA programs. What I understand is boys try out for ODP, and may get included in the pool of players 3 kids from his team are on it - he is good, like they are, so may have made it, if I knew. DA only has 2 teams in GA that are part of it, but if your kid wasn't already on one of them, he can never be part of DA, so never worry about DA again. How much of that is correct? Obviously, I like the individual tryout system better than being on one of two clubs in the program. |
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Post by soccerpapi on Oct 6, 2013 20:08:02 GMT -5
Agree with most earlier posts - to add a few more comments from our perspective:
We've found that college coaches / recruiters are not as interested in your soccer resume and the buzz words (Athena-X, Classic-X, RPL, ODP, DA, ECNL, Super Y) as they are in a player's ability to play, and to fit into their program whether it be D1, D2, D3, NAIA. Rather, if your player is good, Colleges will find them (with some leg work from you and club Coach).
Things that a club can offer to make things easier in those regards - apply and get your team accepted into tournaments such as CASL, Disney, WAGS, Surf Cup, Dallas Cup, Vegas Showcase, etc...as well as others where Coaches from above programs tend to attend. Some clubs also host weekend ID camps where they invite College Coaches to come watch. Lastly, most Club DOCs who have been in the game a while should have some type of College contacts from previous players that they may have graduated and placed; they can use those to market your player (depend on academic, players' soccer interest, school fit, level of play, etc).
High school can also help but not as much as Club (I've seen former players/graduates from our HS who currently Coach at local college programs attend our HS games looking at players, perhaps, not every HS can offer this advantage).
As previously stated, academic is the most important since (1) most players tend to have little desire to play soccer beyond college, (2) academic scholarship factors into the entire offer package including the ability to get into that top program (a great player with mediocre grades will find it more difficult to get into a top soccer/academic program that they may want to get into if they do not have the grades). Work hard on the pitch and in the classroom (AP courses, great SAT, volunteer, etc).
Lastly, the bulk of the work is up to the player to make contact (emails, phone calls, etc) to invite Coaches to their games/tournaments. We took this to be an opportunity to teach our kids about important life-skills (looking for a job/career) requires knocking on lots of doors until one opens up (hard work and persistence, do not be discouraged or give up). There is a school and a program for everyone who wants it (first and foremost, make sure the school matches your academic goals).
Good luck and enjoy the process (make it fun for your kid, and try not to stress yourself or your kid over it).
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Post by pooldawg on Oct 6, 2013 22:32:13 GMT -5
Thanks all.
My son is in an interesting situation. We recently moved out of our city's school district and into the county school district so that he could have the opportunity to change schools and play soccer. The city high school doesn't have soccer, but the county high school does. He is now torn as to whether he wants to change schools. He enjoys running as well as club soccer, so he was thinking about staying in the city school system to possibly run XC and play U15 next fall, then run track in the spring. Could him staying where he is with no high school soccer potentially hurt his chances at college soccer (should he still decide to venture down that path)?
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