It's actually a bummer that they eliminated the on campus unofficial. Meeting with the coaches face to face seems an invaluable part of the process. Many of my friends' DD were able to eliminate schools based on that unofficial, and also had schools they wouldn't have considered after getting to know the staff for an extended period of time. I am hopeful that kids wait to decide long enough to get those impressions and have a good sense of who they are committing to.
Recruiting Tips for Parents Just Starting the Process
- Thread starter MakeAPlay
- Start date
Lambchop
GOLD
The group that the new NCAA rule seems to affect the most will be the 03's. Many of the 03's have scrambled to commit in order to secure athletic money that might not be available by their junior year. With the exception of a couple of unicorns, the 04's have not committed, the 02's are finishing their sophomore year and will be ready to commit in Sept. and many of them already have offers.
eastbaysoccer
GOLD
The rule should extend to club coaches.
MakeAPlay
DA
If you can't trust your kid's coach they shouldn't be coaching your kid. My kid's coach was amazing and still shows up to some of her college games even though he coaches boys academy teams now.
MakeAPlay
DA
It should be an interaction between you, your player, her club coach and the coaches of the teams that she is interested in and that are interested in her. In my player's case her club coach would act as the mouthpiece for her current college coaches. Letting her know when to call. Giving them feedback on her play when she is unable to get ahold of them due to timing/scheduling. My player's coach was the first to confirm our belief that our player was in the upper pool of players in her graduating class even though she committed to her school over a year before she got her first YNT call up. Our coach even spoke with the current U20 coach when she was the U19 coach at the Players Showcase and had her watch her play which lead to her inclusion in the program. My players coach also had her play her college position even though there were plenty of times where she could have helped him win games by playing another position. I appreciate so much that he put her personal development ahead of any other agenda and he so believed in my player and her potential at 12/13 years old that he pushed her to believe in and pursue her greatness. She heard all these things her whole life from us but to hear it from someone as accomplished as him, and to see him hold her to such a high standard of expectations has only further fueled her drive to excel.
That's what a great coach did for my kid. Good luck to you and your player.
MakeAPlay
DA
I can only say a few things. Look at how many international players they get and how many domestic players (mostly former or current YNT players) transfer after a year or two. One of my daughter's friends who was a former teammate went there as a freshman and transferred after one year. Out of all the other top programs they have by far the highest transfer rate. Kids happily sit the bench at many top programs. Kids that play leave Florida State. I will leave it at that.
From what I’ve seen and heard the new rule change hasn’t changed things all that much. I can’t speak for DA teams, but I know of a couple of ‘03 and ‘02 ECNL teams that have had multiple college coaches attend their practices and games since the rule went into effect. Sounds like there is still a great deal of interest in the younger groups.
Nothing has changed other than the "unofficial visit". They can't have that until Junior year, which is dumb, because they moved the "offiial visit" also to the Junior year. Everything else for now is the same. However, come August or thereabouts, they will rule on the contact rules (text, phone calls, etc...). Until then same rules apply.
Remember for D1 schools you are allowed only 5 official visits, one per school. So a Junior can do his or her homework on several schools through unofficial visits to see if that school is a fit for them. It gives the kids who have done their homework on their interested schools the option to take official visits their Junior year if they are prepared to make that decision instead of having to wait until their Senior year.
For sure. I get that part, but wouldn't it make more sense to have the ability to have these unofficial visits starting Sophomore year? That way the homework could be done earlier and give ample time for that potential student athlete to make really informed decisions starting their Junior year instead of cramming everything in... That's just my view of it.
Does anyone have any common sense. My opinion below.
1. Unofficial visits should have been kept during their sophomore year. This gives both the athlete and coach's a chance to get to know each other and make sure it's a good fit for both before the commitment period.
2. Commitments no verbal, only official signed commitments should be allowed at the beginning of your junior year, then everyone has clarity.
3. As far as communications keep as it is now. Up until your junior year, players can contact coach's but coach's can't contact the players.
This seems to be common sense to me for both the athlete and the universities. Let me know if i'm nuts
MakeAPlay
DA
Even the top fully funded schools don't have the allocated resources to offer official visits to anything other than committed players so changing any of the visitation rules was dumb.
My kid's school went to the college Cup and they had several road trips where they had the entire team travel and that extra expense changed their spring travel plans.
You have to remember that at the end of the day this is women's soccer.
My kid's school went to the college Cup and they had several road trips where they had the entire team travel and that extra expense changed their spring travel plans.
You have to remember that at the end of the day this is women's soccer.
The NCAA pays for all post season travel so UCLA wouldn't be out money for a College Cup run.
Yeah I don't think the people voting on this thought about the budget impact this will mean for schools. Cal is out of money...so will they really be able to add 20 official visits to their fall budget? That's a ton of money. Something has to give.
Recruiting of young kids will still happen...even if coaches aren't contacting kids, they will still be constantly evaluating and establishing a pecking order of who they want. It's not like they will wait until Sept 1 of junior year to start recruiting that class.
We will see how these rules change things. My friend's 03 daughters who haven't committed (and who have offers) are all breathing a sigh of relief to have more time. I am sure some families want to get it done so who knows....
Yeah I don't think the people voting on this thought about the budget impact this will mean for schools. Cal is out of money...so will they really be able to add 20 official visits to their fall budget? That's a ton of money. Something has to give.
Recruiting of young kids will still happen...even if coaches aren't contacting kids, they will still be constantly evaluating and establishing a pecking order of who they want. It's not like they will wait until Sept 1 of junior year to start recruiting that class.
We will see how these rules change things. My friend's 03 daughters who haven't committed (and who have offers) are all breathing a sigh of relief to have more time. I am sure some families want to get it done so who knows....
I think we are agreeing but I didn't do a good job explaining my thoughts on doing the "homework" in regards to recruitment with the new rules.
9th & 10th graders:
1. Research and/or visit schools (w/o meeting anyone from the athletic dept) to see if the academics, environment, campus culture and teams style of play is a fit for them.
2. Initiate contact and establish a connection with coaches of interested schools via phone calls, emails, highlight videos, club coach or DOC.
3. Invite coaches to games, showcases and attend ID camps at the school or camps where the coach is present.
4. Follow the interested teams during the season so the phone calls and emails with the coach are personal and not generic.
11th graders:
1. Narrow choices to a list of schools based on the homework done during the previous 12-24 months.
2. Take your unofficial visits to establish face to face communication with coaches.
3. Invite coaches to games, showcases and attend ID camps at the school or camps where the coach is present.
4. Evaluate invites of official visits or scholarship offers if the opportunity presents itself.
12th graders:
1. Repeat what was done during 11th grade.
The rules are set so why not find a way to make it work for the player instead of hoping/wishing the rules were different. We started the recruiting process during my DD's 9th grade year and she committed to a D1 program for the class of 2019 last summer (she is currently a junior). She is an above average player but not an elite player who garnered YNT invites. We put in the work and followed the outline above and was fortunate enough for her to be offered an opportunity to continue her soccer career at a school she wants to attend.
MakeAPlay
DA
I never said that they didn't have money for a college Cup run. I said that their spring travel plans were affected and I agree with the decision 100%.
Regarding offers, if my math is correct '03's are freshmen which is too early to decide on a college IMHO. You have 1-3 semesters/quarters of high school and don't even know how it is going to turn out so even knowing what type of college you are going to want to go to 4 years in the future is guessing at best. I think that sophomore or junior year is better but truth be told the best outcomes come when the decision is based upon the kid's overall fit for the school and that is best realized when the search process is thorough and pragmatic.
Good luck to you and your player.
Zerodenero
GOLD
Toepoke- You are preaching the Truth right here!!