2018-2019 Club Fees

[OCsoccerdad7777]

There are so many things to consider. To my DD the first thing was do they have her major. She was fortunate because she knew what she wanted to major in and that in itself removed a lot of schools from her consideration.

She chose an NAIA school. It's a small, private Christian school that fits her perfectly.

As far as what is needed on the Mens side for a D1? I will say this. At my DDs school, the Mens team was nationally ranked. The team plays better then my Nephews D1 team did, but that's just my opinion. The teams Goalkeeper who just graduated,signed a USL contract. On top of that they have a handful of D1 transfers. But just because a school is D1 doesn't mean that they will automatically get all the top recruits nor does it mean that all the top players want to go there. Some prefer smaller schools or like being the "BigFish" in a little pond.

But grades are so important. Bad grades will prevent your kid from getting into a school while good grades will open doors. Im my opinion, and its only mine, 3.8 is what your kid should be shooting for. My current HS kid is at a 3.8 now but has a looooong way to go if he wants to get a scholarship. Too many injuries has limited his playing time so we might guide him to a JC first.

Great info thank you.
Just one final question. Does your kid have to be a top 3 player skill wise on a good Flight 1 or Gold level team to even be considered by the school for scholarship?Or do they have to be even better. Like top 2 or be Academy level?

 

[Multi Sport]

Great info thank you.
Just one final question. Does your kid have to be a top 3 player skill wise on a good Flight 1 or Gold level team to even be considered by the school for scholarship?Or do they have to be even better. Like top 2 or be Academy level?

All I can speak of is my daughter and nephew.

What they had in common:

Good grades
Speed
Skill

How they were different:

My daughter is slight in build. When she arrived at her college I think she was about 116 lbs. At 5'-6" that is slight. But she was always like that and thats why she had to have better skills.

Nephew was not big when he left HS but because he was 21 when he started at his D1 school he had already filled out. Solid build.

He was a very aggressive player. My daughter, as you can imagine, prefers to go around a player so definitely not a very aggressive player.

My daughter is comfortable with the ball on either foot and can strike equally with either foot. That was a big plus for the coach.

My nephew was predominantly right footed but capable with his left.

Her slight build was a concern for her college coach but fortunately her club coach went to bat for her. So keeping your club coach in the loop is a good idea.

Best advice I can give you is be realistic. @Surfref made a great post about pushing kids into a school that is over their heads academically. The pace of classes in college on top of practice is too much for some kids. If your kid is already having a hard time in HS then maybe JC is the route for them. Of course there are exceptions, especially for those top ten nationally ranked players, but for the rest...

There are some good post on the College recruiting pages.

Best of luck.

 

[coachrefparent]

She receives more academic then athletic.

I assume the ratio is something close to 90/10, no?

 

[Multi Sport]

I assume the ratio is something close to 90/10, no?

Probably something closer to 80/20. Coaches love players with good grades. They don't have to worry if the kid will be able to get into the school and they don't have to eat up all their scholarship funds.

I think the year my daughter entered the school the acceptance rate was around 40% so having strong grades along with good ACT scores makes the coaches life much easier.

 

[OCsoccerdad7777]

All I can speak of is my daughter and nephew.

What they had in common:

Good grades
Speed
Skill

How they were different:

My daughter is slight in build. When she arrived at her college I think she was about 116 lbs. At 5'-6" that is slight. But she was always like that and thats why she had to have better skills.

Nephew was not big when he left HS but because he was 21 when he started at his D1 school he had already filled out. Solid build.

He was a very aggressive player. My daughter, as you can imagine, prefers to go around a player so definitely not a very aggressive player.

My daughter is comfortable with the ball on either foot and can strike equally with either foot. That was a big plus for the coach.

My nephew was predominantly right footed but capable with his left.

Her slight build was a concern for her college coach but fortunately her club coach went to bat for her. So keeping your club coach in the loop is a good idea.

Best advice I can give you is be realistic. @Surfref made a great post about pushing kids into a school that is over their heads academically. The pace of classes in college on top of practice is too much for some kids. If your kid is already having a hard time in HS then maybe JC is the route for them. Of course there are exceptions, especially for those top ten nationally ranked players, but for the rest...

There are some good post on the College recruiting pages.

Best of luck.

Thanks!! I will check those pages.
Good luck to your daughter.

 

[coachsamy]

Great info thank you.
Just one final question. Does your kid have to be a top 3 player skill wise on a good Flight 1 or Gold level team to even be considered by the school for scholarship?Or do they have to be even better. Like top 2 or be Academy level?

What I have learn for recruiting purposes beyond the kids that are in the national team player pool, things that might help as well. Find a good coach that will recognize your child strengths and help improve the weaknesses. Take video, edit it and send the videos out to the college coaches in which your kid is interested in, and that might be a fit for the kid. ECNL and DA showcases have made it way too easy for player discovery for D1 coaches, but they know there are gems that for whatever reason (Money, They value life, Distance, Politics, etc.) can't play in top teams, and being able to see these kids and have some sort of exposure it makes it easier for them to look at it.

Normally the self starter kids that have great amount of dedication to whatever they do, are the ones that succeed in the next level, while taking advantage of a good education.

 

[Multi Sport]

.. but they know there are gems that for whatever reason (Money, They value life, Distance, Politics, etc.) can't play

Too funny!

 

[Eagle33]

Nothing wrong with a JC. My oldest went the JC route for four years until she figured out what she wanted to do with her life. She ended up getting some good academic scholarships from UCSD and ultimately a BS and Masters. She now makes around $150K working for a software company that primarily has military contracts. My youngest got $14000 in scholarships($11k soccer and $3k academic) plus in-state tuition to a D1 college in the Southeast. After the first year she came back home because she hated the racism of the Southeast, disliked the college and area, and the soccer program. She came back to SoCal and has attended a JC and will transfer to a D1 next year. She has chose not to play college soccer and focus on her major. She is still involved in soccer as a club coach, referee and plays in a local adult league and indoor.

My daughter knows several very good players that were mediocre academically and got accepted to colleges because of their soccer abilities. All of them dropped out of college and are working waitressing or retail jobs because they could not keep up academically at the college level. They would have probably done better if they started at a JC and started off with a lighter and easier class load. All of them had parents that were constantly bragging about how great their daughters were on the soccer field and pushed them toward colleges that academically they were not prepared for. Parents and kids need to have realistic expectations when it comes to college soccer and academics.

I wish you would tell this to my kid, since he don't listen to me

 

[Multi Sport]

I wish you would tell this to my kid, since he don't listen to me

My oldest, who graduated Cal Poly two years ago, was the same way. He was obsessed with going straight to a four year but my wife and I knew he was not ready. His grades were good, not great and even took AP classes but he lacked in maturity. During his two years in JC he really matured and when he transferred to Cal Poly Pomona he was ready.

He was still bitter about it until the year he was set to graduate. That year, for Christmas, he wrote a letter to my wife and I explainng how he felt coming out of HS and how now he understood why we did what we did. He expressed how thankful he was that we did not give in to him, that we were indeed looking out for his best interest. That was one of the best Christmas gifts I received ever.

 

[mirage]

My oldest.....His grades were good, not great and even took AP classes but he lacked in maturity. During his two years in JC he really matured and when he transferred to Cal Poly Pomona he was ready......

Not sure how this Club Fee thread became college recruiting and experience thread - clearly hi-jacked somewhere along the way....

Some kids benefit from JC. One of our friend's kid spent two years in JC and applied to several UCs' and got into all of them, except UCLA. He is going to UCI now. He's dad said that he'd have never been accepted into any UC because his grades were not great (low 3s). So I see the benefit too.

Having said that, its worth noting the value of immature student growing up in an 4-year institution environment, rather than JC environment. The exposure and diversity (I mean different instructors and students from all over the world) a student grows in the same two years is significantly different. So the difficult thing is it depends on the kid. And the criteria may have nothing to do with academics or maturity; rather, kid's comfort level to uncertainties and willingness/openness to change.

If a kid goes to JC, chances are that the kid is living at home or nearby, even if not at home. If a kid goes away to school, he/she is living at a dorm (1st year anyway, if not all the years) and only sees the family at holidays and few other times a year. It tends to grow the kid up rather quickly, and be exposed to new ideas and thoughts outside of the family thinking.

Back to soccer. The structure of the team and team activities help form a framework and provides stability in the student athletes life, especially early on. By being on a collegiate team, it also gives sense of deep pride and ownership of the university, which regular students don't get a chance to experience. Since my kid reported early, prior to the college starting, by the time the first day of school came, he was completely comfortable and not at all overwhelmed with chaos of the starting his first year.

On the forum, we only talk about getting recruited, scholarships and liking or disliking the college coaches/team but the student athletes have so many more benefits beyond the obvious. From the system perspective, its great to have registration priority as an athlete and get you classes when you need them and not have to deal with waitlisted or petition to add, as an example. Socially, other students notice the players and easier to make friends and network in classrooms, especially when first starting at the university.

Obviously big school versus small school makes a big difference too, along with where the college is (metropolitan city vs rural country). So looking at school without soccer is very important. The hard part is matching up education quality + location+ soccer recruitment. If you can get the Venn diagram to work for you, then you've got a winner.

 

[Surfref]

Not sure how this Club Fee thread became college recruiting and experience thread - clearly hi-jacked somewhere along the way....

Some kids benefit from JC. One of our friend's kid spent two years in JC and applied to several UCs' and got into all of them, except UCLA. He is going to UCI now. He's dad said that he'd have never been accepted into any UC because his grades were not great (low 3s). So I see the benefit too.

Having said that, its worth noting the value of immature student growing up in an 4-year institution environment, rather than JC environment. The exposure and diversity (I mean different instructors and students from all over the world) a student grows in the same two years is significantly different. So the difficult thing is it depends on the kid. And the criteria may have nothing to do with academics or maturity; rather, kid's comfort level to uncertainties and willingness/openness to change.

If a kid goes to JC, chances are that the kid is living at home or nearby, even if not at home. If a kid goes away to school, he/she is living at a dorm (1st year anyway, if not all the years) and only sees the family at holidays and few other times a year. It tends to grow the kid up rather quickly, and be exposed to new ideas and thoughts outside of the family thinking.

Back to soccer. The structure of the team and team activities help form a framework and provides stability in the student athletes life, especially early on. By being on a collegiate team, it also gives sense of deep pride and ownership of the university, which regular students don't get a chance to experience. Since my kid reported early, prior to the college starting, by the time the first day of school came, he was completely comfortable and not at all overwhelmed with chaos of the starting his first year.

On the forum, we only talk about getting recruited, scholarships and liking or disliking the college coaches/team but the student athletes have so many more benefits beyond the obvious. From the system perspective, its great to have registration priority as an athlete and get you classes when you need them and not have to deal with waitlisted or petition to add, as an example. Socially, other students notice the players and easier to make friends and network in classrooms, especially when first starting at the university.

Obviously big school versus small school makes a big difference too, along with where the college is (metropolitan city vs rural country). So looking at school without soccer is very important. The hard part is matching up education quality + location+ soccer recruitment. If you can get the Venn diagram to work for you, then you've got a winner.

Good post and some good points. My daughter has been attending a larger JC these past two years with a student population of 45,000. She has teammates and friends that she met at college from all over the world, Sweden, Australia, Guam, Bonaire, Brazil, Canada just to name a few. She also does not live at home since the drive to school is 30-60 minutes depending on traffic. She is close enough that she can come over on the weekend or we can go over if she needs us. Her problem with the D1 school is that the coach that recruited her left and the replacement coach was an a-hole and did not know how to work with 18-23 year old women.

 

[Overlap]

I have 3 kids playing 3 different clubs/levels of seriousness; the least competitive/smallest club always includes the cost of uniforms in the fees, the biggest/most "serious" doesn't. I know to expect the extra cost now but it really does irritate me. Just include it in the fees!!

Can't, it makes it sound too expensive!