It also gives the student a little bit of breathing room for scheduling if they are starting out in a rigorous D1 sports program in fall. Having a lot of credits can make that first semester/quarter a LOT easier to deal with.
Recruiting Tips for Parents Just Starting the Process
- Thread starter MakeAPlay
- Start date
It also gives the student a little bit of breathing room for scheduling if they are starting out in a rigorous D1 sports program in fall. Having a lot of credits can make that first semester/quarter a LOT easier to deal with.
CaliKlines
Well-Known Member
Another tip is to make sure your player is thanking the college coach at every opportunity. Even if they come to one of your matches and don't specifically indicate interest in your player, if it is a school they would like to attend, send the coach a thank you note for coming to the match. Maybe their attention was diverted when he/she had a nice run of play...if you are thanking them, they may come back out for a second look.
MakeAPlay
DA
Some players come in as Academic juniors thanks to AP classes and community college.
Multi Sport
DA
True on the weighted GPA. Not true on not worth the rigor. Besides getting college credit and starting off one step ahead it teaches the kid time management. It's not for every kid but if they can handle it I would recommend it.
What do you guys think about ID camps that are hosted by colleges? I'm planning to have my daughter go to one or two this August. They are not too terribly expensive so I was thinking it would be a good experience.
MakeAPlay
DA
I think they are a great idea if she is interested in the school. It is even better if she is invited by the school.
Zerodenero
GOLD
Can be very effective method for your dd to get noticed by her college of choice. Even better if she's invited by said school. In our experience, camps seems to work well with DII & III schools that don't have the athletic budgets to sent their coaches across the country from showcase to showcase.
Going back in memory/thinking about my DD's recruiting experience, back in the ulittle (I think U11 or 12) we sent her to a college camp at west coast powerhouse academic/athletic university.........it was money well spent because the "dream" for her became tangible. It really seemed to set the seed in her mind to get recruited & play in college. It worked as she's now committed to a D1 elite academic university.
She gets a lot of emails that are dir
That's awesome! That is what I hope for...that it will plant the seed and give her a little boost! My daughter can be so hard on herself and be so insecure sometimes. No matter how many times she hears she is a good player, she is always doubtful. We receive a ton of mass generic emails from college ID camps but she has also gotten some that are addressed specifically to her. I wasn't sure if this an authentic invitation or if her name was just pulled off a complied list of girls on top teams. She also received one invitation that, while it was just a flyer, the address on the envelope was hand written to her. Since it was from one of the schools she had written to in the past and she is interested in, I took it to be a good sign and convinced her to give it a shot! We will see if we get some positive feedback.
Do the kids get an evaluation or anything of the sort at these ID camps?
Also, should she write to the coaches that will be in attendance at these ID camps?
Zerodenero
GOLD
IMO, depends on her age....if she's nearing the recruiting age (8th grade) - sure..... Then again, I suppose it wouldn't/couldn't hurt reaching out to the coach. Good practice for HER to reach out and practice for the prime time of recruiting (9th - 11th grade).
Without naming particular schools, there are few things to keep in mind regarding ID camps.
All ID camps are fundraisers so the invite list is quite large. Within that, are some real interests at times.
Just because its addressed to your particular child, I would not interpret that to mean its a personal invite from the coach. Many mail programs will address canned notes to individuals from their database. Some of these canned notes sound quite personal these days. If it has some additional attributes with the note (e.g., saw you play at XXX tournament, viewed your highlight videos, noticing grades and accomplishments, ...), then chances are that a coach did take some notice and is interested in finding out bit more about the player.
Some schools use ID camps almost strictly as money makers, whereas some actually find players and recruit from it. Its hard to know which is which but a good indicator is looking at a coach to camper ratio. Many schools invite other school coaches to the camp (their buddies) and they run the teams during the camp while the school hosting the camp actually scouts the players. Some schools run the camp only with their staff and limit the campers by capping the total players to maintain adequate ration. Then there are some that hosts as many as they can get over a couple of days.
The big consolidated camps run by a third party, where they invite coaches from 30~50 schools, typically ends up nothing more than an introduction to some of the attending coaches and they, in turn, invite the players to their own school's ID camp thereafter. That said, I know a case where the player met his coach of interest at one these big camps, and continued dialogues through the year until their ID camp came up and was greeted by the player first name when attending the institution's camp, resulting in a very positive feedback at the end to continue on.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the camp is simply an intro and liken to "first date", as it were. The courtship goes a long ways before anything is consummated into an offer. While shotgun deals may happen here and there, it is unusual and one probably should not expect it. Reason - many coaches been burned by flashy players and later regretted their decision. Good coaches will take their time and perform due diligence of the player and the family.
The college coaches are looking at everything at ID camps, such as work ethics, social interactions with other players during breaks meals and info sessions, conduct on the field during plays and so on. Not just soccer skills and abilities.
Last, most camps are not meant to be a development camp, but is an evaluation camp for their purposes. If you want any feedback, make a point to go talk to the coaches after the camp is over and often that will either close the door, or keep it open and to continue on further with the school. Keep in mind that it is just as important to eliminate schools from your list as the time go by so that one is not chasing everywhere. Go where you are wanted.....
ps, last last thing on this. We've setup a different email for academic correspondence versus soccer correspondence. My kid gets recruiting emails from all over the country, highly famous to never heard of schools, and fills up the inbox for academics. By using different email for soccer, you can keep track of which school is emailing for soccer or academics.
These are my takeaways from my kid and teammates doing few ID camps. YMMV....
All ID camps are fundraisers so the invite list is quite large. Within that, are some real interests at times.
Just because its addressed to your particular child, I would not interpret that to mean its a personal invite from the coach. Many mail programs will address canned notes to individuals from their database. Some of these canned notes sound quite personal these days. If it has some additional attributes with the note (e.g., saw you play at XXX tournament, viewed your highlight videos, noticing grades and accomplishments, ...), then chances are that a coach did take some notice and is interested in finding out bit more about the player.
Some schools use ID camps almost strictly as money makers, whereas some actually find players and recruit from it. Its hard to know which is which but a good indicator is looking at a coach to camper ratio. Many schools invite other school coaches to the camp (their buddies) and they run the teams during the camp while the school hosting the camp actually scouts the players. Some schools run the camp only with their staff and limit the campers by capping the total players to maintain adequate ration. Then there are some that hosts as many as they can get over a couple of days.
The big consolidated camps run by a third party, where they invite coaches from 30~50 schools, typically ends up nothing more than an introduction to some of the attending coaches and they, in turn, invite the players to their own school's ID camp thereafter. That said, I know a case where the player met his coach of interest at one these big camps, and continued dialogues through the year until their ID camp came up and was greeted by the player first name when attending the institution's camp, resulting in a very positive feedback at the end to continue on.
The other thing to keep in mind is that the camp is simply an intro and liken to "first date", as it were. The courtship goes a long ways before anything is consummated into an offer. While shotgun deals may happen here and there, it is unusual and one probably should not expect it. Reason - many coaches been burned by flashy players and later regretted their decision. Good coaches will take their time and perform due diligence of the player and the family.
The college coaches are looking at everything at ID camps, such as work ethics, social interactions with other players during breaks meals and info sessions, conduct on the field during plays and so on. Not just soccer skills and abilities.
Last, most camps are not meant to be a development camp, but is an evaluation camp for their purposes. If you want any feedback, make a point to go talk to the coaches after the camp is over and often that will either close the door, or keep it open and to continue on further with the school. Keep in mind that it is just as important to eliminate schools from your list as the time go by so that one is not chasing everywhere. Go where you are wanted.....
ps, last last thing on this. We've setup a different email for academic correspondence versus soccer correspondence. My kid gets recruiting emails from all over the country, highly famous to never heard of schools, and fills up the inbox for academics. By using different email for soccer, you can keep track of which school is emailing for soccer or academics.
These are my takeaways from my kid and teammates doing few ID camps. YMMV....
MakeAPlay
DA
Great post. Very thorough and true. When my player went to the ID camp of the school she is now attending it was clear by what team you were placed on during the summer camp whether you were a player that they were interested in or not. The coaches watched and were engaged in the the games that they placed their prospects on versus the rank and file players. 3 of the players on my daughter's team at the ID camp are members of her recruiting class so take note of any other excellent players. They may be future teammates and if your daughter is on a team with a lot of exceptional players then that is a good sign.
SS22
BRONZE
What is power 5? Thanks in advance
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten Conference (B1G), Big 12 Conference, Pac-12 Conference, and Southeastern Conference (SEC).
Surfref
PREMIER
Not so much advice, as what can go wrong even if you do all your homework and investigate the college. My DD had a bad experience with the university that recruited her and gave her a $14000 scholarship to play. She was recruited by the female head coach. That coach left the school for a higher level school in the late spring before my DD reported to the college. We found out about the coaching change when she reported for training in late July. The male coach who took over the head coach job had primarily only coached boys. In a nutshell, he was a horrible girls coach and could not relate to 18-22 year old women. Instead of building team unity, he created an environment that put the girls in direct competition with each other. DD started every game beginning in mid-September until she tore her MCL the last week in October. In mid-November, DD told us she was coming home and had already made arrangements to attend a JC in San Diego before transferring to a CS or UC, and she needed one of us to come drive cross country with her. She actually liked the university and her teachers, but was so demoralized by the soccer program she felt she needed to get out of that environment. I am just glad she was mature enough to make the decision and plans on her own and get away from the toxic soccer environment. DD was one of 6 out of 8 Freshmen that chose to either leave the college or not play as a Sophomore. She will be playing at the JC this fall and is already practicing and having a great time.
So, no matter how much research you do on the college and the program things can still go wrong. If they do go wrong, just support your kid.
So, no matter how much research you do on the college and the program things can still go wrong. If they do go wrong, just support your kid.
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Have your kid hang out after the camp and talk to the coach. Obviously you hope the coach is like you're the kid we've been waiting for. More likely, is you find out what positions he's looking looking to fill at your kid's age group, and when/where they recruit. Then you go to work finding a way to get your kid out on a field in front of them so they can watch the kid play in a real match. Camps by their nature are designed so everyone has fun, which makes standing out somewhat tricky...
It's easier if you get your kid on a team that travels to showcases. At a showcase the college coaches watch the teams from the sideline and will mention to the coach/manager which players caught their eye. Which often leads to a phone call where the player gets invited to attend a university soccer camp for a meet cute...
It won't matter later
SILVER
Another tidbit on the email. We used one email for ECNL registration, one for recruiting brochures and another for direct contact with schools. It made it much easier to know the difference between an invite that went to everyone in the ECNL database versus one based on having seen her play. Then she used a separate one when she emailed coaches inviting them to watch her play. It also really helps to have other families on the team where you can say "hey, did Suzie get an email from U of___ for camp?" Of course this requires everyone to not be sensitive or butt-hurt and insecure when they do not get the same invite. And nowadays, that is not always possible.
It won't matter later
SILVER
Amen! And good luck to your daughter.