Recruiting Tips for Parents Just Starting the Process

msoccerm said:
I would think that lecture-based classes are fine for some, but it requires a pretty good attention span and engaging professors.

Apologies if it looks like I'm knocking University of Arkansas because it looks like an affordable school, but the local internship possibilities are bleak:
www.fayettevillear.com

Major Employers

100 FTEs or more 5 Star Sports Calendar, LLC 3340 N College Ave www.fivestarspots.com Business Type: Printing service American Air Filter Co. Inc. 2355 S Armstrong Ave www.aafintl.com Business...
www.fayettevillear.com www.fayettevillear.com

Looks like you only went to schools with large classes sizes because it looks like you're not capable of researching, analysing and listening to other's opinions. lol
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Actually the University of Arkansas ranks #161 on Forbes list based on the best value. This compares the cost of attendance vs what graduates actually make. That is actually higher than the University of Southern California.
 
GT45 said:
Large schools do have small classes too. Thank you for the link to major employers, but I am not sure what that proves. You ignore the rest of my message. Your post was based on assumptions and inaccuracies about large schools. I pointed that out.
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And going pro equates to how much money per year?
 
Simisoccerfan said:
$40k to 50k average for established players in top leagues of US, France and England. Less for rookies. Few US National team players get big supplement from US soccer and endorsement. But that is a small fraction.
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Hmm. Might be worth playing a year or two.
Simisoccerfan said:
$40k to 50k average for established players in top leagues of US, France and England. Less for rookies. Few US National team players get big supplement from US soccer and endorsement. But that is a small fraction.
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more power to the kids that want to do it. You are only young once.
 
Simisoccerfan said:
I feel like you are naive. Regarding going pro there are around 333 D1 women's soccer programs and about 9500 players at those schools. Maybe 40 per year go pro.
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I would argue this number is higher if you count the young women who go overseas to play. Again we are talking about peanuts for pay but still I think the number is a bit higher.
 
gkrent said:
I would argue this number is higher if you count the young women who go overseas to play. Again we are talking about peanuts for pay but still I think the number is a bit higher.
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Some of the players that go overseas to play have fairly short careers, particularly if they don't speak the language. Low pay, no friends and a strange language make for a tough situation.
 
eastbaysoccer said:
Hmm. Might be worth playing a year or two.

more power to the kids that want to do it. You are only young once.
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Ain't that the truth. If it's about the almighty $$$$$$, then it's not worth it, MOO. If it's about playing pro soccer and offer good will all in one, this could all work out. Why does everything about being a pro in anything always seems to be about how much you make? I went to my old pals house up in the City of Weed, CA and he is set. Dude quit HS at 17 and never went to college. He can live off the land. No joke. Dude is a smart cat. I'm looking in the area as well. I found an old camp site that I'm looking at turning into a Holistic Healing Center right off the 5 fwry. 15 acres. I think people need to calm the heck down and relax and enjoy life up in the mountains. Mount Shasta is amazing :) The pressure cooker we made for ourselves and our kids was not good at all.
 
Tips from Crush :) Read this article about this basketball player from Socal.

www.espn.com

The most unlikely college hoops powerhouse, centuries in the making

Led by a player with NBA aspirations, Yeshiva takes a 36-game winning streak into the new season with hopes for a Division III title.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

Tip #1- Relax and enjoy this wonderful time in your dd/ds recruiting life and let them make the decision

Tip#2- D1 is over sold and over hyped, moo

Tip#3- Scholarship does NOT equal Full Ride

Tip#4- If you rush it, you will ruin it

My dd is having a blast and taking her time in this process. I wanted to share a cool story about a cool coach. I won;t mention the school but I will say it was not D1 and not in California. The bold coach told my dd he wanted a few minutes to share his vision of her playing for his program and how much the little town loves soccer and how they would embrace her talents. I was not on the call but did catch part of it and all I can say was it was the best call so far. The coach was the real deal and made my dd think about the what ifs. He made her feel like she would be important. The Tip I'm trying to point out is to keep an open mind and dont push your kid in one direction. Good luck to all the kids still trying to find a school to play for in 2022 :)
 
Re the "big school" vs "small school" dichotomy. Just my 2 cents. Factor out student athlete. Generally, if you think "my kid could benefit from having the mantle of collegiality extended to them right at the beginning", a smaller school might be a good fit. You can always transfer, and for CSU/CU, the system really wants the CUs to be looking to take those transfer students. There is an increasing recognition of the issues experienced by first gens, imposter syndrome, etc. On the big school side, if your kid is ready, don't underestimate what "Hey, I can hang with the top 10% in a class of 500" can do for individual growth. By the time those students are juniors/seniors, they will be taking smaller classes with people that know the field and who can open doors, more so than at a small school. They will come home for Christmas senior year and you'll sense the depth of experience has changed. There are some schools, of course, that can give you both, but they are low enrollment institutions that are very selective and $$$$,

Now factor student athlete back in. I don't know about the ladies side. For the guys, I've known student athletes who have told me they feel under serious pressure to be both on the travel team and getting the grades/progressing through their major. I have this feeling that to keep their job on the men's side major school D1 coaches are basically needing to figure out a way to host a USL team on a college campus. I should probably go back through my kids recruitment videos and photoshop in full build out man pecs and a beard. Maybe on the ladies side it is different, still kind of the classic student/athlete model. I don't know. But the comments in the thread along the lines of know your kid and in the end education is the most important thing seem on the mark to me. Us adults got our kids rolling on this playing has positive life lessons blah blah blah bandwagon. As that collides with the adult world we bear an equal responsibility to see them through.
 
outside! said:
Some of the players that go overseas to play have fairly short careers, particularly if they don't speak the language. Low pay, no friends and a strange language make for a tough situation.
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My son got a tryout offer from a low-level team in Germany after his Freshman year in college, the result of an early-summer tryout camp organized by a former college classmate of his last club coach. The classmate had played for a few years with the German club and when he came back to the States he used his connections here and over there to set up the camp. Five were chosen to go - one returned soon after when his bum knee gave out, three, including my son, were offered what amounted to room-and-board student visa roster positions. Two of those stayed - one for a few months until he came back for the Spring semester at college, and one who stayed and played sparingly for a couple of years and then returned to finish his schooling at an NAIA school. My son decided he had a better deal at his college (room and board and education plus a starting roster position) so he came back in time for the preseason workouts.
 
espola said:
My son got a tryout offer from a low-level team in Germany after his Freshman year in college, the result of an early-summer tryout camp organized by a former college classmate of his last club coach. The classmate had played for a few years with the German club and when he came back to the States he used his connections here and over there to set up the camp. Five were chosen to go - one returned soon after when his bum knee gave out, three, including my son, were offered what amounted to room-and-board student visa roster positions. Two of those stayed - one for a few months until he came back for the Spring semester at college, and one who stayed and played sparingly for a couple of years and then returned to finish his schooling at an NAIA school. My son decided he had a better deal at his college (room and board and education plus a starting roster position) so he came back in time for the preseason workouts.
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Is that your Tip?
 
What do you mean by neing
MMMM said:
I’l bite! My DD is a 2022, verbally committed late last year. We found that having already established relationships with the coaches at the programs she was considering was THE most important element to the process, not sure if that’s going to be the same in non-COVID years. She had attended school-specific ID camps at five-ish schools that she was talking to seriously — there was one outlier where she’d never set foot on campus and another outlier where her last ID camp had been more than 2 years prior, but the schools that were most seriously in the mix were places she’d been to camps and such on a number of occasions, all relatively local schools, which also helped because in the local soccer coaching scene the coaches at club and college all talk to each other and the assistant coaches at the colleges sometimes coach club on the side and vice versa. The biggest lesson for us was that being on a fancy team matters for talent credibility purposes, but the showcases mattered WAY LESS than we thought they would. Even in a non-COVID year, the showcases seem to be more about confirming in person what the coach is already considering from prior interactions.
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on a “fancy” team? Is that league or name brand club?
 
My daughter just asked me "I know a 5 minute highlight video is too long but is it tooooo long".

I said yes tooooo long. Thought I'd get your thoughts on here?
 
ToonArmy said:
My daughter just asked me "I know a 5 minute highlight video is too long but is it tooooo long".

I said yes tooooo long. Thought I'd get your thoughts on here?
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5 minutes is not too long if every second shows strength in a different skill. Strong right-footed shot, strong left-footed shot, run through defenders using both feet, a couple of one-touch goals (including a header), some nice set up passes, taking the ball away from opponents -- what are we up to here? 45 seconds?
 
ToonArmy said:
My daughter just asked me "I know a 5 minute highlight video is too long but is it tooooo long".

I said yes tooooo long. Thought I'd get your thoughts on here?
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Yep. You're right. Toooooo long. These coaches get an avalanche of videos every day. I had one coach tell me he will give every video 30 seconds and the ones that interest him will get 2 minutes max.
 
Mystery Train said:
Yep. You're right. Toooooo long. These coaches get an avalanche of videos every day. I had one coach tell me he will give every video 30 seconds and the ones that interest him will get 2 minutes max.
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We didn't do a highlights video per se for my son, but one of the Seniors on his HS team made a highlights DVD for the whole team the year they went all the way to CIF Socal Regional final. We took that along on campus visits or sent a copy with a list of good points to look at in the"Moves", "Steals", and "Goals" sections.
 
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espola said:
We didn't do a highlights video per se for my son, but one of the Seniors on his HS team made a highlights DVD for the whole team the year they went all the way to CIF Socal Regional final. We took that along on campus visits or sent a copy with a list of good points to look at in the"Moves", "Steals", and "Goals" sections.
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If you sent a coach a DVD today, he or she would probably use it as a coaster. They likely don't even have a DVD drive in their laptop anymore.
 
Mystery Train said:
Yep. You're right. Toooooo long. These coaches get an avalanche of videos every day. I had one coach tell me he will give every video 30 seconds and the ones that interest him will get 2 minutes max.
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If the first 2 minutes of a highlight video interests the coach do you think he/she is going to not pursue the player because the highlight video was too long for their taste?
 
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