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.
Recruiting Tips for Parents Just Starting the Process
- Thread starter MakeAPlay
- Start date
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!!
Zerodenero
GOLD
Another Truth! ......There's always the should be, ought to be, too bad to be....but it is what it is, how are you (player/parent) going to navigate in the ever changing (yet ironically the same) girls youth soccer landscape.
As complex as this Soccer recruiting thing is or seams....the outline of success is pretty much summed in this Thread.
It was once oh, so elequently summed as this...."GET IN WHERE YOU FIT IN" - Tod Anthony Shaw (aka, Too Short)
Hank Walker
BRONZE
99 out of 100 9th and 10th graders have no idea what to look for in a college fit. Academic fit, cultural fit, geographic fit, financial fit, athletic fit? As a 9th grader? No way. Once they have a couple years of high school under their belt, then they should start thinking and researching what might be a good fit.
Zerodenero
GOLD
Hank......Partner, I'm afraid I must disagree. We're not dealing with Low Hanging fruit soccer players around these parts of the country. This is SoCal, highest concentration of soccer talent in the nation.
The discussion/dialogue/pondering ideas start in 8th...7th....6th....hell, when they start to crawl. It starts in the home, From you, from me, and NOT left to the seeing where the cards lay
CaliKlines
Well-Known Member
I have to agree with you HW...almost 100% of 9th graders don't know the difference between Stanford or Samford. I have yet to meet a 5th grader that would give a damn about learning about colleges/universities. We took our player to Russia when she was 10 yrs old. All she remembers is the "circus building". (It's the Church of the Savior of Spilled Blood.)
When I asked my player what she wanted in a college, her answer was "cold weather". So we took her to unofficially visit a variety of schools to give her a foundation of understanding...We visited Washington University in St. Louis (small, private,academic D3), University of Illinois-Champaign (large public D1), Notre Dame (mid sized, private D1), and Northwestern (large, private D1). It gave her a good range, in addition to visiting some local schools. I strongly suggest exposing the student athlete to different types of schools, just so they have some idea of what a small private D3 is like, compared to a large public D1. Good luck to you and your player.
No where in my post did I say make a decision as a 9th or 10th grader as I agree that most kids that age don't know what to look for in a college. Some do but most do not. At least start the process during those years to get ideas into their head on what they may like. As ZD said it's up to the parents to educate them and you do that by keeping it simple. Big school vs small school; public vs private; faith based vs non-faith based; urban campus vs rural campus; high academic standards vs not so high standards; commuter school vs most students living on campus.... It's really not that difficult to provide them choices to discuss during the first 2 years of HS. Kids don't know what they don't know so take them to various types of campuses so they can see the difference. Don't allow the school to make the decision for them cause they offered a scholarship even though the school may not be a good fit for the kid. Provide the kid with as much information as possible beforehand so they can make an informed decision if a school does offer a scholarship. If you just let your child figure it out on their own and not help them with these decisions before their junior year then expect them to be playing catch up to kids who did do their homework. Parents are fooling themselves if they think coaches are not going to get commitments from players prior to their junior year. This new rule will just keep it from being publicized until their junior year.
Zerodenero
GOLD
Cali - I know you and a few of us old timers here have the Hatfield & McCoy thing going but dude... your flat out wrong....or not?
Question....You don't think the discussions a kid hears in the home, between parents/kids/siblings, sets a tone, sets a dream, sets aspirations that can become an ethos towards excellence?
This is just another example of the difference in our views. It may also be the reason why some of the parents on this forum have DD's who are going to Stanford, Princeton and Yale....that process was a mindset, And I am without a doubt, 100% certain it starts WELL before the 9th grade.
You and I have done our job, our dd's have chosen their path. The real question is for parents who's kid is now in the process......which side of the road are you? .....How will you guide your kid?...and will you unconsciously put a limit as to what they can, and can't do??
Hank Walker
BRONZE
Toepoke, I pretty much agree with everything you wrote and I don't mean to suggest we shouldn't direct our kids and have them well prepared for when those recruiting discussions start. However, I don't want my kids even thinking about college while they are in 9th and 10th grade. Too young, too immature and too uninformed to understand the nuances of choosing a college. And I also agree with you that my philosophy of waiting longer does put my kids at risk of missing out on some scholarship opportunities, but I don't think my kids future should be dictated by a way-too-early feeding frenzy to grab scholarship money while it's still available.
And to Zerodenero's point, I'm not saying that a family shouldn't have an academic plan and process that opens as many doors as possible for your kids at the end of high school. And yes, that process starts well before 9th grade but for me, it is a completely separate discussion from recruiting timelines.
MakeAPlay
DA
ZD as always your words should be forum canon. Good luck to you and your player!
MakeAPlay
DA
Maybe in your household this is true but that doesn't surprise me. And don't be a Melania. Get your own catchphrase. LOL!!
That's pretty obvious right @Zerodenero ?
As someone who is knee deep in the process and in the middle of everything you're debating, I will comment. What i've learned so far is that the information on this forum (all of it) is very helpful as a backdrop for understanding the process and for helping our kids determine what might be the best choice for them. In my kids case, she is a Freshman, but has known for a long time she was going to be on the college athlete path. We've been doing our best to show her different environments, but things have definitely accelerated with the interest levels from different schools and she believes she knows where she wants to be. Luckily, that school is looking hard at her and she's hoping to commit there soon (before August when the next set of rules are implemented). I honestly struggle with the feeling of being rushed and trying to ensure she gets everything she/we need... financials, soccer program, academics, etc... This school checks all boxes for her, so as long as the financials work out, she will move forward with them. Wish us luck!
I was part of the old forum when my DD was a Ulittle and I learned a lot from posters who's kids were older or already in college (MAP, ZD, Cali, IZ). The research process for us wasn't something that was time consuming or constant for 2 straight years. We avoided the feeding frenzy and feeling rushed to make a decision by discussing topics here and there when on vacation, at showcases, home watching college soccer on TV or when coaches showed interest via our coach after games. It sounds like your DD is a Ulittle or will be starting HS next year so I understand your thought process as I was there also. Enjoy the journey because it will be over sooner than you know it.
I don't understand. As it is now, your child can choose to wait to make a decision until junior year. Someone esle's can choose freshman year if she is ready and has good offers. Why not just make it a personal choice instead of a rule?
As I have stated before, if there must be a rule, I'd be hoping for allowing commits (verbal) in sophomore year instead of junior as I do feel that's the most realistic time frame and leaves plenty of opportunity for exploring options.