Process/timing for girls' college soccer recruitment?

[Anonymous]

Curious what the timing/process is for girls' college soccer recruitment. I have a current 9th grader who has been playing club soccer since she was 6. She has always been very talented . . . but her interest level has waxed and waned so I figured no chance she would want to try and play in college. But, she had a blast on her varsity soccer team this fall, and now her interest seems to be gearing up again. Wondering what girls who want to play in college do to explore that possibility. She is on a weak/middling club team (local/closest option for us - and we've never been motivated to add in a commte) and I assume would need to try and switch to ECNL or ECNL-RL for next year (her sophomore year) if she truly is interested, right? Other? If you don't have a college pinned down by junior year are you toast?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious what the timing/process is for girls' college soccer recruitment. I have a current 9th grader who has been playing club soccer since she was 6. She has always been very talented . . . but her interest level has waxed and waned so I figured no chance she would want to try and play in college. But, she had a blast on her varsity soccer team this fall, and now her interest seems to be gearing up again. Wondering what girls who want to play in college do to explore that possibility. She is on a weak/middling club team (local/closest option for us - and we've never been motivated to add in a commte) and I assume would need to try and switch to ECNL or ECNL-RL for next year (her sophomore year) if she truly is interested, right? Other? If you don't have a college pinned down by junior year are you toast?

U16 is the big year for recruitment for girls. From November/Dec showcases of U16 through about Jan. U17. Most D1 recruiting is done at that point though some schools (e.g., ivy league) keep recruiting through spring of U17. D3 continue recruiting a bit longer. This is not to say there won't be a spot for a strong player who is coming back from injury, for example. It just gets more difficult. It really helps to be on an ECNL team. Most U17 (juniors) recruited so far are from ECNL, then, GA, then ECNL-R and other leagues, including internationals. If getting on an ECNL/GA team isn't possible, I would recommend targeting schools that your daughter is really interested in (and are not total reach schools) and going to their ID camps (not ID camps that have 30 schools attending). Email their coaching staff and send lots of quality video highlights (though they can't respond until after June 15 following sophomore year). It will be a tough road on a "weak/middling" club team, as you said, but if she targets the right schools and also has good grades, it's not impossible. Note that HS soccer isn't going to help. College coaches don't go to HS games and generally don't care for video from HS games because the quality of play isn't great. I hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Very helpful thx - so most recruiting is done sophomore year (fall)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very helpful thx - so most recruiting is done sophomore year (fall)?

Most recruiting starts around fall/winter sophomore year and goes into high gear spring/summer after sophomore year. D1 college coaches can start calling/emailing players directly after June 15 following sophomore year. They can reach out to the player's club coach before that to express interest. Offers start going out summer/fall of junior year and many D1 schools (especially big schools other than ivy league) are done with offers by January of junior year. D3s and lower D1 continue giving out offers through spring/summer after junior year. After that, it's mostly lower D3 that continue giving offers into fall of senior year. Again, this is the girls' timeline. It's different for boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious what the timing/process is for girls' college soccer recruitment. I have a current 9th grader who has been playing club soccer since she was 6. She has always been very talented . . . but her interest level has waxed and waned so I figured no chance she would want to try and play in college. But, she had a blast on her varsity soccer team this fall, and now her interest seems to be gearing up again. Wondering what girls who want to play in college do to explore that possibility. She is on a weak/middling club team (local/closest option for us - and we've never been motivated to add in a commte) and I assume would need to try and switch to ECNL or ECNL-RL for next year (her sophomore year) if she truly is interested, right? Other? If you don't have a college pinned down by junior year are you toast?

HS soccer is very different than club. I would assume that it would wane again for club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very helpful thx - so most recruiting is done sophomore year (fall)?

Most recruiting starts around fall/winter sophomore year and goes into high gear spring/summer after sophomore year. D1 college coaches can start calling/emailing players directly after June 15 following sophomore year. They can reach out to the player's club coach before that to express interest. Offers start going out summer/fall of junior year and many D1 schools (especially big schools other than ivy league) are done with offers by January of junior year. D3s and lower D1 continue giving out offers through spring/summer after junior year. After that, it's mostly lower D3 that continue giving offers into fall of senior year. Again, this is the girls' timeline. It's different for boys.

Is the recruitment earlier for boys?

[Anonymous]

How does work in regions where club/travel soccer isn't a thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very helpful thx - so most recruiting is done sophomore year (fall)?

Most recruiting starts around fall/winter sophomore year and goes into high gear spring/summer after sophomore year. D1 college coaches can start calling/emailing players directly after June 15 following sophomore year. They can reach out to the player's club coach before that to express interest. Offers start going out summer/fall of junior year and many D1 schools (especially big schools other than ivy league) are done with offers by January of junior year. D3s and lower D1 continue giving out offers through spring/summer after junior year. After that, it's mostly lower D3 that continue giving offers into fall of senior year. Again, this is the girls' timeline. It's different for boys.

Is the recruitment earlier for boys?

No later. usually not until junior or seniors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does work in regions where club/travel soccer isn't a thing?

You need to play club/travel if you want to play in college. There are girls who travel 1-2 hours to get to a practice with a good team because the teams in their area aren't strong. Not to say that's great but it's unlikely to get recruited just by playing HS soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very helpful thx - so most recruiting is done sophomore year (fall)?

Most recruiting starts around fall/winter sophomore year and goes into high gear spring/summer after sophomore year. D1 college coaches can start calling/emailing players directly after June 15 following sophomore year. They can reach out to the player's club coach before that to express interest. Offers start going out summer/fall of junior year and many D1 schools (especially big schools other than ivy league) are done with offers by January of junior year. D3s and lower D1 continue giving out offers through spring/summer after junior year. After that, it's mostly lower D3 that continue giving offers into fall of senior year. Again, this is the girls' timeline. It's different for boys.

Is the recruitment earlier for boys?

Oh, no, no NO. It is MUCH later. We had so many coaches tell us Sophomore summer was too early. Many told us they don't even start truly looking until mid-Junior year of HS. Ivies and top academic D3s told us summer before and Fall of Senior year. They are still recruiting Seniors for some of these schools. It can go until Feb/March of Senior year.

Boys grow/develop much later and boys from 9th to 12th can be starkly different. My sons did not even have growth spurts until 16--towards end of Sophomore year. Some of the big Freshmen were not big by Junior year and kind of fell off when others caught up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very helpful thx - so most recruiting is done sophomore year (fall)?

Most recruiting starts around fall/winter sophomore year and goes into high gear spring/summer after sophomore year. D1 college coaches can start calling/emailing players directly after June 15 following sophomore year. They can reach out to the player's club coach before that to express interest. Offers start going out summer/fall of junior year and many D1 schools (especially big schools other than ivy league) are done with offers by January of junior year. D3s and lower D1 continue giving out offers through spring/summer after junior year. After that, it's mostly lower D3 that continue giving offers into fall of senior year. Again, this is the girls' timeline. It's different for boys.

Is the recruitment earlier for boys?

No later. usually not until junior or seniors.

Yep. Many still do not know by 'national signing day'. Many don't commit until after Jan of Senior year. The very very top ranked schools will grab earlier, but vast majority still have a few open spots for winter/spring of Senior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does work in regions where club/travel soccer isn't a thing?

You need to play club/travel if you want to play in college. There are girls who travel 1-2 hours to get to a practice with a good team because the teams in their area aren't strong. Not to say that's great but it's unlikely to get recruited just by playing HS soccer.

Highly unlikely. Our kids were repeatedly told by college coaches: we do not care about HS soccer.

[Anonymous]

Lots of schools have expressed interest through coaches during Sophomore year. Is this typical? For those that are now Juniors, How real is interest or did it rarely manifest in an offer? Trying to manage expectations and target realistic schools.

[Anonymous]

Folks, you have to be honest about recruiting possibilities. If a kid doesn’t play club, there are no options. If a kid plays weak club, it’s still pretty much a no. Not only do you have to shine in your highlight videos, it has to be against real competition. College soccer is not high school, and the coaches want to win with impact players.
If you aren’t already on an ECNL, Rl, or GA team, or at least EDP 1 at the national level, you will have a hard time at many school. Look up SRUSA on FB for advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious what the timing/process is for girls' college soccer recruitment. I have a current 9th grader who has been playing club soccer since she was 6. She has always been very talented . . . but her interest level has waxed and waned so I figured no chance she would want to try and play in college. But, she had a blast on her varsity soccer team this fall, and now her interest seems to be gearing up again. Wondering what girls who want to play in college do to explore that possibility. She is on a weak/middling club team (local/closest option for us - and we've never been motivated to add in a commte) and I assume would need to try and switch to ECNL or ECNL-RL for next year (her sophomore year) if she truly is interested, right? Other? If you don't have a college pinned down by junior year are you toast?

Hello! Just wanted to shed some light on this for you. My DD, 18, is currently a freshman playing at a D1 school, and we’ve been through this all before. We were in a very similar situation where she played on her local team until her freshman year of high school, then went to an ECNL team, where she was able to earn a starting role at the club. She definitely worked her butt off all throughout high school, but is playing in college right now and is doing great.

I was a bit skeptical of all the travel and how good ECNL was until we were playing there. But the difference is night and day. The girls get so much more visiblity from college coaches, and for my daughter the club was really able to help guide her through the process. I don’t think the ECNL club had better coaching that the smaller club, but the girls did get seen by college coaches.

So to answer your question, this is the year to enter ECNL if possible. Sophomore year is incredibly important for girls recruiting, and this is the time when the college coaches are really learning looking at players.

If your DD is able to really compete in ECNL next year, she has a shot at D1 schools, and can definitely play at a D2 or D3 school. However if she stays on the team she’s on or moves to ECNL-RL she still might have a chance to play D3, but D1 chances are slim. Either way, just do what’s best for her and your family. There are so many college soccer programs in the country (especially D3), that there is a spot for anyone to play college soccer. Anyway, good luck! You’ve got this!