College soccer. How good do you need to make a decent team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ignore it as a way in to college, or the way to pay for college. Please.

no - don't listen to this OP. esp if you are asian or unhooked kid. My siblings were all a decade younger than me and we pushed them in soccer as a way to get a hook that otherwise wouldn't have nabbed them acceptance to 'top schools'. i.e. your typical 2100/2150, top 10% student that gets shut out of ivies or top slacs because they are non-urm and un-hooked.

Yeah, it can help you get in, but you still have to have great academic stats for those schools. (A superstar can probably get into an Ivy with less-than-great academics but each team will probably have a few.)

pp you are responding to - perhaps we have different criteria for what is 'great academic stats' but i don't consider 2100-2200 sat/top 10% student in middle class flyover public to be great academic stats. however that was above the median for the soccer teams my siblings played in at their ivies and slac.

there are tens of thousands of students nationwide with those stats. while the ivies use the academic index, it dips pretty low IMO for athletes. but then again it depends what you define as great or not.

great for me is 2250+/top 2-5% class ranked kid at a competitive HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ignore it as a way in to college, or the way to pay for college. Please.

no - don't listen to this OP. esp if you are asian or unhooked kid. My siblings were all a decade younger than me and we pushed them in soccer as a way to get a hook that otherwise wouldn't have nabbed them acceptance to 'top schools'. i.e. your typical 2100/2150, top 10% student that gets shut out of ivies or top slacs because they are non-urm and un-hooked.

Yeah, it can help you get in, but you still have to have great academic stats for those schools. (A superstar can probably get into an Ivy with less-than-great academics but each team will probably have a few.)

pp you are responding to - perhaps we have different criteria for what is 'great academic stats' but i don't consider 2100-2200 sat/top 10% student in middle class flyover public to be great academic stats. however that was above the median for the soccer teams my siblings played in at their ivies and slac.

there are tens of thousands of students nationwide with those stats. while the ivies use the academic index, it dips pretty low IMO for athletes. but then again it depends what you define as great or not.

great for me is 2250+/top 2-5% class ranked kid at a competitive HS.

I laughed at this as my youngest (7) has two much older siblings who have taken over his sports training and management. They want to make sure he isn't hindered by any of the mistakes we made along the way with their sports careers. I think it's very sweet!

Back to the topic, people in the huge soccer thread on DCUM have talked about there being something like a 5% chance of a youth soccer player playing in college. That has not been my experience at all. I'd say around 25% of the kids I know who are still playing soccer in high school have been able to play in college if they wanted to. The majority of them are at, or will be attending, DIII schools. Like the PP said, being decent at a sport can indeed provide a nice admissions boost, and you do not need to be a great player to be recruited to a DIII school with a so-so team. This is especially true if you are a girl, as there are a lot more slots for girls' sports than there are for boys. If you want to be recruited for a good college soccer team, DIII or other, you should be looking to be a starter on top level club teams.

[Anonymous]

There are around 39,000 who play men's soccer at all colleges - and 38,000 for women.

There's a range of levels of play at colleges - and even among the DIII and liberal arts schools, some have more competitive soccer programs than others.

Basically, what you seem to really be asking is if you can tell by age 12 if it's worth and how much effort to invest in having your kid play competitively now and even through high school/club level age -- which would be the first steps in the goal of potentially having a kid play in college. These day, the typical path is to try to play on as competitive a club level team as possible. Some high school programs tho are stronger than others and some kids can thrive in different environments. But there is generally a gap in the coaching and level of play b/w high school and the various club levels up through the DA levels. But it is generalities. There are lots of kids who play on HS teams in the DMV who end up playing at DIII and SLAC or other liberal arts schools. And within the college leagues, at DIII and the liberal arts schools - there is a spectrum of stronger to weaker teams.

But overall advice would be to keep a goal of playing in college in the back of your mind when a kid is 12 - and at this age, if there is interest & seeming potential, just try to get them into the best match for good coaching/training/temperament for your kid to thrive now.

http://scholarshipstats.com/soccer.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are around 39,000 who play men's soccer at all colleges - and 38,000 for women.

There's a range of levels of play at colleges - and even among the DIII and liberal arts schools, some have more competitive soccer programs than others.

Basically, what you seem to really be asking is if you can tell by age 12 if it's worth and how much effort to invest in having your kid play competitively now and even through high school/club level age -- which would be the first steps in the goal of potentially having a kid play in college. These day, the typical path is to try to play on as competitive a club level team as possible. Some high school programs tho are stronger than others and some kids can thrive in different environments. But there is generally a gap in the coaching and level of play b/w high school and the various club levels up through the DA levels. But it is generalities. There are lots of kids who play on HS teams in the DMV who end up playing at DIII and SLAC or other liberal arts schools. And within the college leagues, at DIII and the liberal arts schools - there is a spectrum of stronger to weaker teams.

But overall advice would be to keep a goal of playing in college in the back of your mind when a kid is 12 - and at this age, if there is interest & seeming potential, just try to get them into the best match for good coaching/training/temperament for your kid to thrive now.

http://scholarshipstats.com/soccer.html

PP here - to answer part of your question -- 'yes' there would start to be an indication by age 12, if your kid is competitive with other strong players in his age group, then yes, that's a sign of potential. You often see differentiation at 7/8 and also at 12/13. But if you want to have your kid remain competitive past 12 - you do need to have them develop skills along with other signs of potential (athleticism, 'understanding' the game, focus/attitude/interest, etc)

[Anonymous]

if you aren't in da by age 14 or at the latest 15 in this day and age, you 80% won't be playing d1. a strong endurance athlete with ok ability can get recruited by nescac or centennial league without being in da and showing up to college camps run in junior year summer (how my siblings got 'found' by schools like williams, swarthmore, haverford, etc).



Curious about the 80% figure. Our DS is starter on a highly competitive team (National League, highly ranked on GotSoccer.com, etc) and is wondering how critical it is to make a DA team to get recruited to D1. Several players on his current team have played on DAs (and had poor experiences) or were made offers by a DA but declined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
if you aren't in da by age 14 or at the latest 15 in this day and age, you 80% won't be playing d1. a strong endurance athlete with ok ability can get recruited by nescac or centennial league without being in da and showing up to college camps run in junior year summer (how my siblings got 'found' by schools like williams, swarthmore, haverford, etc).

Curious about the 80% figure. Our DS is starter on a highly competitive team (National League, highly ranked on GotSoccer.com, etc) and is wondering how critical it is to make a DA team to get recruited to D1. Several players on his current team have played on DAs (and had poor experiences) or were made offers by a DA but declined.

You could look into ODP as a supplement and beyond that target schools and attend their ID camps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
if you aren't in da by age 14 or at the latest 15 in this day and age, you 80% won't be playing d1. a strong endurance athlete with ok ability can get recruited by nescac or centennial league without being in da and showing up to college camps run in junior year summer (how my siblings got 'found' by schools like williams, swarthmore, haverford, etc).

Curious about the 80% figure. Our DS is starter on a highly competitive team (National League, highly ranked on GotSoccer.com, etc) and is wondering how critical it is to make a DA team to get recruited to D1. Several players on his current team have played on DAs (and had poor experiences) or were made offers by a DA but declined.

You could look into ODP as a supplement and beyond that target schools and attend their ID camps.

Different poster, but ODP is a much lower level than National League, so that path wouldn't make sense from a recruitment perspective. If you are a starter on a competitive National league team from this area, you have a very good chance of playing D1--you just might have to do a little more legwork than the DA kids. Look at the websites for clubs with national league teams in the older age groups the last few years, like Baltimore Celtic, Loudoun, Arlington, etc. and see where kids went. Most clubs heavily promote their commitments.

Keep in mind that academics are a huge part of the equation for a player who is good but not a top recruit. If you offer grades and test scores that can bring up the team average, your chances increase a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
if you aren't in da by age 14 or at the latest 15 in this day and age, you 80% won't be playing d1. a strong endurance athlete with ok ability can get recruited by nescac or centennial league without being in da and showing up to college camps run in junior year summer (how my siblings got 'found' by schools like williams, swarthmore, haverford, etc).

Curious about the 80% figure. Our DS is starter on a highly competitive team (National League, highly ranked on GotSoccer.com, etc) and is wondering how critical it is to make a DA team to get recruited to D1. Several players on his current team have played on DAs (and had poor experiences) or were made offers by a DA but declined.

You could look into ODP as a supplement and beyond that target schools and attend their ID camps.

Different poster, but ODP is a much lower level than National League, so that path wouldn't make sense from a recruitment perspective. If you are a starter on a competitive National league team from this area, you have a very good chance of playing D1--you just might have to do a little more legwork than the DA kids. Look at the websites for clubs with national league teams in the older age groups the last few years, like Baltimore Celtic, Loudoun, Arlington, etc. and see where kids went. Most clubs heavily promote their commitments.

Keep in mind that academics are a huge part of the equation for a player who is good but not a top recruit. If you offer grades and test scores that can bring up the team average, your chances increase a lot.

Ohhhhhh, I'm sooooo sorry.

I hate to burst your bubble but to make the Regional team is an accomplishment and players are seen and scouted by D1 coaches.

ODP is an ongoing scouting and tryout process that puts players into a variety of situations as well as ID camps, foreign travel as well as traditional showcase tournaments.

A Regional Tryout camp would most mimick the experience a player would experience at a college ID camp.

ODP is as much about the process as it is the supposed low level of play.

So if you are ONLY a National League player and not in DA I would highly recommend anything extra and that includes ODP.

[Anonymous]

^^No need to apologize. We will have to agree to disagree about how helpful iODP is in this day and age is for recruiting purposes, but I'm glad to hear that some find it worthwhile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^No need to apologize. We will have to agree to disagree about how helpful iODP is in this day and age is for recruiting purposes, but I'm glad to hear that some find it worthwhile.

It has less impact on the boys side but the process is still valuable. If your kid is not Regional Level material I get it, it isn't worth it.

[Anonymous]

Here's a list of college commitments from the National league website: http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/national_league/national_league_college_commitments/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a list of college commitments from the National league website: http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/national_league/national_league_college_commitments/

Combining U18 & U19 boys that is about 68 commitments for up to 1200 league players for about a 5% commitment rate. While not official numbers and certainly great schools are represented there is nothing there that would convince me that ODP would not help a player stand out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a list of college commitments from the National league website: http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/national_league/national_league_college_commitments/

Combining U18 & U19 boys that is about 68 commitments for up to 1200 league players for about a 5% commitment rate. While not official numbers and certainly great schools are represented there is nothing there that would convince me that ODP would not help a player stand out.

Actually, there are 32 boys teams at U18 but 16 teams at U19 so 48 teams x 20 players per team is 960 players (not 1200). So that is a (reported) commitment rate of 7.2% for those juniors and seniors. Of course there are dozens of boys DA teams around the country who send every boy on their rosters to play on a college team, so the commitment rate for boys playing in the National League competition will be depressed by the strong presence of DA teams on the boys side.

On the girls side of the National League teams, it looks like there are 308 college commits reported at U18 and U19 (out of 960 players) so about a 33% college commit rate for high school juniors and seniors. That seems like a pretty good ratio for the girls considering that the dozens of ECNL teams don't participate in National League competion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a list of college commitments from the National league website: http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/national_league/national_league_college_commitments/

Combining U18 & U19 boys that is about 68 commitments for up to 1200 league players for about a 5% commitment rate. While not official numbers and certainly great schools are represented there is nothing there that would convince me that ODP would not help a player stand out.

So what are the stats for ODP college commitments? It seems like it could be useful in areas that don't have a lot of soccer options, but not sure what it adds around here where there are large numbers of high level teams and coaching available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a list of college commitments from the National league website: http://www.usyouthsoccer.org/national_league/national_league_college_commitments/

Combining U18 & U19 boys that is about 68 commitments for up to 1200 league players for about a 5% commitment rate. While not official numbers and certainly great schools are represented there is nothing there that would convince me that ODP would not help a player stand out.

So what are the stats for ODP college commitments? It seems like it could be useful in areas that don't have a lot of soccer options, but not sure what it adds around here where there are large numbers of high level teams and coaching available.

ODP is supplemental. If your kid can't make regionals then it likely isn't worth it but it is additional exposure as well as a process that offers an experience that can be beneficial.

Likely several of those National League commits did participate in ODP.