The best 2022 player i know has not committed anywhere

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe she doesn’t want to play in college.

My kid was a pretty elite athlete in a different sport and never intended to play in college. Who would want that life for their kid?

+1. Stay away from these deluxe youth leagues if you don't like the idea of college sports. The culture is that you pursue college sports regardless of the quality of the academics available. Unless you think having your students
college search and journey focused on soccer or some other sport, avoid these types of leagues. The environment had a huge unintended influence on my kid who ended up giving way too much weight to soccer programs over academic programs.

What area were you in when this happened, PP? All the families I know who are playing ECNL or similar are focused on using soccer to help with the kid’s admission to an academically elite college. It’s all about the admissions boost.

McLean and Bethesda people think this way.

That is good to know. Is the club and coach on board with that and helps the kids trying to make a good a academic match? My DCs coach acted clueless that she was turning down a meh academic D1 for a very strong academic D3 with weaker soccer program.

In general (but not exclusive) affluent parents are more concerned with the prestige of the school than scholarship money. For obvious reasons. My opinion

Look the parents around the DMV only care about playing in college and not the prestige of the college/university.

Lol - okay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe she doesn’t want to play in college.

My kid was a pretty elite athlete in a different sport and never intended to play in college. Who would want that life for their kid?

+1. Stay away from these deluxe youth leagues if you don't like the idea of college sports. The culture is that you pursue college sports regardless of the quality of the academics available. Unless you think having your students
college search and journey focused on soccer or some other sport, avoid these types of leagues. The environment had a huge unintended influence on my kid who ended up giving way too much weight to soccer programs over academic programs.

What area were you in when this happened, PP? All the families I know who are playing ECNL or similar are focused on using soccer to help with the kid’s admission to an academically elite college. It’s all about the admissions boost.

McLean and Bethesda people think this way.

That is good to know. Is the club and coach on board with that and helps the kids trying to make a good a academic match? My DCs coach acted clueless that she was turning down a meh academic D1 for a very strong academic D3 with weaker soccer program.

Agree with PP that many/most families at Bethesda and McLean (and I’m sure any other club located in an affluent area with highly educated parents) care about prestige first and foremost. The club leadership also love to tout Ivy and similar commitments, including highly ranked D3 schools, because they know the fancy school commitment lists attract more parents to the club. Coaches may or may not care about prestige, even at these clubs. Many would rather have their resumes show that they developed and sent kids to high level soccer programs over high level academic ones. Most coaches I know think it is far more impressive to be recruited by the University of Maryland than by Amherst, as an example, and they are correct in terms of what it says about a kid’s talent and training.

Regardless of what club leadership or coaches think, it is going to mostly be up to the parents and kid to figure out the right level school and get recruited there. Other parents in the club and their kids often have more influence over these decisions than coaches or the club. And in many cases, coaches or the club do little to help with recruiting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no top 50 ECNL player that is not committed. I think you are just over estimating the player's rank. College coaches surely don't see her that high.

if you look at topdrawer soccer there are a lot of top 50 players not committed

Are there lists of top players posted outside of topdrawersoccer? I’d rather not pay the $$$ for a premier subscription but I’m curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe she doesn’t want to play in college.

My kid was a pretty elite athlete in a different sport and never intended to play in college. Who would want that life for their kid?

+1. Stay away from these deluxe youth leagues if you don't like the idea of college sports. The culture is that you pursue college sports regardless of the quality of the academics available. Unless you think having your students
college search and journey focused on soccer or some other sport, avoid these types of leagues. The environment had a huge unintended influence on my kid who ended up giving way too much weight to soccer programs over academic programs.

What area were you in when this happened, PP? All the families I know who are playing ECNL or similar are focused on using soccer to help with the kid’s admission to an academically elite college. It’s all about the admissions boost.

McLean and Bethesda people think this way.

That is good to know. Is the club and coach on board with that and helps the kids trying to make a good a academic match? My DCs coach acted clueless that she was turning down a meh academic D1 for a very strong academic D3 with weaker soccer program.

Agree with PP that many/most families at Bethesda and McLean (and I’m sure any other club located in an affluent area with highly educated parents) care about prestige first and foremost. The club leadership also love to tout Ivy and similar commitments, including highly ranked D3 schools, because they know the fancy school commitment lists attract more parents to the club. Coaches may or may not care about prestige, even at these clubs. Many would rather have their resumes show that they developed and sent kids to high level soccer programs over high level academic ones. Most coaches I know think it is far more impressive to be recruited by the University of Maryland than by Amherst, as an example, and they are correct in terms of what it says about a kid’s talent and training.

Regardless of what club leadership or coaches think, it is going to mostly be up to the parents and kid to figure out the right level school and get recruited there. Other parents in the club and their kids often have more influence over these decisions than coaches or the club. And in many cases, coaches or the club do little to help with recruiting.

That is the issue. the interests of the coaches and club and the interests of your player may not align. In the example above - you have to ignore any pressure to commit to Maryland if Amherst is the better fit for what your player is trying to achieve. I cant speak for everyone but I think my player got a little confused about the best direction to take because of the club emphasis on the soccer program over the academic program.

[Anonymous]

I know many girls that did not want to play beyond high school. Burn out and no desire to go pro.

They want a “normal” college life and not the “job” that a college sport really is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe she doesn’t want to play in college.

My kid was a pretty elite athlete in a different sport and never intended to play in college. Who would want that life for their kid?

50% of my soccer teammates were like this too. I had no want to go pro or even play on the National team.

I wanted to be a doctor and went pre-med with a side of lots of partying. Soccer didn’t fit in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no top 50 ECNL player that is not committed. I think you are just over estimating the player's rank. College coaches surely don't see her that high.

if you look at topdrawer soccer there are a lot of top 50 players not committed

Are there lists of top players posted outside of topdrawersoccer? I’d rather not pay the $$$ for a premier subscription but I’m curious.

you dont have to pay to look at commits

[Anonymous]

what are the D1 prestige univ/colleges.

Princeton, UPenn, Duke, UVA or even UNC???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what are the D1 prestige univ/colleges.

Princeton, UPenn, Duke, UVA or even UNC???

For academics? Ivies and Ivy equivalents like Stanford, MIT, Duke etc.—the US News and World report top 20 or so gives you a general sense, and the topic of prestige is debated endlessly on the DCUM College and University forum. It’s a bit scary over there.

Academically great schools that also have great soccer programs can differ by years and player gender, but you can get a good sense by looking at several recent years of NCAA playoff results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know many girls that did not want to play beyond high school. Burn out and no desire to go pro.

They want a “normal” college life and not the “job” that a college sport really is.

A job pays. What exactly are we teaching the youth?

[Anonymous]

Serious question

Why does prestige of college matter if majority are not graduating with a degree that required that level or prestige. Are you paying 200,000 for the network? If so, their are much more affordable ways of doing it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question

Why does prestige of college matter if majority are not graduating with a degree that required that level or prestige. Are you paying 200,000 for the network? If so, their are much more affordable ways of doing it

This is a very common attitude in youth soccer. If you believe that the quality if the institution...the faculty, peer, programs, opportunities do matter, then you need to ingrain this value in your players and help them target schools that will offer outstanding academic programs and opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no top 50 ECNL player that is not committed. I think you are just over estimating the player's rank. College coaches surely don't see her that high.

if you look at topdrawer soccer there are a lot of top 50 players not committed

If you're looking at topdrawer soccer's top 50, then there's your first problem. Pay $, and you're on that list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question

Why does prestige of college matter if majority are not graduating with a degree that required that level or prestige. Are you paying 200,000 for the network? If so, their are much more affordable ways of doing it

This is a very common attitude in youth soccer. If you believe that the quality if the institution...the faculty, peer, programs, opportunities do matter, then you need to ingrain this value in your players and help them target schools that will offer outstanding academic programs and opportunities.

It is a very common attitude that prestige of college equals a superior learning experience that prepares a student for the real world. Let’s be honest during this discussion.

[Anonymous]

You folks are unbelievably uneducated on college options. Most of the top programs are strong academically. UVA, Stanford, Duke, UCLA, UT, UM, UNC, ND, Harvard, Georgetown, USC, WF, Bucknell, Princeton and Brown are all NCAA tournament programs. Others like Vandy (SEC), Navy (Patriot) and Northwestern (SEC) put together competitive teams.

If you are academically focused you can find great matches among the elite soccer programs. Even among DIII programs, you can find schools like MIT and Emory that compete at a high level while offering elite academics.