Advice for a U15 girl who aspires to play college?

[Anonymous]

My U15 daughter is a dedicated and still-improving player who aspires to play college. She’s not D1 material, but maybe D3. She’s on a strong CCL2 team in a club where there’s some but not a lot of upward movement among teams. She also does private skills training and works on conditioning outside of practice.

Looking for thoughts and experience from those who have been there on whether she’s better off staying where she is - and is happy - or trying out for another club where she could likely make the A team and potentially be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.

[Anonymous]

The only leagues that really get alot of built in college exposure are GDA and ECNL. So the easy route to college is to land a spot there. Those leagues have the advantage of a much higher pace of play which will help accelerate skill growth too. So that would be plan A.
Barring that, she will have to work a bit harder to get exposure. That will mean going to more id camps and a more intensive effort to make contact and get scouts to come see her. It does matter what level she plays at in league play. Most scouts are lazy, so if you can boast that she plays at a recognizably competitive level, it is easier to get their attention and get them to come see her play.

[Anonymous]

at that age going form ccl2 to another club's A team will be tough.

Most kids are set on the team they want to be on for the remainder.

ID camps are an option but do the math, many of those pay for the schools expenses .

[Anonymous]

Realistically she should be targeting D3 schools if she is on a CCL 2 team and is enjoying that experience.

I have no idea how good a player your daughter is but I’ll assume she is good enough to play in college but the level of team she is on and the league she plays in tells me that D3 is more than realistic for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My U15 daughter is a dedicated and still-improving player who aspires to play college. She’s not D1 material, but maybe D3. She’s on a strong CCL2 team in a club where there’s some but not a lot of upward movement among teams. She also does private skills training and works on conditioning outside of practice.

Looking for thoughts and experience from those who have been there on whether she’s better off staying where she is - and is happy - or trying out for another club where she could likely make the A team and potentially be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.

Get together a realistic list of potential options and attend ID sessions. Based on what I've seen, she could find a suitable D3.

[Anonymous]

To start, my daughter was not on a CCL2 team so I'm making a lot of assumptions but anyway:
Take a look at what tourneys her team is getting invited to, what bracket her team is playing at, and what type of coaches are shown as attending those tourneys. Also try to find out what type and how many coaches are showing up to the games of your club's older CCL2 teams (by attending one of their tourney games or just asking their manager). If those teams and those tourneys you're likely to play in are attracting the level of coaches that your daughter might play for, then you can probably stay with the current team.

That said, I'd be surprised that a CCL2 team is drawing many college coaches to any of their games. So your only options are switching teams and/or going to even more ID camps. However, even if your kid shines at a camp, the coach will want to see what level of talent she's playing against and for the most part, CCL2 is not going to impress them, which leads back to changing teams.

You mention moving to a different A team but then call it a smaller pond. In order to be exposed to more coaches, you need to move to a better team that plays in higher level brackets or tournaments. Don't think that just moving to an "A" team is sufficient. At top clubs, their B teams can be better than many smaller clubs' A teams, and thus will draw more coaches.

Finally, a word of warning. Before uprooting your child and perhaps threatening her love of soccer, make sure you're both being realistic about what's involved in playing with a higher level team, her chances of playing in college, even at a D3, and whether it's worth the hassle of even playing college ball.

[Anonymous]

Is she on the varsity team or JV at her high school? If she's a freshman and only on JV, then she's a pretty typical CLL2 player and it will be hard to move to a top tier team. Like PPs said, I would also shoot for D3 schools, start making a list and emailing the coaches, look for ID camps, put together a highlights video and send with a soccer resume. You won't be able to count on too much support from your club. Some coaches might be able to see her play at Jefferson Cup if she attends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only leagues that really get alot of built in college exposure are GDA and ECNL. So the easy route to college is to land a spot there. Those leagues have the advantage of a much higher pace of play which will help accelerate skill growth too. So that would be plan A.
Barring that, she will have to work a bit harder to get exposure. That will mean going to more id camps and a more intensive effort to make contact and get scouts to come see her. It does matter what level she plays at in league play. Most scouts are lazy, so if you can boast that she plays at a recognizably competitive level, it is easier to get their attention and get them to come see her play.

The above is good advice. In addition to this, think about how connected your coach and/or club is to colleges she might like to attend. If her current club/coach are not connected well to these target schools, and she does not make it on a ECNL or DA squad, then look for a club/coach that is well-connected and talk to them about your daughter's goals and how / if they can help. Also - going to a school's CAMP is a great way to get identified, if the school has one.

[Anonymous]

OP here. These are all great responses. Thank you. As for the high school question, unfortunately she goes to a small school that doesn’t have a team, so we don’t have that as a barometer. Of the kids who go to bigger high schools and are on her team (so a decent control case for comparison) a couple made varsity as freshmen at their schools, and more made JV squads. (And since it’s a U15 team, some of them are still in 8th grade.)

And two followup questions - for ID camps, what age is the best for doing those? And beyond focusing on D3 schools rather than D1, what’s the best way to gauge which squads might be realistic to shoot for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. These are all great responses. Thank you. As for the high school question, unfortunately she goes to a small school that doesn’t have a team, so we don’t have that as a barometer. Of the kids who go to bigger high schools and are on her team (so a decent control case for comparison) a couple made varsity as freshmen at their schools, and more made JV squads. (And since it’s a U15 team, some of them are still in 8th grade.)

And two followup questions - for ID camps, what age is the best for doing those? And beyond focusing on D3 schools rather than D1, what’s the best way to gauge which squads might be realistic to shoot for?

There are lots of approaches here so you might get some varied opinions on this.

It's most efficient to target schools she likes and go directly to their id camps, but most freshmen do not have enough clarity on their academic goals to focus that narrowly. I would recommend you locate some D3 schools in the area she wants to attend school, and first have a look at their playing record and the bios of the girls on their rosters. This will give you an idea of the level they play at within their conference and how accomplished their players are. I would also consider finding one of the group id camps which gather together a modest number of coaches for a day camp. There are camps ranging from single school 1 day camps to things like the fortune 500 multi-day overnight camps with 75 coaches. To start, you might try to find something like a one day camp with a dozen schools. I would do that first, and use that to get familiar with the process, and allow her to measure herself against the other campers.
Generally you do not get direct feedback from coaches at these things which can be maddening so DD has to gauge her performance herself to some extent. You will also know by whether coaches are responding to her emails etc. Keep at it, at first it seems hard to get traction, but it will come. Once you both get a little experience like this, you'll both be better equipped to determine next steps. But generally I'd say start a little broader at first, then narrow down. I would do this now, in her freshman year before the stakes start to rise. Sophomore and junior years are prime years for recruiting so that's when you will want to hit it harder and cut down on the experiments. It can get expensive. You'll want her to get smart on how to email and followup with coaches too.

[Anonymous]

This is all good advice. I have a U15 in a similar place and these are all great strategies.

I especially like the advice about movement to DA/ECNL. A girl used to starting and playing the whole game can lose her love of the game if moved to DA/ECNL and now on bottom of the roster. Happened to us. Trying to rebuild now in another club but not sure where it is heading. Whereas DI was a realistic option, DIII now seems more likely due to limitted exposure and limitted level of play.

[Anonymous]

Many colleges also have outstanding club teams. If your DD truly just loves to play, choose a college based on academics and then tryout for their club team. UVA has a very competetive women’s club team (most top D1 schools do). Club provides a lot of the sane things as varsity without the stress.