Best soccer clubs for college recruitment

[Anonymous]

Who feels their club is doing a good job on facilitating college recruitment? SYC is the worst! If you want your child to be recruited to play soccer in college, this is NOT the club to be at. What club do you think is the best?

[Anonymous]

If your player is a superstar, any club will do.I

f they are a sub-par player then every club seems like it's bad at recruiting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your player is a superstar, any club will do.I

f they are a sub-par player then every club seems like it's bad at recruiting.

Actually, I don’t think that’s true. My DD is getting appropriate interest from the right colleges (she’s U17) but especially this year and maybe next, the relationship and reputation that the club has with the colleges has seriously mattered. Depending on what kind of college your child wants to go to (MOre academic than soccer? More soccer than academic? DIII? DI top 100 soccer?), there are better and worse clubs. But if your child wants D1 top 100 soccer, you really do need to be at ECNL/GA clubs for girls and I’m assuming MLS/ECNL clubs for boys. And even there there’s tiering — on the girls’ side, FCV, Mclean, Bethesda seem to have more success across the talent levels at their clubs, where other ECNL/GA clubs seem to place maybe 1/3 to half their players at decent schools (or a few stars at great schools, whether you define that by academics or by soccer). VDA and Arlington seem to be on upward trajectories, but they’re not there yet.

Now is a good time to look at the size and composition of the recruiting classes at each club to see what the trajectory is, with all the NLI signings for 2021s being announced, on twitter or on the club’s website. If SYC doesn’t make a fuss about that, it means not much is happening there.

[Anonymous]

ALL of what you just posted was just thoroughly discussed on another thread a couple days ago.. I think maybe the McLean thread...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your player is a superstar, any club will do.I

f they are a sub-par player then every club seems like it's bad at recruiting.

Actually, I don’t think that’s true. My DD is getting appropriate interest from the right colleges (she’s U17) but especially this year and maybe next, the relationship and reputation that the club has with the colleges has seriously mattered. Depending on what kind of college your child wants to go to (MOre academic than soccer? More soccer than academic? DIII? DI top 100 soccer?), there are better and worse clubs. But if your child wants D1 top 100 soccer, you really do need to be at ECNL/GA clubs for girls and I’m assuming MLS/ECNL clubs for boys. And even there there’s tiering — on the girls’ side, FCV, Mclean, Bethesda seem to have more success across the talent levels at their clubs, where other ECNL/GA clubs seem to place maybe 1/3 to half their players at decent schools (or a few stars at great schools, whether you define that by academics or by soccer). VDA and Arlington seem to be on upward trajectories, but they’re not there yet.

Now is a good time to look at the size and composition of the recruiting classes at each club to see what the trajectory is, with all the NLI signings for 2021s being announced, on twitter or on the club’s website. If SYC doesn’t make a fuss about that, it means not much is happening there.

This is a good post. Scouts will go to the most likely sources for success when recruiting. This means they start looking at successful ECNL/GA clubs first because most of the recruiting there has already been done for them. It's as simple as that. Even at these kinds of clubs, the vast majority of communication/promotion is being done by the players themselves, and only a small amount by the coaches. The association with a successful program is what gets you in the door, and then of course, your play has to back that up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who feels their club is doing a good job on facilitating college recruitment? SYC is the worst! If you want your child to be recruited to play soccer in college, this is NOT the club to be at. What club do you think is the best?

So my DD plays for the u17 girls at Syc and she is currently talking to for five schools and she is a junior. Her classmates and friends from our 2003 boys who are seniors that just won state cup have 10 - 11 kids talking to D1 schools. I am thinking there will be announcements in the next months or so from those boys committing to schools. SYC also has a director of college placement that works individually with each player in the college process, he’s actually having a virtual seminar for all 2006-2004 boys and girls age groups this week on the 18th.

[Anonymous]

The game is changing so I would argue that recently McLean, FCV, MUFC and BSC likely had more girls heading to major programs, the market has changed with the fall of the DA. I just don’t see the GA managing to keep up with the ECNL. McLean is likely to remain the best program for placing players and the relationship shell by their top coaches matter. MUFC I will remain solid. I don’t have much confidence in BSC based on what I have heard. FCV will fade with the GA. Pipeline has the potential to step up. I think one of their players has committed to a top PAC-12 program and others have committed to other Power 5 programs.

The disclaimer that past success is not a guarantee for future success is important to note.

[Anonymous]

You could also look at previous showcase events and see which area clubs are in the top or top two divisions. When scouts attend showcases, they obviously have limited time and cannot see every single club, so they typically see who's in the top flights and watch them. When we apply to a showcase you have to practically prove to the tournament directors why you belong in the top tier and this comes down to 1) who you've recently beaten who is also good and 2) rankings (pick your site). If you don't see SYC in the top two flights, that is rock solid proof they aren't getting enough looks. Not only the showcases, but what kind of tournament? If girls, where were the top clubs for the Jefferson Cup, which is arguably the top girls tournament in the country. There are ways to see if your club is ensuring the players are getting the most exposure. Our club cancelled a ECNL national event because majority of colleges aren't sending scouts or can't go because of covid. We are going to another tournament later and this will help exposure. Like others have right said, the club also posted nine girls who just committed to colleges from their oldest team. That 50% rate is pretty good for the first signing day.

[Anonymous]

Before we get too far in the weeds, is this a thread for Boys soccer or Girls?

[Anonymous]

The coach and the coach’s connections with college coaches are more important than the club name. In general, the top clubs have the top coaches so their is some correlation however. On the girls side this means McLean ECNL, FCV GA, Bethesda ECNL are the top three area clubs for girls wanting attention at the major or mid-major college levels. Loudoun also has a direct connection to GMUs and MW’s head coaches.

[Anonymous]

1. Bethesda
2. McLean
3. Arlington

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Bethesda
2. McLean
3. Arlington

I guess DC United is pretty worthless after all. #crazygirlssoccerparents

[Anonymous]

Someone above is clueless. Bethesda is imploding. There top player left Bethesda last year for McLean. MUFC is ahead of Bethesda and FCV is not the club it once was. Is Arlington even placing girls in top programs?

[Anonymous]

1. Bethesda
2. McLean
3. Arlington

This is comical. Compare the last 5 years of college placements and then pretend that BSC is better than McLean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

1. Bethesda
2. McLean
3. Arlington

This is comical. Compare the last 5 years of college placements and then pretend that BSC is better than McLean.

Bethesda places more male players.