College Recruitment Process -- When Does It Start?

[Anonymous]

When do the ECNL/GA clubs start talking with their players about college recruitment? What are the first steps you should take as a parent -- and at what age? Are the college ID camps worth it? Thank you.

[Anonymous]

If you haven’t sent any reel footage by the time you’re leaving elementary school forget about it

[Anonymous]

The Womb. Can tell alot about a kid's prospects by the way he kicks.

[Anonymous]

Freshman year start making a list to target…a reasonable one. I personally did all in-state public first. Then do virtual tours and maybe some in person tours to get a feel. ID camps are not really necessary at this point but it’s fine to go. I would put together a highlight video and reach to every school and let them know you’re interested in their program.

I say by time the kid is a sophomore, you should be heavily emailing the programs so they know the kids name. Do lots of ID camps.

[Anonymous]

Freshman year, kids who may want to play in college start to think about the types of schools they might want to look at, learn a little about the recruiting process from their club, and get familiar with how to build a highlight reel. Also good to make sure they understand what they have to do academically to align with their target schools.

Sophomore year, player starts email outreach to target schools with highlight videos. They should start to look more carefully at style of play at target schools and discuss with club coach what strategy will be for those schools. Touch base with college coaches at top target schools on somewhat regular basis, not just the day before a showcase when hundreds of other kids are doing the same thing. Start to tour schools and attend ID camps to narrow list. Work hard to maintain good grades and to build other aspects of college application besides soccer (leadership, service, etc.). Start to think through/practice calls or meetings with college coaches.

Junior year - summer before, attend ID camps at target schools and continue to reach out, engage. Have club coach reach out to college coaches at target schools after camps or showcases to get feedback (if college coaches haven't already reached out to them or player). Phone calls with coaches and official visits can occur. Player should have a good list of questions ready for calls/visits that show he or she has researched team. Ask about roster management, academic support, culture, travel policies, how they would bring value to program, and any limitations on major (e.g., some D1 programs won't accommodate nursing students and STEM majors whose practicals or labs conflict with practice or midweek travel). By junior year, should have a good idea what programs/schools are interested and start to narrow focus. Take SAT or ACT in fall to get baseline, and repeat in spring. Keep up good grades and other activities.

Senior year - if not yet committed, keep up outreach, college visits, ID camps, etc. and consider whether walk-on or college club soccer are good back-up plans.

Overall - encourage your kid to choose the right college with or without soccer. i.e., the fabled broken leg test. Would you still love this school if you couldn't play soccer? Keep college soccer in perspective - very very few kids will play past college, but what you do academically will impact the rest of your life. Also, coaches come and go, so don't choose a school just for a coach unless other aspects of the school are the right fit. Don't discount D3...could be an opportunity to be an impact player and get a nudge into an academically strong school.

This process will look different is your kid is a very top recruit/USNT material but for most ECNL travel players, it's a process of the player seeking out the right fit and getting in front of the right coaches, so IMO ID camps are vital to this. In ID camps, you get to interact with the coaching staff, be on campus, and get direct feedback. Important at ID camps for players to be "on" both on the field as well as during warm-ups, check-in, water breaks, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When do the ECNL/GA clubs start talking with their players about college recruitment? What are the first steps you should take as a parent -- and at what age? Are the college ID camps worth it? Thank you.

They start talking about it in the freshman year (06 currently), and that's a tme to get your first highlight video together. Then recruitment itself starts happening the following year. College ID camps may or may not be worth it, depending on how much exposure you are getting through your club. My own take is that if you are at a club which brings college coaches into the club to talk to the kids and your kid's team is playing at the top level in showcases you will get the exposure you need that way and the ID camps are probably a waste of time and money. On the other hand if your kid is the standout on a weaker team at a lower level club, the ID camps may offer a way to get some exposure you wouldn't otherwise get.

Perfectly willing to be told I'm wrong though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Womb. Can tell alot about a kid's prospects by the way he kicks.

lol. This is good!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Freshman year, kids who may want to play in college start to think about the types of schools they might want to look at, learn a little about the recruiting process from their club, and get familiar with how to build a highlight reel. Also good to make sure they understand what they have to do academically to align with their target schools.

Sophomore year, player starts email outreach to target schools with highlight videos. They should start to look more carefully at style of play at target schools and discuss with club coach what strategy will be for those schools. Touch base with college coaches at top target schools on somewhat regular basis, not just the day before a showcase when hundreds of other kids are doing the same thing. Start to tour schools and attend ID camps to narrow list. Work hard to maintain good grades and to build other aspects of college application besides soccer (leadership, service, etc.). Start to think through/practice calls or meetings with college coaches.

Junior year - summer before, attend ID camps at target schools and continue to reach out, engage. Have club coach reach out to college coaches at target schools after camps or showcases to get feedback (if college coaches haven't already reached out to them or player). Phone calls with coaches and official visits can occur. Player should have a good list of questions ready for calls/visits that show he or she has researched team. Ask about roster management, academic support, culture, travel policies, how they would bring value to program, and any limitations on major (e.g., some D1 programs won't accommodate nursing students and STEM majors whose practicals or labs conflict with practice or midweek travel). By junior year, should have a good idea what programs/schools are interested and start to narrow focus. Take SAT or ACT in fall to get baseline, and repeat in spring. Keep up good grades and other activities.

Senior year - if not yet committed, keep up outreach, college visits, ID camps, etc. and consider whether walk-on or college club soccer are good back-up plans.

Overall - encourage your kid to choose the right college with or without soccer. i.e., the fabled broken leg test. Would you still love this school if you couldn't play soccer? Keep college soccer in perspective - very very few kids will play past college, but what you do academically will impact the rest of your life. Also, coaches come and go, so don't choose a school just for a coach unless other aspects of the school are the right fit. Don't discount D3...could be an opportunity to be an impact player and get a nudge into an academically strong school.

This process will look different is your kid is a very top recruit/USNT material but for most ECNL travel players, it's a process of the player seeking out the right fit and getting in front of the right coaches, so IMO ID camps are vital to this. In ID camps, you get to interact with the coaching staff, be on campus, and get direct feedback. Important at ID camps for players to be "on" both on the field as well as during warm-ups, check-in, water breaks, etc.

Damn. Great post!

[Anonymous]

Plenty of good info above, but I wanted to note that we started talking to our kids in middle school about the importance of excellent grades in the recruiting process. One of our kids is a talented athlete who is quite bright, but not particularly interested in school. In MoCo (and maybe elsewhere) middle school grades in languages and some levels of math end up on college transcripts. He fought us for a while about the need to prioritize homework, but then an older kid at his club told him he was locked out of a bunch of colleges that he would otherwise be recruited for due to his GPA. Thereafter, DS did precisely the minimum amount necessary to earn As, and he ended up with his pick of colleges.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you, this is great information. DD is an 07 headed to high school, so it sounds like this summer is a great time for her to do some initial research online. She is a starter, but not a star, who would be happy in any division and also has big plans academically.

[Anonymous]

^^ Above is good advice. Definitely focus on picking a school that is a good fit academically, regardless of soccer. I have kids that have played DI and a kid that played DIII. I think the identification camps (not summer camps) are extremely important for DIII, where recruiting budgets are skinny and coaches cannot get to many showcases; start considering those summer after sophomore year, but the reality is attending them beginning January of junior year is plenty of time. For strong academic schools with selective admissions, test early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When do the ECNL/GA clubs start talking with their players about college recruitment? What are the first steps you should take as a parent -- and at what age? Are the college ID camps worth it? Thank you.

Clubs start the conversation once the kids are in high school. I would not jump into the college ID camps until Sophomore or Junior year. You'll get TONS of invitations to camps, including colleges you've never heard of.

As people said above main focus should be on preferred colleges/Academics.

[Anonymous]

U5, is the kid fluid running in circle, does the kid follow through when they try to kick, does your kid cry when they don't get a juice break... these things matter

[Anonymous]

When you start contributing to a 529. DIII is not hard to get recruited for, but there is no money available from the schools

[Anonymous]

If your kid is a top 100 player, do the grades need to match the academic profile of the school?