Do the big national tournaments do house teams? Those are relatively standard in a club sport another child plays but I’m not sure if that is an option for soccer.

It's probably moot--we're probably not talking about Ella Della Donne, Charlie Ward, Deion Standers, Bo Jackson, Tanner Tesseman or even Matt Blundin.

In the HS ages, it can be tough for many clubs to field enough players for tournaments so there indeed might be some "clubs" willing to take a fee and have your player guest play with them for tournaments and train with them when possible (but with no expectation he will be playing in league matches).

Another option is for tournaments to register as a guest player. There will need to be a player card for the guest club to use, but maybe that club can take care of that for your kid if he don't have one yet.

Does Suburban Friendship League require clubs to get player cards? If so that is an excellent option--sign him up for rec/SFL (don't worry the top SFL teams have plenty of high caliber players) to get a player card established somehwere.

OP here,

I didn't mean to ask whether it's realistic that he'd be recruited. I assume we have to wait and see about that like anyone else. I'm asking whether it's realistic that he'd find a team to play with, and whether you can play on those teams without a club affiliation since I thought that's where the cards come from.

If a coach asks why he doesn't play for an outside club, he'll tell the truth. He loves two sports and one (soccer) is possible to play at camps, and in the neighborhood, and for his high school, and the other really isn't. So, he had to choose, and this is how he divided up his time. But there's a good chance he won't get to play the other sport in college, and so then soccer would become his priority.

Would that be convincing? I don't know. In the end, it will be his choice whether to take this chance. I just want to help him understand what the chances are. My guess is it's as follows:

Plays MLS soccer only (what he plays now), or ECNL and HS -- decent chance of playing soccer in college, zero chance of playing the other sport in college.

Plays HS soccer with additional time, and club other sport -- some chance of playing soccer in college, some chance of playing the other sport.

Also, your son is playing MLS Next. Coaches wouldn’t know where to even see him if not for that.

Scaremongers? People are just sharing their their thoughts and some ideas to do it. What post is scaremongering? People are idiots.

OP- my kid is a Senior. He didn't play on a Club team Sophomore year--just high school.

Junior year he was injured most of the year.

He is playing on an MLS Next team this year and has a lot of college interest from Coaches this Fall.

Don't believe the scaremongers.

Don't let people bully you into the "all or nothing" system with one sport. And I say that as the parent of a one sport kid. Yes, it will make his chances for being recruited to play college soccer more difficult, but do what the kid enjoys. His youth is only happening once. Almost all tournaments have a guest player pool that you can enter. Can also look at the tournament schedules from the previous year and do outreach to teams. Reach out to your state's USYS org to ask about club-less options for playing in tournaments. I'm sure they've heard it all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid who is torn between two sports, one of them soccer. Right now, he plays soccer at a high level, and the other one at a somewhat lower level, but he is thinking about switching for 2024, and playing the other sport at a high level, and not playing for a soccer club team. He'd still do school soccer, and play pick up, and maybe do some private sessions and camps and things.

He's heard that there are "tournament teams" that kids who either aren't on club teams, or whose club teams aren't traveling, can join. Does anyone know about that? Would it be a way for him to play some soccer, and maybe be seen for college?

How does he explain his lack of a team to college coaches? Do you think a college coach wants to hear that he prefers another sport? Coaches have to worry about whether or not a kid will use the sport to get admitted and then drop once school starts and this kid has that written all over them.

+1000 Wow. Excellent point.

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid who is torn between two sports, one of them soccer. Right now, he plays soccer at a high level, and the other one at a somewhat lower level, but he is thinking about switching for 2024, and playing the other sport at a high level, and not playing for a soccer club team. He'd still do school soccer, and play pick up, and maybe do some private sessions and camps and things.

He's heard that there are "tournament teams" that kids who either aren't on club teams, or whose club teams aren't traveling, can join. Does anyone know about that? Would it be a way for him to play some soccer, and maybe be seen for college?

How does he explain his lack of a team to college coaches? Do you think a college coach wants to hear that he prefers another sport? Coaches have to worry about whether or not a kid will use the sport to get admitted and then drop once school starts and this kid has that written all over them.

What you might be able to do is find a team that is willing to roster your kid so he gets a player card. That will cost some money I'm sure. Maybe as little as $25 for the admin fee. But this team would really just be doing you a favor so no big club will do this, you need to find a small club where you know some people. There are USYS cards and US Club Soccer cards. It's best to have both, so you would need to find a team that uses USYS cards and then another team that uses US Club cards. Having a player card will allow your kid to be able to guest play. There are tournaments where you can enter your kid in a guest player pool for teams looking for kids. Some very high level tournaments do this. But to me, this isn't very practical. The tournaments that have guest player pools isn't a lot and look for really high level players. They aren't looking to just take a chance on some random kid. Think top ECNL or MLS Next Level kid. But there are some opportunities where you can guest play locally but most local tournaments do not draw college coaches.

I saw a mention of one in a FB group for soccer. It was out of GA but had kids from around the country. They travel doing showcases. So they do exist.

I have a kid who is torn between two sports, one of them soccer. Right now, he plays soccer at a high level, and the other one at a somewhat lower level, but he is thinking about switching for 2024, and playing the other sport at a high level, and not playing for a soccer club team. He'd still do school soccer, and play pick up, and maybe do some private sessions and camps and things.

He's heard that there are "tournament teams" that kids who either aren't on club teams, or whose club teams aren't traveling, can join. Does anyone know about that? Would it be a way for him to play some soccer, and maybe be seen for college?