Long post coming up, but DD just went through this last year as a HS Soph. Soccer player at an ECNL club. Recruiting for high level women's college soccer is really early.

Beginning fall of sophomore year, we had a meeting with club coach talking about potential target schools - where is realistic that she would fit and then dream schools.

Started with sending emails to coaches about events and posting on Instagram and X her schedule and creating short highlight video. Posted cuts from highlight video on X and Insta.

DD worked with a friend of her older brothers on the highlight video - he had the editing skills. Once she saw what he was doing, she took over doing this for future videos.

Club paid for a subscription to sportsrecruits website to use as an initial means to contact coaches and also upload videos and other info.

We helped her create a 1 page bio with basic background info - HS GPA, Key courses, soccer accoloades like Conference Cup selections, USID, etc. She attached this with her emails to coaches.

Club coach was very good a passing back feedback from college coaches since they couldn't officially speak until post June 15. Most of it was College X contacted me and was interested in seeing more. Liked how you played in X game, etc. Also helped to narrow down list of schools as things progressed throughout the year.

She also went to a few ID days at schools of interest but they were really targeted. We went only as far as a car ride and were at different types of schools - local private in A10, private in ACC, public in Big10, public in ACC.

Once June 15 hit, floodgates opened and there was a ton of contact directly with her through her email and phone. We helped keep track of who was reaching out, when the wanted to talk and follow-up, etc.

We did not participate in any of the initial calls. They asked us to get on a call once offers were being made.

She consulted a lot with her club coach and technical director who were really helpful in sorting through pluses and minuses of different programs.

By the time official visits started to happen on August 1, she had things pretty narrowed down. She took 2 visits to her top 2 schools and had a 3 schedule that she canceled after the first 2. Committed on August 8.

It was a whirlwind from June 15 until that commit date.

She has been in touch regularly with the coaching staff at her committed school - talked to them in person at the ECNL KC showcase.

Now it's continuing to play, develop and work over the next 18 months. Kind of crazy, but it's worked out well so far.

Anonymous wrote:Who are they emailing? Coaches directly?

Yes. HCs and assistants.

Who are they emailing? Coaches directly? Pretty sure my kid did not send emails. Primarily done through social media and phone contact, with some mailings from the schools.

Kid has done it. Coaches/counselor faciliated some meetings at school. I would not know where to begin with recruiting, except that there is typically a questionnaire to complete on the college website.
All DC's HS games were filmed, so this provided game highlights to submit. Film linked on social media, and then they can reach out from there.

Anonymous wrote:My kid did all it. We were a sounding board but she coordinate calls and visits. We kept a calendar to keep track of everything and when she had a call one of the parents took notes. Coaches don't want parents doing the work.

This is exactly the feedback I have received from the coaches at my alma mater. They want to hear from the athlete.

In my sport - track - dropping really good times in 10th or 11th grade matters and the stopwatch to an extent rationalizes the recruiting process. Predictability in college performances is a difficult game however and the coaches really want to know about character, grades and motivation. No better way than having the athlete present themselves.

My roommate in college coaches D1 in Virginia and the school has rigorous admissions standards. He gets on good student early. A very competitive marketplace. I was happy on of the Commonwealth's recent champions is going there .

Not sure about other sports where lots of film could be helpful. Clearly can see where parents could pitch in there.

Anonymous wrote:Ours did all of it, though his travel coach (this is baseball BTW) was also helpful making introductions. His coach was pretty blunt with all the players as to where they were recruitable and then was happy to reach out to college coaches at that level (and in fact he told all the players that was the best way to go for initial outreach). His club coach also texted coaches to arrange for them to attend tournament games where my kid was playing and his club coach was great playing kids based on the coaches that were showing up. He always tried to win games but if the Harvard coach was watching he didn’t play his teammates that were recruited by NC State or UVA because those kids were way too strong for Harvard (and had no interest)…even if it meant losing the game.

Honestly, it wasn’t a ton of outreach…only like 20 coaches total over a couple of months.

Wow, our travel baseball program doesn't do any of this. Which program?

Anonymous wrote:If you kid doesn't have the "time" to send emails, keep up with programs, and push for this opportunity themselves, then it doesn't bode well for what they will need to do to time manage study and play as a college athlete.

Your efforts are great, but you aren't doing them any favors. Help them with the email wording, sure, but sending them and handling the interactions with the coaches? Stop it!

Please... they have dedicated counselor who registers them for classes, a person who plans all their travel, tutors with mandatory office hours, someone who cleans their uniforms and puts them back in their locker.

Yes. they can have help now and they will get help later.

I would say we did 50% of the work.

The reality is you can't crowdsource this type of thing. Some kids send 5 emails, others have to send 50. Athletes have school and sports and often more.. like PT and doctors and volunteer work. It's more than a 60-80 hour a week job. It's intense and people who have not been through it don't understand. People will tell you then it's too much or they are equipped to handle it but 2 college athletes later... it was well worth all the work .

So yes, they had help from us.

If you kid doesn't have the "time" to send emails, keep up with programs, and push for this opportunity themselves, then it doesn't bode well for what they will need to do to time manage study and play as a college athlete.

Your efforts are great, but you aren't doing them any favors. Help them with the email wording, sure, but sending them and handling the interactions with the coaches? Stop it!

Anonymous wrote:How much of the work to get recruited did your student do themselves? Between practices and school our junior doesn't have time to be emailing a couple dozen coaches for each showcase so yeah, as parents we're doing it - cutting and pasting mostly.

I presented options for clinics/camps/training and kid decided on what was important.
Every time we went somewhere and there was a possible school of interest, we went to see it.

I created a master list of schools (and calendar) on a google doc with some basic information and kept track of all dates for child (emails, visits, video sent, etc), across all divisions. As child whittled things down, or child was eliminated from a school's recruiting, they were removed.

I helped draft emails for kid to tweak and add to, again in google doc. Kid sent emails and attended all zooms, meetings, calls, without parents.

Husband generally was on top of getting equipment, doing the highlight videos, and attending the training, clinics, camps, etc.

It's absurd that all of this had to be done but kid got a lot of interest and received multiple offers at D1, D2, and D3. Opted for the D3 experience and is loving it. (And glad they did not go D1 as the D3 experience has been VERY intense and demanding. I cannot imaging what D1 is like).

Our daughter did it all, We sat in on calls. It was really not that much work. A lot of the initial emails are the same, and then touching base occasionally during the season to provide updates on tournaments. We did help with creating video for her to send. Agree that coaches want to interact directly with the kids. There were some that at some point in the process switched over to text and she would communicate directly with them that way.

I helped him set up a spreadsheet to stay organized, and he managed sending all the emails.

He had a bit of a routine with emailing video on a regular basis and getting something out before showcases. But it was still a lot. Nobody realizes how much work beyond school and actual athletics performance it takes for most kids to find their spot. FWIW I don't judge you for stepping in. If my other child was interested in college sports, I would probably need to help him out because he's not as organized.

My kid did all it. We were a sounding board but she coordinate calls and visits. We kept a calendar to keep track of everything and when she had a call one of the parents took notes. Coaches don't want parents doing the work.

Ours did all of it, though his travel coach (this is baseball BTW) was also helpful making introductions. His coach was pretty blunt with all the players as to where they were recruitable and then was happy to reach out to college coaches at that level (and in fact he told all the players that was the best way to go for initial outreach). His club coach also texted coaches to arrange for them to attend tournament games where my kid was playing and his club coach was great playing kids based on the coaches that were showing up. He always tried to win games but if the Harvard coach was watching he didn’t play his teammates that were recruited by NC State or UVA because those kids were way too strong for Harvard (and had no interest)…even if it meant losing the game.

Honestly, it wasn’t a ton of outreach…only like 20 coaches total over a couple of months.

How much of the work to get recruited did your student do themselves? Between practices and school our junior doesn't have time to be emailing a couple dozen coaches for each showcase so yeah, as parents we're doing it - cutting and pasting mostly.