Anonymous wrote:Is it realistic to think that one might be able to play girls soccer at a good DIII school (by which I mean strong academics + competitive team) without ECNL? My DD (rising freshman) is a starter on the second team in her (large) club but I don't know if that team placement will take her out of the running, even for DIII.

Yes it is realistic.

Depends on so many factors. For a coach, the player has to match their need and they do have a lot to choose from.
For the player, the school has to match the need academically, then the coach/team/etc have to match.

Lots of variables on both sides and parents/players have to do 90% of the work to get recruited.

Make a list of schools and get out to their ID camps and get a feel for interest. You are allowed to talk to D3 as someone mentioned already.

Some strong players and students try to use their soccer skills as a differentiating factor to get admitted to the school and access those ugh level academics..

Yes but there are plenty of ecnl players competing for spots on teams like MIT, hopkins, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Is it realistic to think that one might be able to play girls soccer at a good DIII school (by which I mean strong academics + competitive team) without ECNL? My DD (rising freshman) is a starter on the second team in her (large) club but I don't know if that team placement will take her out of the running, even for DIII.

Relax! I’ve seen NCSL and CCL Championship kids play D3 ball. ECNL and MLS next will produce most of the D1 schools, but even then you can be a very good ECNL-RL player and play at a low profile D1 school.

There are plenty of players from our non-ECNL club that play DIII every year. Also a few D1 players. Not sure why you would think you have to play ECNL.

There are more college programs than ECNL teams- they have to get players from somewhere

Anonymous wrote:Is it realistic to think that one might be able to play girls soccer at a good DIII school (by which I mean strong academics + competitive team) without ECNL? My DD (rising freshman) is a starter on the second team in her (large) club but I don't know if that team placement will take her out of the running, even for DIII.

Depends on the DIII. Marymount v Hopkins v MIT are all different. Some of the DIIIs are always scrambling for players. The most critical thing will be making sure she has the grades and scores to get into the school. The nice thing about DIII is you can actually talk to the coaches at the school early and get feedback. It wouldn’t hurt to ask them or at least look at the school’s roster to see where kids have played prior to college.

Is it realistic to think that one might be able to play girls soccer at a good DIII school (by which I mean strong academics + competitive team) without ECNL? My DD (rising freshman) is a starter on the second team in her (large) club but I don't know if that team placement will take her out of the running, even for DIII.