Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the obsession with D1 soccer or otherwise? D2 or D3 allows the kid to keep playing.

For men’s soccer, D2 and D3 are only marginally less competitive than D1, because the 18-year-old MLSNext/ECNL stars who can’t get on D1 because those rosters are 50-70% international 21-year-olds are now playing D2/D3.

Essentially kids who would have been D1 shoe-ins 5-7 years ago are now playing D2 and D3. The percentages are very low even for D2/D3.

Right. Which is why all this talk about transfer portals and the impossibility of boys playing D1 in the future is beside the point. What’s the age you could tell your kid had enough talent to think they had a decent chance of being recruited to play in college? For our son playing D1 now it was 13. Maybe someone else with the exact same level of talent and discipline will only have D3 options in the future, but that doesn’t change the age at which future options start to become more clear.

We think our our youngest DS (almost 13) has enough athleticism and soccer talent to have a shot at a high level D3 if he stays on his current course. It would be interesting to have a thread on the official soccer forum where people made predictions about future recruitment and then followed up with outcomes. College Confidential used to have something similar in the Athletic recruiting forum where you could follow posters’ kids’ journeys throughout HS on various threads, and it was both interesting and informative.

Anonymous wrote:Son is a D1 lacrosse player.

Athletic ability was apparent by 8 or 9, very apparent once in HS; at that point, lots of late bloomers have caught up. He was still a standout.

However, lots of kids have the ability to play at college level, but they have to have the internal drive and competitiveness to make it happen. Ours did. Many others didn't - and that's completely fine, they have other interests.

Good rule of thumb: a parent should never care more about the sport than the kid playing it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think for D1 you want to have daughters tbh. They have a much better chance. They get identified earlier too.

Truth

For what sport? For our sport, only 3% of players go D1 and, of those, almost none get the coveted "full ride."

That’s pretty good odds. My sport it’s .5

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the obsession with D1 soccer or otherwise? D2 or D3 allows the kid to keep playing.

For men’s soccer, D2 and D3 are only marginally less competitive than D1, because the 18-year-old MLSNext/ECNL stars who can’t get on D1 because those rosters are 50-70% international 21-year-olds are now playing D2/D3.

Essentially kids who would have been D1 shoe-ins 5-7 years ago are now playing D2 and D3. The percentages are very low even for D2/D3.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think for D1 you want to have daughters tbh. They have a much better chance. They get identified earlier too.

Truth

For what sport? For our sport, only 3% of players go D1 and, of those, almost none get the coveted "full ride."

Anonymous wrote:What's the obsession with D1 soccer or otherwise? D2 or D3 allows the kid to keep playing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think for D1 you want to have daughters tbh. They have a much better chance. They get identified earlier too.

Truth

Anonymous wrote:Well, Matt Turner didn’t know. He was a walk-on soccer player at Fairfield Univ, just having picked up soccer at 16. He wasn’t in all these excessive leagues doing ridiculous travel and college showcases at 13. He was undrafted in the MLS. And now is 3 games in the World Cup with no non-penalty goals let in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So which sports are the easiest for boys to get into at the D1 level? Obviously not soccer or tennis...

Lacrosse
Track & Field
Baseball
Cross Country
Volleyball (but not many teams)

The actual truth is that there are no "easy" sports for boys. Things are much different for girls.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Man, I am so thankful baseball isn't dependent on size and there are tons of late bloomers. Hitting consistently is so hard.

The soccer discussion on this thread is depressing.

More depressing than it needs to be IMO. This is a soccer hotspot, and kids from this area have always done well in college recruiting. I’d be cautious but listen to the boosters at least as much as the doomsayers if your kid is in HS and doing well. Just do your research.

The best thing to do is to keep an eye on the college commit webpages for 2022 and going forward. Prior to 2022 it’s a little irrelevant because of the transfer portal changes, as discussed above. But if you have a younger kid, you can get a sense of likelihood by watching the commit pages. Examples below:

http://arlingtonsoccer.com/programs/travel/college-placement/college-commitments
https://www.bethesdasoccer.org/commitments/

I would look at commit pages nationwide to get a better global sense too.

Damn this area a joke for top talent in boys soccer

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So which sports are the easiest for boys to get into at the D1 level? Obviously not soccer or tennis...

Lacrosse
Track & Field
Baseball
Cross Country
Volleyball (but not many teams)

LOL take baseball off this list. The reduced number of draft rounds is making college recruiting a mess.

How so?

The cut the draft from 40 rounds to 20. So there’s a significant number of players who would have been drafted in previous years who are attending college to play instead. And they’re going to the best baseball schools, so there’s a trickle down effect making each level more difficult in terms of recruiting.