As an adult that had a very competitive soccer childhood, my perspective is unless they’re going all American just keep it at the club or state teams. Friends who got scholarships went to lesser schools so I doubt that trade off was worth it in the long run. Several years of varsity soccer on my application definitely helped push me past a lot of peers to get a coveted top tier university spot. I played club all through college into an adult league. An uneducated player took my ACL out at 27 so that was that. Now I coach my kids team to great enthusiasm from parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want the admission's "leadership" bump from playing a key or leading role on a good team, but not necessarily the "athletics" bump of being a recruited athlete.

My kid does not want to play college soccer after talking to several other family members who did play D1 athletics and found it sort of a hit or miss experience.

Same experience in our household.

+1. We have NCAA champions in our family in other sports too - in addition to soccer players

For soccer, We are all told that their club experience was better

My hope is that my daughter can learn what it’s like to work towards individual goals and team goals, see that success. Play competitive against top teams In ECNL to experience a high level sport. Have strong friendships outside of school. . Learn balance in other areas.

But college D1 - nope. Maybe D3

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want the admission's "leadership" bump from playing a key or leading role on a good team, but not necessarily the "athletics" bump of being a recruited athlete.

My kid does not want to play college soccer after talking to several other family members who did play D1 athletics and found it sort of a hit or miss experience.

Same experience in our household.

college soccer is a joke. If your child has (SERIOUS) talent send him/her to Europe. Whoever tells you the contrary is lying to you.

“Send turn to Europe” sounds easy but it’s not. Send them where? Who facilitates that?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want the admission's "leadership" bump from playing a key or leading role on a good team, but not necessarily the "athletics" bump of being a recruited athlete.

My kid does not want to play college soccer after talking to several other family members who did play D1 athletics and found it sort of a hit or miss experience.

Same experience in our household.

college soccer is a joke. If your child has (SERIOUS) talent send him/her to Europe. Whoever tells you the contrary is lying to you.

Talent is different from SERIOUS Talent. And most of the parents here are talking about either girls, for whom the calculus is totally different, or boys whose talent gets them to a college team and that’s their goal. The pros//serious Europe talent kids are not what we’re talking about, mostly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want the admission's "leadership" bump from playing a key or leading role on a good team, but not necessarily the "athletics" bump of being a recruited athlete.

My kid does not want to play college soccer after talking to several other family members who did play D1 athletics and found it sort of a hit or miss experience.

Same experience in our household.

college soccer is a joke. If your child has (SERIOUS) talent send him/her to Europe. Whoever tells you the contrary is lying to you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want the admission's "leadership" bump from playing a key or leading role on a good team, but not necessarily the "athletics" bump of being a recruited athlete.

My kid does not want to play college soccer after talking to several other family members who did play D1 athletics and found it sort of a hit or miss experience.

Same experience in our household.

What club are you with?

Anonymous wrote:I want the admission's "leadership" bump from playing a key or leading role on a good team, but not necessarily the "athletics" bump of being a recruited athlete.

My kid does not want to play college soccer after talking to several other family members who did play D1 athletics and found it sort of a hit or miss experience.

Same experience in our household.

I want the admission's "leadership" bump from playing a key or leading role on a good team, but not necessarily the "athletics" bump of being a recruited athlete.

My kid does not want to play college soccer after talking to several other family members who did play D1 athletics and found it sort of a hit or miss experience.

Anonymous wrote:How many kids play? And what percentage make it to:
College team D1 or D3
US teams
International teams

This is the best site I’ve seen for percentages playing in college, though note these are national averages. http://scholarshipstats.com/soccer.html

The Mid-Atlantic percentages are significantly higher than the national ones.

Not sure if stats are kept for youth and senior national teams.

How many kids play? And what percentage make it to:
College team D1 or D3
US teams
International teams

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good D1 team, with playing time. Scholarship money a bonus. Getting into a better school that without soccer, an added bonus.

This has got to be at least 95% of us on DCUM with very talented soccer players who are HS age. And not that many of us are not “very motivated parents” if that phrase is intended to refer to parents who push their kids hard and scheme for their advancement from the time their kids are young. Once it became clear that DS was still an outstanding player when he hit HS we were certainly very motivated to make sure he kept his grades up and supported him in playing at a level that made him attractive to top academic schools.

I do know parents of very talented teen boys (with national team experience) who, together with their kid, have had to make difficult decisions about good college soccer programs with lots of scholarship $$ vs gambling on a pro career. It’s a tough choice if your kid is academically ambitious but lives the game.

*And note that many of us are not

Anonymous wrote:Good D1 team, with playing time. Scholarship money a bonus. Getting into a better school that without soccer, an added bonus.

This has got to be at least 95% of us on DCUM with very talented soccer players who are HS age. And not that many of us are not “very motivated parents” if that phrase is intended to refer to parents who push their kids hard and scheme for their advancement from the time their kids are young. Once it became clear that DS was still an outstanding player when he hit HS we were certainly very motivated to make sure he kept his grades up and supported him in playing at a level that made him attractive to top academic schools.

I do know parents of very talented teen boys (with national team experience) who, together with their kid, have had to make difficult decisions about good college soccer programs with lots of scholarship $$ vs gambling on a pro career. It’s a tough choice if your kid is academically ambitious but lives the game.

Anonymous wrote:Having fun with the best possible competition.
Mens sana in corpore sano.

College soccer sucks and MLS players do not make a living...

+1,000

Also, my sons are very intelligent, incredible students so soccer is a passionate hobby---even if they dream of becoming a FIFA superstar.

We have a pro player in the family. He was a horrible student and it's how he got into a good college with a free ride. Pro career was short. He teaches now.

The level to play in Europe is so much greater and very very very very few kids that are raised through the US system are going to make it Internationally. We hear about a just a handful when we have over 25 million American kids playing soccer.

I also know what it takes to play D1 soccer, even D2 and if you are a STEM major like I was with 3-4 hour labs in addition to classes---forget it. I dropped out of soccer in the 2nd year.

Anonymous wrote:Just trying to get a sense of what “making it” is in soccer in the USA. College scholarships? MLS?

D1 scholarship money with accelerated admissions.

Anonymous wrote:She has played in 8 different countries outside the USA. At U17 now if she quit today the experience alone is enough to be worth it for her.

On different teams? Or as a youth national player?