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)

Anonymous wrote:In my kids' individual sport it becomes obvious when you look at the national/regional rankings at about age 13-14. I think it is a surer thing if they have passed puberty and the potential injuries to growth plates. Also, it's a surer thing if the high school is easier - a high school which gives them enough slack to compete and still achieve grades. I think my DS had the talent to compete Div 1, but then lost 6 key months due to an injury and slid in the rankings, then got into an amazing HS... and D3 became the realistic option., which was where he was performing/ranking entering HS. He knew he would not be able to make top grades and simultaneously makethe investment in getting back to D1 competitiveness. So that was it.

Anonymous wrote:For the big money sports, it’s starts before they are born - are mom or dad or both former D-1 or higher athletes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I imagine foreigners are taking up spots on D1 teams that have a hard time getting the best American players. I mean from this area, often the goal of soccer is to get a leg up on admission to an Ivy League school as opposed to just playing soccer. I think you’ll see more foreigners at less academically known schools.

You can see the rosters. The Ivies have many foreigners on their rosters. Just take a look.

It's not just the Ivies. Even D3 schools (and not even super competitive ones) have lots of foreign recruits. We were surprised to see that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I imagine foreigners are taking up spots on D1 teams that have a hard time getting the best American players. I mean from this area, often the goal of soccer is to get a leg up on admission to an Ivy League school as opposed to just playing soccer. I think you’ll see more foreigners at less academically known schools.

You can see the rosters. The Ivies have many foreigners on their rosters. Just take a look.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I imagine foreigners are taking up spots on D1 teams that have a hard time getting the best American players. I mean from this area, often the goal of soccer is to get a leg up on admission to an Ivy League school as opposed to just playing soccer. I think you’ll see more foreigners at less academically known schools.

You can see the rosters. The Ivies have many foreigners on their rosters. Just take a look.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Your kid playing D1 now would be extremely unlikely to make a D1 team as a senior now. I do not understand why you are fixated on dismissing the enormous changes to recruiting in the past year. I mean, head coaches of all the major D1 sports have been openly talking about how the transfer portal has fundamentally changed recruiting but somehow your kid would have been unaffected and you think soccer is unaffected. I am sorry, but your ego is blinding you to reality.

You are very fixated on this D1 soccer transfer portal issue! I have not minimized the potential impact of these and other changes; it’s just that I don’t think it has much, if any, bearing on OP’s question. I have also never asserted that my current D1 player would have the same recruitment outcomes if he were a HS junior today, and I don’t know how that’s relevant to this thread either.

To review, again, OP specifically asked about the age at which it was realistic to think a kid could play in college The answer is obviously going to differ for every family and may vary by sport. The best a parent can do is find a way to realistically assess their child’s talent level, interest and goals, and support them along the way while staying on top of the current recruiting landscape. This means that the your assessment of what is realistic for a kid to aim for may well change between the first moment you think the kid may have what it takes to play in college and the time the kid is actually recruited, or is not recruited. I’m not running around telling people I think my current 13 year old is going to end up at a NESCAC, but right now, with the information we have, comparing him to the former 13 year olds we know now playing at NESCACs, that seems like a realistic hope/dream should he continue to focus on soccer and school. We’ll obviously reassess every year (at a minimum) between now and mid-HS. If the level at NESCACs or similar schools increases dramatically because massive numbers of talented players end up with no D1 options, then he may not focus on being recruited at all, which will be fine with us because we have no ego invested in his sporting career. The most we can be accused of is hoping for an admissions boost down the line, and we are very realistic about the odds of that as well.

As mentioned earlier, I think you should consider starting a thread about the transfer portal changes in the soccer forum given that this forum and the OP’s thread relate to sports generally. Regardless, I won’t be responding to you further.

Anonymous wrote:I imagine foreigners are taking up spots on D1 teams that have a hard time getting the best American players. I mean from this area, often the goal of soccer is to get a leg up on admission to an Ivy League school as opposed to just playing soccer. I think you’ll see more foreigners at less academically known schools.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Your kid playing D1 now would be extremely unlikely to make a D1 team as a senior now. I do not understand why you are fixated on dismissing the enormous changes to recruiting in the past year. I mean, head coaches of all the major D1 sports have been openly talking about how the transfer portal has fundamentally changed recruiting but somehow your kid would have been unaffected and you think soccer is unaffected. I am sorry, but your ego is blinding you to reality.

Anonymous wrote:I imagine foreigners are taking up spots on D1 teams that have a hard time getting the best American players. I mean from this area, often the goal of soccer is to get a leg up on admission to an Ivy League school as opposed to just playing soccer. I think you’ll see more foreigners at less academically known schools.

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious as to what your kids' coaches are saying about your kids' potential.

Do they say anything at all about a kids' potential? Do they push back on what you share about their potential or what the kids' goals are?