Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you care?

Not that you have really seen these signings and you went well out of your way to find schools as obscure as you could but the very notion of crapping in any kids choice of school is simply petty and vile.

Worry about your own kid and let other people live in peace without your judgement.

I didn’t bring it up. Someone else brought up and linked to this “commitment list,” which includes some of those specific schools, implying it was a big deal. The fact is these recruiting services make a ton of money off well-meaning parents and the fallacy that there is all this athletic scholarship money out there.

I worked in college athletics for 20 years. I have seen ill-informed parents every year but it has gotten worse.

I am not critical or judgmental of any student’s school choice. I am critical of the perception that these schools are handing out all these big scholarship awards for soccer or tennis or whatever, when that just isn’t true in almost every case.

To be honest, I also wonder why schools don’t have signing ceremonies for the kids who get big academic scholarships.

I'm the poster who posted the commitment list, but not the PP you are responding to here. If you actually read the post, you'd see my purpose was not to say the commitment list was a "big deal," but to support my point that the NCAA stats, because they are national averages, do not give parents a true picture of the odds that a HS player in MD or VA can play in college. I doubt there are more than a handful of parents who actually believe their kid is getting a full ride to college based in soccer, but the NCAA document is helpful in that regard since it includes a column for average scholarship awarded.

I certainly agree with the other PP that you are cherry picking the schools to make your point.

NP. I have been an athletic trainer at some of these showcase tournaments and I can tell you without question that statement is not true. Maybe not with your club, but I hear it All.The.Time. soccer, baseball, lax.

And PP is right that these recruiting services in general are making money hand over fist on a premise that is shaky at best. They can be very misleading.

Well, they are at a showcase after all. that is kind of a subset of parents and truly representative of all parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you care?

Not that you have really seen these signings and you went well out of your way to find schools as obscure as you could but the very notion of crapping in any kids choice of school is simply petty and vile.

Worry about your own kid and let other people live in peace without your judgement.

I didn’t bring it up. Someone else brought up and linked to this “commitment list,” which includes some of those specific schools, implying it was a big deal. The fact is these recruiting services make a ton of money off well-meaning parents and the fallacy that there is all this athletic scholarship money out there.

I worked in college athletics for 20 years. I have seen ill-informed parents every year but it has gotten worse.

I am not critical or judgmental of any student’s school choice. I am critical of the perception that these schools are handing out all these big scholarship awards for soccer or tennis or whatever, when that just isn’t true in almost every case.

To be honest, I also wonder why schools don’t have signing ceremonies for the kids who get big academic scholarships.

I'm the poster who posted the commitment list, but not the PP you are responding to here. If you actually read the post, you'd see my purpose was not to say the commitment list was a "big deal," but to support my point that the NCAA stats, because they are national averages, do not give parents a true picture of the odds that a HS player in MD or VA can play in college. I doubt there are more than a handful of parents who actually believe their kid is getting a full ride to college based in soccer, but the NCAA document is helpful in that regard since it includes a column for average scholarship awarded.

I certainly agree with the other PP that you are cherry picking the schools to make your point.

NP. I have been an athletic trainer at some of these showcase tournaments and I can tell you without question that statement is not true. Maybe not with your club, but I hear it All.The.Time. soccer, baseball, lax.

And PP is right that these recruiting services in general are making money hand over fist on a premise that is shaky at best. They can be very misleading.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you care?

Not that you have really seen these signings and you went well out of your way to find schools as obscure as you could but the very notion of crapping in any kids choice of school is simply petty and vile.

Worry about your own kid and let other people live in peace without your judgement.

I didn’t bring it up. Someone else brought up and linked to this “commitment list,” which includes some of those specific schools, implying it was a big deal. The fact is these recruiting services make a ton of money off well-meaning parents and the fallacy that there is all this athletic scholarship money out there.

I worked in college athletics for 20 years. I have seen ill-informed parents every year but it has gotten worse.

I am not critical or judgmental of any student’s school choice. I am critical of the perception that these schools are handing out all these big scholarship awards for soccer or tennis or whatever, when that just isn’t true in almost every case.

To be honest, I also wonder why schools don’t have signing ceremonies for the kids who get big academic scholarships.

I'm the poster who posted the commitment list, but not the PP you are responding to here. If you actually read the post, you'd see my purpose was not to say the commitment list was a "big deal," but to support my point that the NCAA stats, because they are national averages, do not give parents a true picture of the odds that a HS player in MD or VA can play in college. I doubt there are more than a handful of parents who actually believe their kid is getting a full ride to college based in soccer, but the NCAA document is helpful in that regard since it includes a column for average scholarship awarded.

I certainly agree with the other PP that you are cherry picking the schools to make your point.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you care?

Not that you have really seen these signings and you went well out of your way to find schools as obscure as you could but the very notion of crapping in any kids choice of school is simply petty and vile.

Worry about your own kid and let other people live in peace without your judgement.

I didn’t bring it up. Someone else brought up and linked to this “commitment list,” which includes some of those specific schools, implying it was a big deal. The fact is these recruiting services make a ton of money off well-meaning parents and the fallacy that there is all this athletic scholarship money out there.

I worked in college athletics for 20 years. I have seen ill-informed parents every year but it has gotten worse.

I am not critical or judgmental of any student’s school choice. I am critical of the perception that these schools are handing out all these big scholarship awards for soccer or tennis or whatever, when that just isn’t true in almost every case.

To be honest, I also wonder why schools don’t have signing ceremonies for the kids who get big academic scholarships.

You changed the context to your following statement:

I think a lot of parents equate 'commitment' with 'full scholarship'.... How much scholarship money do you think a kid is getting to go to Upper Iowa? Or Cal State-San Marcos? Or Monmouth? I bet the cost of one year on their club team > whatever soccer-related aid they are getting. (Need-based, work-study aid, etc. is different).

I am not discounting the value of playing sports, learning time management, being athletic and healthy, making friends. But the fact is there is way, way more money out there for academics than for sports, and when I see "signing ceremonies" for a kid who is "committed" to Upper Iowa or Southeastern Oklahoma or Goucher it cracks me up.

You cherry picked obscure colleges from a large list of commitments overall. The point the PP was making was in regards to making a case about soccer hotbeads and getting a feel for the level of colleges kids from NoVA are committing to in general.

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/search/?query=&divisionId=&genderId=m&graduationYear=2019&positionId=0&playerRating=&stateId=All&pageNo=0&area=commitments

This database is by no means complete as there are tons of kids who don't bother to report their commitments, and most of those who do are playing D1, but you can still get a sense of the DMV slice of the entire pie. Of the 893 2019 boys who will play in college, 46 are from MD and 40 are from VA. Together, they make up close to 10% of the national number.

You decided to strip the post of its context entirely just so you could crap on kids.

Anonymous wrote:Why do you care?

Not that you have really seen these signings and you went well out of your way to find schools as obscure as you could but the very notion of crapping in any kids choice of school is simply petty and vile.

Worry about your own kid and let other people live in peace without your judgement.

I didn’t bring it up. Someone else brought up and linked to this “commitment list,” which includes some of those specific schools, implying it was a big deal. The fact is these recruiting services make a ton of money off well-meaning parents and the fallacy that there is all this athletic scholarship money out there.

I worked in college athletics for 20 years. I have seen ill-informed parents every year but it has gotten worse.

I am not critical or judgmental of any student’s school choice. I am critical of the perception that these schools are handing out all these big scholarship awards for soccer or tennis or whatever, when that just isn’t true in almost every case.

To be honest, I also wonder why schools don’t have signing ceremonies for the kids who get big academic scholarships.

Getting accepted to a good college due to soccer is the “cherry on top”. My U11 DD is having a great time playing with her new friends/teammates. In addition, she is much healthier physically and mentally from soccer. The social aspect of being & playing on a team is priceless. I don’t dare to dream she will ever play for a professional team. Frankly, the average annual salary for NWSL is only around $40K. A good college education will likely land her a higher starting salary at any company.

Playing on a travel team vs a rec and/or select team is better for my DD. Kids on her current team are much more dedicated to the sport, show up to games/practices on time and not lazy. Hence, this provides for a much better environment & culture for my daughter to learn responsibilities and commitment.

^^Most of the schools you are making fun of are D2. Every kid I know who has gone the D2 route has done it for financial reasons--between need based aid and athletic money, they typically don't pay much, if anything, for college. Many of them were on financial aid at their clubs and many would not have gone to college at all were it not for their desire to keep playing.

It's only on DCUM and other forums where I hear people talking about $$ spent on club soccer vs. potential scholarship $$ as if they are ledger items. Everyone I know whose kid is still playing in HS is happy to have supported an activity their kid loves, and one that keeps them healthy and too busy to get into much trouble. Some of us are lucky enough to also see their kid get athletic money and/or an admissions boost to a great college out of it, but that's a bonus, not the goal.