Honestly I hate the answer that girls must be ECNL or GA by grade 10. There are lots of different flavors of both sets of teams. Some RL can beat some NL. If you are a great player with great film, go to camps and do the work. You never know. That’s what my DD is banking on, anyway. Look at BSC: how many national ID camp girls do they have for U14 and up? And even national team youth players? And pro academy? No one new is breaking into those teams in 10th grade, let’s be real.

I think it sort of depends. They need your transcripts asap. And yes, the players need to keep up their grades. But we know some players who were told to take more AP courses, etc. which didn't happen to my DD.

Complete outsider - how do grades work with these "commitments" summer before Junior year? I'm assuming they still need to keep up some semblance of academic progress for the following 2 years?

I have no problem with girls that want to commit early. For my dd, though, I'm glad she did the visits when she went through this process.

She had a lot of interest from top schools, including what was her dream school growing up. But on that visit, she said she realized she couldn't really picture herself going to that college. It was too familiar to her and she wanted something different. Plus the coach was just weird one-on-one and the vibe amongst the team was also strange. The coaches sat together at the dinner, then the parents sat together and the players on the visit sorta sat with the athletes. DD was also there with her "competition" so that was weird, too.

Very different from some other visits she took. At the other visits, she was the only athlete visiting so there was a lot of red-carpet treatment, which was nice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I too think it is crazy to think that these judgments are made at these ages, and I think that it has pernicious ripple effects for the girls' side a younger ages.

But wish all the luck to everyone looking this summer.

It's not that crazy when you account for when girls hit puberty and when they're done growing. From a coaching standpoint max height is likely determined. Technical base is also established. As much as people joke about U11 girls with social media pages, things start really early on the girl's side and you're likely on your path by U15.

There are a lot of girls that quit soccer between u11 and u15. Even more that just aren't as good at u15 than they were at u11. So starting early isn't necessarily good.

Anonymous wrote:Is there a (girls) college recruiting 101 post around here anywhere? Or any suggested resources?

I would start with https://rlopezcoaching.com/blog/

Is there a (girls) college recruiting 101 post around here anywhere? Or any suggested resources?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From IG, a couple of `27 DMV girls already committed playing D1 soccer.

Link?

https://x.com/imyouthsoccer/status/1935351802687336456?s=46

Anonymous wrote:I will admit this here since it is anonymous but I feel like my family is going into this whole recruiting thing clueless. I thought my DD might hear from some schools eventually but I didn’t really realize that we would start being contacted by schools yesterday. And I am trying to explain to a 16 year old even if you have no interest in that school- you need to respond to the coach and be gracious.

Yeah, I hear you. It's a lot, especially not ever having done this before. And that is even after talking to other parents in the club who had their DDs work through this as well. I was helping my DD put together emails to send to coaches of schools that she does not have interest. She initial effort did not quite have the gracious part in it. LOL.

My DS is 19 and heading into his sophomore year of college. His experience was fill out the common app at the last minute. Pick a couple of states schools to visit and make a decision on the last day. Very, very different than this!

Anonymous wrote:I too think it is crazy to think that these judgments are made at these ages, and I think that it has pernicious ripple effects for the girls' side a younger ages.

But wish all the luck to everyone looking this summer.

It's not that crazy when you account for when girls hit puberty and when they're done growing. From a coaching standpoint max height is likely determined. Technical base is also established. As much as people joke about U11 girls with social media pages, things start really early on the girl's side and you're likely on your path by U15.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From IG, a couple of `27 DMV girls already committed playing D1 soccer.

Link?

It’s on their personal soccer accounts. No one is that creepy on DCUM to post it here hopefully.

I will admit this here since it is anonymous but I feel like my family is going into this whole recruiting thing clueless. I thought my DD might hear from some schools eventually but I didn’t really realize that we would start being contacted by schools yesterday. And I am trying to explain to a 16 year old even if you have no interest in that school- you need to respond to the coach and be gracious.

Anonymous wrote:From IG, a couple of `27 DMV girls already committed playing D1 soccer.

Link?

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to the local girls who have committed already. I’ve only seen one from FVU on IG. What other clubs? Also, I think it goes to show that you do not have to be on a top team to commit to a D1 school just days after June 15.

RU has a girl going to Virginia Tech.

Anonymous wrote:Why commit that early? What if the player gets injured in the next couple of years or decides it may not be the best fit? Just wondering how firm those are. And what is the rationale for doing so early?

Thanks!

A lot of these schools are top programs - not enough spots for all of the players who want to be in their program. Seize the moment if it’s the right fit.