Anonymous wrote:OP, how much did you spend (on average) per year on your daughter's soccer? How much is her scholarship per year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to be clear, your daughter committed to a D1 school and she is starting her Junior Year of High School today?

Yes! Recruitment window for her opened up June 15th. She had calls, emails, texts, and mail from a ton of schools. A few called at midnight on June 15th. Numerous schools came out to see her one last time at ECNL Playoffs in Seattle. They then called to set official visits after August 1st. She made her decision a few days after one of the official visits.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, some of the ECNL rosters have in excess of 25 kids on them. If your goal is to play in college, I thought playing time mattered more than just being on a team. How can the Coach see you play at a showcase event if you are the 2nd or 3rd string on your team? I've been told by coaches, it is important to have significant playing time over just being on a team. Or did just being on an ECNL team seem to open the 'doors of interest' for your daughter?

Great question! Our team had 20 players but because of her position (defender) she rarely came off the field. College coaches got plenty of opportunity to see her. For showcase events our coach made sure everyone got plenty of playing time especially the girls who are not committed yet. We routinely had 80-90 coaches at our showcase games. A good higher ranked ECNL team will have tons of coaches at their games.

Was your daughter contacted by coaches that were not on her list do to them just being able to watch her?

All the time! There were plenty of schools that reached out especially after June 15th. Most of the schools reached out because they saw her at showcase events. I will repeat...ITS ALL ABOUT THE SHOWCASE EVENTS!!!
1. Contact coaches before the showcase events stating your interest in the school. Give them your times and location of all three of the games.
2. BALL OUT during those games.
3. Have a parent annotate what coaches came to the games.
4. Take that list of schools and contact them a few days later thanking them for coming to see you play.
5. Once you get you highlights video done from that showcase event, send them the link to the highlight video. I highly recommend that athletes setup their own YouTube channel to 'store' all of their videos in one common place (especially if your club does not use a platform like Sports Recruit)

This process is an way to start communication with college coaches. You have a reason to contact them (showcase times, thanks for coming, highlight link)
6. Send the highlight link out to all other schools that didnt come to watch you play. The objective is to get your name out there
7. Post short highlight clips on IG and X. Follow every colleges IG and X account to keep up with what they are doing. Like the colleges posts.

Yes, this is a process but is gets super easy once you have done it a few times. Hardest part is generally putting together the highlights but like I said in the original post, keep it short with only the best stuff. If you are not savvy with video editing software or techniques...try your best to figure it out. YouTube is your friend.

Sounds like you (or your kid) did most of the work.

Did your club provide anything worthwhile to the process of being recruited?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to be clear, your daughter committed to a D1 school and she is starting her Junior Year of High School today?

Yes! Recruitment window for her opened up June 15th. She had calls, emails, texts, and mail from a ton of schools. A few called at midnight on June 15th. Numerous schools came out to see her one last time at ECNL Playoffs in Seattle. They then called to set official visits after August 1st. She made her decision a few days after one of the official visits.

So when did you start contacting the schools? Fall or Spring of sophomore year? Did you invite them to the showcases or Seattle then? Did any schools find her without you contacting them first or is it all initiated by the player? Just trying to understand the mechanics of this.

I have a trapped ECNL player that likely won’t play high school, similar reasons as your D. I imagine yours kept training while her team was playing high school ball but was she able to pick up games somewhere?

And thank you for all this!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, some of the ECNL rosters have in excess of 25 kids on them. If your goal is to play in college, I thought playing time mattered more than just being on a team. How can the Coach see you play at a showcase event if you are the 2nd or 3rd string on your team? I've been told by coaches, it is important to have significant playing time over just being on a team. Or did just being on an ECNL team seem to open the 'doors of interest' for your daughter?

Great question! Our team had 20 players but because of her position (defender) she rarely came off the field. College coaches got plenty of opportunity to see her. For showcase events our coach made sure everyone got plenty of playing time especially the girls who are not committed yet. We routinely had 80-90 coaches at our showcase games. A good higher ranked ECNL team will have tons of coaches at their games.

Was your daughter contacted by coaches that were not on her list do to them just being able to watch her?

All the time! There were plenty of schools that reached out especially after June 15th. Most of the schools reached out because they saw her at showcase events. I will repeat...ITS ALL ABOUT THE SHOWCASE EVENTS!!!
1. Contact coaches before the showcase events stating your interest in the school. Give them your times and location of all three of the games.
2. BALL OUT during those games.
3. Have a parent annotate what coaches came to the games.
4. Take that list of schools and contact them a few days later thanking them for coming to see you play.
5. Once you get you highlights video done from that showcase event, send them the link to the highlight video. I highly recommend that athletes setup their own YouTube channel to 'store' all of their videos in one common place (especially if your club does not use a platform like Sports Recruit)

This process is an way to start communication with college coaches. You have a reason to contact them (showcase times, thanks for coming, highlight link)
6. Send the highlight link out to all other schools that didnt come to watch you play. The objective is to get your name out there
7. Post short highlight clips on IG and X. Follow every colleges IG and X account to keep up with what they are doing. Like the colleges posts.

Yes, this is a process but is gets super easy once you have done it a few times. Hardest part is generally putting together the highlights but like I said in the original post, keep it short with only the best stuff. If you are not savvy with video editing software or techniques...try your best to figure it out. YouTube is your friend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For every junior that commits to a school there are several who commit and never play in college. A lot changes in a year. Until that pen meets the paper it's just a verbal agreement that isn't worth anything.

Yep - every single person on the planet with a kid interested in playing in college knows this. Stop being a Doug Downer. We know the rules. We know what can happen.

BTW - even if you sign and sit the bench - the $$ and the stipend and the NIL is still all yours for the taking! Who cares if you play or not? My kid played 17 minutes last year on a full scholarship and is walking around with a monthly $2,600 stipend debit card! Now THAT's worth something!

Preach!! Amen to this

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did you daughter get on an ecnl team? Which grade or what age? Thanks for the great post.

She got on in the 8th grade. So I guess she was like 13 or so. She is a trap player. 2026 playing 07

I think trap players end up better players. Yes, there is the one season where they don’t play as their older teammates are playing high school. But they basically play up with an older grade the whole time and end up as better players.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, some of the ECNL rosters have in excess of 25 kids on them. If your goal is to play in college, I thought playing time mattered more than just being on a team. How can the Coach see you play at a showcase event if you are the 2nd or 3rd string on your team? I've been told by coaches, it is important to have significant playing time over just being on a team. Or did just being on an ECNL team seem to open the 'doors of interest' for your daughter?

Great question! Our team had 20 players but because of her position (defender) she rarely came off the field. College coaches got plenty of opportunity to see her. For showcase events our coach made sure everyone got plenty of playing time especially the girls who are not committed yet. We routinely had 80-90 coaches at our showcase games. A good higher ranked ECNL team will have tons of coaches at their games.

Was your daughter contacted by coaches that were not on her list do to them just being able to watch her?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did you daughter get on an ecnl team? Which grade or what age? Thanks for the great post.

She got on in the 8th grade. So I guess she was like 13 or so. She is a trap player. 2026 playing 07

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to be clear, your daughter committed to a D1 school and she is starting her Junior Year of High School today?

Yes! Recruitment window for her opened up June 15th. She had calls, emails, texts, and mail from a ton of schools. A few called at midnight on June 15th. Numerous schools came out to see her one last time at ECNL Playoffs in Seattle. They then called to set official visits after August 1st. She made her decision a few days after one of the official visits.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For every junior that commits to a school there are several who commit and never play in college. A lot changes in a year. Until that pen meets the paper it's just a verbal agreement that isn't worth anything.

Yep - every single person on the planet with a kid interested in playing in college knows this. Stop being a Doug Downer. We know the rules. We know what can happen.

BTW - even if you sign and sit the bench - the $$ and the stipend and the NIL is still all yours for the taking! Who cares if you play or not? My kid played 17 minutes last year on a full scholarship and is walking around with a monthly $2,600 stipend debit card! Now THAT's worth something!

Anonymous wrote:"Don't be a helicopter parent!!!!" yet posted this

Anonymous wrote:<< Don't ever go to a general open tryout. Call the coach for the team you are interested in and see if they will let you come for a practice.>>

Watch a college practice to show interest? Sure.

Joining in the practice? That’s an NCAA violation unless something has changed!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, some of the ECNL rosters have in excess of 25 kids on them. If your goal is to play in college, I thought playing time mattered more than just being on a team. How can the Coach see you play at a showcase event if you are the 2nd or 3rd string on your team? I've been told by coaches, it is important to have significant playing time over just being on a team. Or did just being on an ECNL team seem to open the 'doors of interest' for your daughter?

Great question! Our team had 20 players but because of her position (defender) she rarely came off the field. College coaches got plenty of opportunity to see her. For showcase events our coach made sure everyone got plenty of playing time especially the girls who are not committed yet. We routinely had 80-90 coaches at our showcase games. A good higher ranked ECNL team will have tons of coaches at their games.

Anonymous wrote:My kid plays a different sport, but one thing I wonder, if a college coach reaches out to your coach before June 15 before your junior year, do you know? Can your coach tell you? If they come to your game, I know they can't talk to you but can they tell your coach who you're watching?

I'm trying to figure out if you go into June 15 with a sense of "X school seems to be interested" or if you really have no idea.