Originally posted by Unregistered
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First off: The idea that your kid has to be committed to a D1 school by end of freshman or early sophomore year is a myth for the vast majority of players. There may be 30-40 kids nationwide that are committed to D1's by end of their freshman year, and most are going to ACC, PAC 12 or Big10 type schools. Lots of good programs with $ to offer fill their spots during soph or jr year, and some will continue to fill roster spots into senior year (even if the scholarship $'s are gone). My recommendation would be to not get into a race to commit somewhere during freshman year, unless your kid is very mature, has fallen in love with a particular school that is also in love with her, or there's some unique circumstance (e.g., every kid in your family has attended XYZ State for 3 generations and it's a no brainer, or there's a particular course of study that only a few schools happen to offer). If your kid is one of those 30-40 stud, national-level players, you would already know it, because she's pretty much the best player on the field every time she plays and it's obvious to all.
If you are an 8th/9th grade parent with a kid that's top one-third of a top club team, you'll need to get her some kind of exposure by U15-17 to college coaches. There are several avenues for this, and your best/easiest route will depend on the level that your kid plays at AND the level that she aspires to reach:
1) for the very top players (top 5-10 in the region?), invites to ID camps, NT camps, etc. will get them on all kinds of lists and generate further invites to college camps and showcases. They have choices, and don't need to generate their own exposure.
2) play for a club team that enters a couple of showcase tournaments each year during U16, U17 years. Make sure that what the club puts on their schedule as a "showcase" has a legitimate history of attracting schools on your target list to their games. If a showcase has a half dozen D2 and D3 schools attending and you are thinking D1, you'll be spinning your wheels. A key step is to identify schools that you might be interested in ahead of time, and to communicate to those coaches both before and after the showcase event. If you've generated an initial target list at U15 (likely to be pretty big list at such an early stage), write to them in advance of a showcase as well, so that your player will get on their radar. Remember, some schools that might be ideal for your kid don't really start looking for players at U15.
3) look into ODP. For some players, success with ODP has put them on college radars, and led to being recruited and signed. My kids didn't do ODP, so I don't know much about navigating that process, but several of their teammates had great success going that route. Note that almost every on-line recruiting form for colleges will ask about ODP participation, so somebody clearly cares about it - even if it's not as big a deal in MA.
4) play for an ECNL team. The ECNL events are very well attended, and the better teams will have almost all of the top 50 programs watching them at some point during each showcase, especially when matched up with another top team. Most will be watching players that they either already know or have received communication from, so constructing a realistic target list and reaching out to them in advance is critical. While not unheard of, the idea of just showing up, playing great and having a bunch of schools fall in love with you is not realistic. ECNL may be changing somewhat over the next few years, but for now it is a reliable avenue to be seen by the majority of college coaches. Note, if your kid's target list is entirely made up of local colleges, she may not need to play at events in front of colleges from all over the country. In that case, the value of ECNL becomes more about the level of play and the league's reputation to your target schools.
5) Attend select college camps. Research schools and whittle your target list to some key favorites. If your player is fortunate enough to have 2-3 top choices that play at a level that seems within her reach (based on your coach's feedback, the backgrounds of some of the players on their current roster, etc.), investigate attending a summer camp either at the school itself or wherever their coaches are working during the summer. It can be a great way to develop a relationship, determine mutual interest, and possibly generate an offer. Be aware that these summer camps are money makers for the coaches and the level of soccer can be pretty bad. Communicate in advance, so that the coaches are looking for your player.
Those are my thoughts. I'm sure that others have found a different way to get to a D1 spot, and hopefully they'll chime in. The 3 most critical things are: to know the true level of your player (big difference between Penn State or Virginia and Vermont or Bryant), to construct a list of target schools based on a range of factors (playing soccer is just one of them), and to communicate your interest in the program(s) and listen carefully to the feedback you receive.
Best of luck.
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