College Scouts & Showcase Tournaments

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You are wrong about where college coaches will go if they don't have anyone there to watch. They go home.

That's what we said, so not wrong at all. No one is confused about how everything works, BTDT. Time for a new thread.

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That's what we said, so not wrong at all. No one is confused about how everything works, BTDT. Time for a new thread.

Yes, we love you convincing others to spend money they don't need to spend.

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Yes, we love you convincing others to spend money they don't need to spend.

BTDT, are you working tomorrow, or is NEFC giving you the day off so you can enjoy some long overdue quality time with your family?

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BTDT, are you working tomorrow, or is NEFC giving you the day off so you can enjoy some long overdue quality time with your family?

I'm BTDT!!

Jump fishy, jump.

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This will get him.

The Stars don't do anything for their players, all they do is suck their parents dry.

I'm BTDT!!

Jump fishy, jump.

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I promise I'll be over there in a minute to carve the turkey...just gotta get one more post in to rock the Stars.

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On the boys side there are very few college recruiters that will come to a tournament like the GPS showcase unless they have already seen the player and have interest in a specific player or players. It doesn't make a difference what division they play in. For the most part if your son is not on a team playing in the one of the top two divisions it is unlikely anyone would be interested. Coaches don't just show up hoping to find players. If you feel your son is a good prospect and he hasn't been contacted by any colleges during the season of his Junior year he should start contacting coaches at schools where he thinks he might have an opportunity to play and more importantly where the academic and social programs meet his expectations. This is important if he plays for a weak high school program. Coaches at the top club teams will assist in the process, as many have good contacts and may coach at the college level.

There actually is a lot of misinformation here.

Plenty of coaches go these tournaments with kids they want to look at.
While the division certainly makes a difference, when I was going through the process, I was playing in the 4th bracket of tournaments sometimes, I was still talking, pretty seriously, to D1 and D2 schools.
Your high school team is pretty irrelevant in the whole process. The accolades can help, but coaches for the most part don't care about those. They only care if you can play or not.
Coaches at the top clubs probably do have connections and will usually be local schools. Depending on your relationship with the coach they might help you out or just give you alittle guidance.

I feel a lot of parents feel like they know the process to a T. There is no perfect way to do it, every recruiting story is going to be different.

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There actually is a lot of misinformation here.

Plenty of coaches go these tournaments with kids they want to look at.
While the division certainly makes a difference, when I was going through the process, I was playing in the 4th bracket of tournaments sometimes, I was still talking, pretty seriously, to D1 and D2 schools.
Your high school team is pretty irrelevant in the whole process. The accolades can help, but coaches for the most part don't care about those. They only care if you can play or not.
Coaches at the top clubs probably do have connections and will usually be local schools. Depending on your relationship with the coach they might help you out or just give you alittle guidance.

I feel a lot of parents feel like they know the process to a T. There is no perfect way to do it, every recruiting story is going to be different.

Best synopsis of the process I've found is this article: http://www.elitecollegesports.com/so...20V4.0W%29.pdf

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Best synopsis of the process I've found is this article: http://www.elitecollegesports.com/so...20V4.0W%29.pdf

Quite an amusing read. The article starts out speaking about the panic that supposedly no one experiences and advises to see the whole thing like a job search which on this forum it seems like kids play soccer so they can endlessly perpetuate their education and will never need those skills. The article has some really good advice.

One place I think the article is off target is when they talk about financial aid. While technically what was written is correct it doesn't actually work quite like that in most situations since there is the trend right now for colleges to move more towards merit scholarships instead of straight need based grants. The implications to recruiting are quite a bit different from what the first article was thinking. Here is an interesting article on the subject. How Financial Aid Trends Affect College Athletes

http://www.athleticscholarships.net/...e-athletes.htm

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Best synopsis of the process I've found is this article: http://www.elitecollegesports.com/so...20V4.0W%29.pdf

Great article. We can only hope that BTDT will read it.

"Pursuing the right level is actually a multifaceted issue, since it includes both your daughter’s ability to make a team, your expectations of playing time, and
overriding goals (e.g., does she want to play at the highest level possible or use lacrosse to get to the highest possible academic level?). It also introduces the
questions of D1, D2, or D3.

Let’s start with the division question. There’s a common perception that the level of play is highest at D1 schools, next highest at D2 schools, and lowest at D3 schools. In
reality, for many sports each of these divisions have a wide competitive range of play and often overlap. The best college athletics is at the top D1 programs; however, depending on the sport, the best of the D3 schools would be competitive against lower level D1 programs.

There is a plethora of online discussion of the various divisional levels. My advice is to let the division fall out of the search; in other words, get the right school (academic and athletic fit), determine your desired balance of academic and athletics (D1 generally requires a bigger time commitment than D3), and then play at whatever division in which that college happens to fall."

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But nobody is ignorant...and I could care less about showcases.

You just don't get it. I like talking about recruiting, colleges, soccer, etc probably more than the next guy. YOU are the problem. What's your concern? Why the need to do these threads very day? How many consecutive weeks are you on? Interesting that those are the questions you NEVER answer. You'll just deflect back with your usual "why are you posting" retort. Do you really have no responsiblities other than to dominate, steer, and proselytize on this board?

Another thing that is rather amusing is how some on this forum apparently think they have all the answers because their personal objectives were so simplistic (get in and pay for a great education) and because of that no one is supposed to even discuss this topic. Yet if you read those two articles you realize that a whole cottage industry has grown up to support recruiting and that when you start reading their advice how much of it is contradictory. There are a ton of nuances involved in recruiting so each family's situation creates a fairly unique process. People who think it is so simple, simply don't understand AND appreciate that other's have wants and desires that go beyond theirs.

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Another thing that is rather amusing is how some on this forum apparently think they have all the answers because their personal objectives were so simplistic (get in and pay for a great education) and because of that no one is supposed to even discuss this topic. Yet if you read those two articles you realize that a whole cottage industry has grown up to support recruiting and that when you start reading their advice how much of it is contradictory. There are a ton of nuances involved in recruiting so each family's situation creates a fairly unique process. People who think it is so simple, simply don't understand AND appreciate that other's have wants and desires that go beyond theirs.

Thanks BTDT. You certainly don't understand the point in your last sentence.

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Great article. We can only hope that BTDT will read it.

"Pursuing the right level is actually a multifaceted issue, since it includes both your daughter’s ability to make a team, your expectations of playing time, and
overriding goals (e.g., does she want to play at the highest level possible or use lacrosse to get to the highest possible academic level?). It also introduces the
questions of D1, D2, or D3.

Let’s start with the division question. There’s a common perception that the level of play is highest at D1 schools, next highest at D2 schools, and lowest at D3 schools. In
reality, for many sports each of these divisions have a wide competitive range of play and often overlap. The best college athletics is at the top D1 programs; however, depending on the sport, the best of the D3 schools would be competitive against lower level D1 programs.

There is a plethora of online discussion of the various divisional levels. My advice is to let the division fall out of the search; in other words, get the right school (academic and athletic fit), determine your desired balance of academic and athletics (D1 generally requires a bigger time commitment than D3), and then play at whatever division in which that college happens to fall."

Spot on. Since these are some of his go-to resource materials (and you'll notice the link to his "buyer/seller" theme) maybe he will re-read through a different lens.

[Unregistered]

Great article. We can only hope that BTDT will read it.

"Pursuing the right level is actually a multifaceted issue, since it includes both your daughter’s ability to make a team, your expectations of playing time, and
overriding goals (e.g., does she want to play at the highest level possible or use lacrosse to get to the highest possible academic level?). It also introduces the
questions of D1, D2, or D3.

Let’s start with the division question. There’s a common perception that the level of play is highest at D1 schools, next highest at D2 schools, and lowest at D3 schools. In
reality, for many sports each of these divisions have a wide competitive range of play and often overlap. The best college athletics is at the top D1 programs; however, depending on the sport, the best of the D3 schools would be competitive against lower level D1 programs.

There is a plethora of online discussion of the various divisional levels. My advice is to let the division fall out of the search; in other words, get the right school (academic and athletic fit), determine your desired balance of academic and athletics (D1 generally requires a bigger time commitment than D3), and then play at whatever division in which that college happens to fall."

As usual here is the problem. This is one size fits all advice that assumes a certain level of academic intensity and a certain funding ability. Do we honestly this advice fits a family of modest means that has never sent a child to college before? Probably not. Also the tired ascertain that a top D3 team is as good as a bottom tier D1 is flat out incorrect for just the point made in the article. The intensity does impact the quality.

Some of you need to beware that in this journey there are plenty of people who will try to profit from your relative ignorance. Don't lose sight that an article like this one is pandering to a very specific audience, one that has the means to pay for their services, and as such their advice is generally going to say what that audience wants to hear. That doesn't make it bad advice but you certainly don't want to take it as some sort of gospel advice. It is all part of the mix that you need seek out and find to fit your specific goals and variables.

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Spot on. Since these are some of his go-to resource materials (and you'll notice the link to his "buyer/seller" theme) maybe he will re-read through a different lens.

What, that whole lame idea that D3 soccer is the equivalent of low level D1 soccer so you might as well skip the scholarship money to play in the NESCAC. That logic? That is Perspective's and his merry band of D3 lunatics go to theme so you might not want to jump to too many conclusions about who is posting what.