Poll for parents of college soccer players.

by Mia Hamster 24/07/14, 02:28 pm

For parents who have daughters playing college soccer: Where did your daughter get the best exposure to college coaches in the recruiting process?

by ninjadog 25/07/14, 12:28 pm

Bump...because I'm interested in seeing more results.

by Guest 25/07/14, 01:15 pm

I would think most of the parents you really want to hear from, unless they have younger children and are still involved, have moved on from the forum.

Most of the responses I would guess are from those currently involved with ECNL and those that are not.

Heck, even I voted and mine is not even close to the proper age. Very Happy

by ONLYASOCCERDAD 27/07/14, 01:07 am

Mia Hamster wrote:For parents who have daughters playing college soccer: Where did your daughter get the best exposure to college coaches in the recruiting process?

generally speaking. if you have a few target colleges, you can email the coach and/or staff and usually get a list of tourneys they prefer to scout Smile

by fun soccer 28/07/14, 09:09 am

I chose "Other" because Just playing in a certain league or going to Showcases generally isn't enough. I have found that having the players as well as myself contact coaches and staying in contact with them throughout the players HS years works best for us.. Just showing up to a showcase isn't good enough The players need to invite the coaches of the schools that they are interested in to come out and watch they play. We start this as freshmen in HS by having the players send out emails to 5 coaches each week. Even if its a school that you really are not that interested in. It gets the player used to contacting college coaches. Before they start their Jr. year of HS we talk and narrow it down to STUDY and LOGISTICS ( schools that specialize in what the player wants to study and how close or far you want to stay from home) This works well for us. We have helped players play at many levels in College. JR College, NAIA, NCAA DIV3, NCAA DiV2 ...and 1 player in NCAA DIV1. There is a college soccer team for most any player you just need to do the work. I love this thread and am interested in reading other responses. Good luck to everyone this soccer year.

by scoregazam 28/07/14, 03:58 pm

I have a DD in LH and she is an 02 but my BB just Graduated and received a scholarship to play at a D2 college. I can tell you it is alot of work for the parents. I wished I would have prepared more.
My son played Classic D1 and Academy. He had looks from D1, D2 D3 and Junior Colleges. Most of his looks came in his Jr and Sr year at show cases.
He contacted colleges that he was interested in and academically suited him with with a soccer program. He would send them his league schedule and tournament schedule.
This is what worked best for us. I lucked out and all the yrs of select soccer fres and dues paid off. All we are paying for is his meal ticket and college and he get the opportunity to play and get a 4 yr degree

by Hard Practice 28/07/14, 04:49 pm

I'm new to the forum and from another area. I have a D now playing in college but I would say if you are expecting a return on investment many of you may end up dissapointed. She played up one year with a team who had players good enough to play in college but not one of them elected to go on to play. That was a lot of high fees for years for no return other than the love of the game which don't get me wrong is a pretty good reason to play club but just not for an expensive club. The other team she played for about 75% ended up signing on to play in colleges from D1 to CC. Only about half of those ended up playing much. I would say ECNL is the best place to get noticed but if they don't want to leave the area any coach within 5 hours of home (which is where most kids end up going) would be able to come and see them even in local showcases.

Look at College team websites. You can click on the rosters. Change the year button usually in the top right. You can see how many players drop off from year to year. A class of 10 freshmen may end up with 5 staying four years.

by 10sDad 29/07/14, 10:07 am

The NCAA has pretty strict rules for contact with prospective coaches. You have to become an expert at reading between the lines.

First and foremost, you must register with the clearinghouse on the NCAA site. The contact rules are on there to read through (multiple times before you actually understand it).

Secondly, you have to contact the coaches...they literally cannot contact you. If you go to a showcase tournament, and are "noticed" the coach will not contact you...you will get some unsolicited (usually hand-addressed) mail from that university that has nothing to do with soccer...only academics. This means the soccer coach saw you and is interested.

Keep contacting the coaches even though they cannot contact you back and let them know your schedule. If they are interested, each time you send them something, keep it as a yes or no question if possible. If the answer is affirmative or positive, you will recieve some hand addressed junk mail.

When they are finally able to legally contact you, make sure you have all your questions ready. They are only allowed to contact you a limited number of times based upon your HS graduation year. So, if you aren't ready with your questions, you may not get the opportunity to ask that question for a year.

Lastly, make sure your coach knows what you want, and which universities you are interested in. A college coach can contact your coach a lot more than they can contact you. So....they need to be your biggest fan, and know what to say or what questions to ask for you.

by Coach&Ref 29/07/14, 11:04 am

I have a question that maybe y'all have some experience with.

What if a girl is homeschooled and has finished all of the curriculum required to enter college at @16yo. How does this affect all of these "contacting coaches" rule? What is the protocol then?

by fun soccer 29/07/14, 11:13 am

Coach&Ref wrote:I have a question that maybe y'all have some experience with.

What if a girl is homeschooled and has finished all of the curriculum required to enter college at @16yo. How does this affect all of these "contacting coaches" rule? What is the protocol then?

Your DD can contact the coaches as often as she wants. Its the coaches that can not contact her. I have had players call the coach in his or her office and talk to them. There is no rule violation if the players calls the coaches office and they answer.

by soccersounder 29/07/14, 01:39 pm

10sDad wrote:The NCAA has pretty strict rules for contact with prospective coaches. You have to become an expert at reading between the lines.

First and foremost, you must register with the clearinghouse on the NCAA site. The contact rules are on there to read through (multiple times before you actually understand it). You DO NOT have to register with the clearinghouse until before an "Official Visit". You cannot take an Official Visit until your Senior Year. Women's College Recruiting is full speed ahead the Sophmore year if not sooner

Secondly, you have to contact the coaches...they literally cannot contact you. If you go to a showcase tournament, and are "noticed" the coach will not contact you...you will get some unsolicited (usually hand-addressed) mail from that university that has nothing to do with soccer...only academics. This means the soccer coach saw you and is interested. College Coaches can mail/email you a "Camp Invite" explaining the NCAA Recruiting Rules. They can also mail/email you a Recruiting Questionnaire. Which basically reads: If interested in playing soccer for our school, please complete and return. They cannot call or email or text or mail you directly (other than mentioned above) until September 1st of your Junior year (Changed this year from Senior Year). Prior to your Junior year, they have to contact your Club Coach/HS Coach/another soccer parent and ask them to send you a message.

Keep contacting the coaches even though they cannot contact you back and let them know your schedule. If they are interested, each time you send them something, keep it as a yes or no question if possible. If the answer is affirmative or positive, you will recieve some hand addressed junk mail. Way too much work, lol. Just call them until they pick up

When they are finally able to legally contact you, make sure you have all your questions ready. They are only allowed to contact you a limited number of times based upon your HS graduation year. So, if you aren't ready with your questions, you may not get the opportunity to ask that question for a year. ??? Since you can call them as much as you like, feel free to call them whenever you have a question..

Lastly, make sure your coach knows what you want, and which universities you are interested in. A college coach can contact your coach a lot more than they can contact you. So....they need to be your biggest fan, and know what to say or what questions to ask for you. I completely agree.. And if your Club Coach is not your biggest fan, make best friends with your HS Coach

I wanted to add comments above to help make sure the right info is getting out.

by ninjadog 30/07/14, 12:48 pm

Thanks to all of you. This is helpful information. What about recruiting videos? What are your thoughts on paying a professional vs. making your own? I've seen a few professional videos that aren't that impressive. Do coaches even watch them?

by Hard Practice 30/07/14, 01:57 pm

In my child's situation the video was critical to getting her scholarship. She got a late start because she switched positions and primary sports during high school. She was interested in going farther away than the coaches for those schools were going to visit. She ended up getting several offers from coaches who never saw her play in person.

Not everybody's situation is the same however a decent homemade video is good enough. A good 10 minute video is enough to get a coaches interest. You can spend more time taking more game film and editing than a pro will. Thiers will look more professional but may not use as much raw footage to show off the best variety of skills. Good luck to you. If you want I can send you a link ton one of the videos we made.

by MaggieMaggie 30/07/14, 02:19 pm

The best advice I was given is to make a good video and post it to U-Tube. The coach my DD has committed with watched her play 3 games at a tournament, talked to her club coach during these games and made the offer after the tournament. I think the u-tube video link attached to her emails to him was key to getting his attention and getting him to this tournament.

This video has had approximately 450 hits and DD received many offers after she started adding a link to her video to her coaching contacts. Since my DD is a keep, 1/2was training sessions to show her technique and 1/2 was game video. I made the video myself and put it together with readily available video editing software. Found my little inexpensive sony cam okay but HAD to use a tripod or video too shakey. Coaches don't want shakey/out of focus clips but several said home made verses professional either didn't matter or they liked the home made better since it showed a high level of family committment..

by skippy 30/07/14, 07:46 pm

We visited several schools of all sizes and price ranges and she chose to go to her favorite school which happens to be D3. She's getting academic and merit money but no soccer scholarship. Our daughter never seriously marketed herself but the coach did ask the girls to email coaches who were attending tournaments. We found coaches from the better known schools would email back a questionnaire to complete and return. (We assume they wanted to gauge genuine interest before considering watching a tournament game). We received a lot of contact from coaches (lesser known D2 and D3) who never even saw her play (maybe they just got her name off the tournament rosters even though she didn't go to several tournaments). Like I said, she chose her school based on what was important to her and it just worked out that they had a soccer team that she thinks will be a great fit.

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