Our Women's Div. I Soccer Travesty

I have been going back and forth on whether or not I should publish this for quite a long time.  Since April actually when we learned that the University WSOC coach informed our daughter that she was not going to have an athletic scholarship going forward into her sophomore year.  The issue has finally got the best of me though, and despite the stern warnings from my wife I can no longer resist.  Sorry dear.    

To be honest the writing was on the wall.  Once our DD had selected the University she was going to accept the offer from we immediately started researching the coach and the team.  I noticed that the schools signing classes were unusually large but absolutely gave it no further thought.  With hindsight being 20/20 that was a huge mistake.  The smallest class I noticed was in 2015 with just 7 freshman signed but it was a significant jump in 2016 with 13 freshman signed and our DD 2017 class signed 11(plus two transfers).  Does any of that seem unusual to you?  How about the class of 2018 with 15 new Freshman with two new transfers?  Let's come back to this later.

The first notion that something was seriously wrong was on signing day.  We had verbally committed to a 75% scholarship, yet when the paper work arrived we discovered the 75% was applied to the tuition only.  Nothing for campus housing, meals, books, out of state tuition or anything else.  To be clear when we were talking to the assistant coach he was telling us that our responsibilities would be between $4k-$5k a year.  Shock, stunned, anger were just a few of the emotions.  Yes, we contacted the coach and his response was the assistant coach misunderstood what the offer was and that was all the he could give us.  Take it or leave it. Too late to go back to the other schools and accept their offers so we had to bite the bullet and either take out $15k in loans and send her to school or she forgoes soccer for at least a year.  To be clear and so that everyone reading this understands it does not matter at all what a coach tells you verbally before you actually sign, what matters is only what is on paper per the NCAA.

Fast forward a year later, mass player suspensions by the coach, coach humiliating players in front of the team, parents banned from contacting head coach and we arrive at our DD not having her scholarship renewed.  But she was not the only one as 7 other freshman players were told them same thing.  How can this be you ask?  Unless it is spelled out otherwise in the paperwork your daughter signs all scholarships are year to year.  Meaning it is up to the coach to offer your daughter a scholarship the next year.  Most programs will tell you that all players get their scholarships renewed unless their are problems with the student.  Breaking rules, academic ineligibility are a few examples of why most programs will not renew a student athletes scholarship.  However even in those situations the athlete is placed on probation and given a chance to get his or her self in order.  In case you are thinking it the answer is "No" our DD never had a problem.  She was a model student, never missed a practice, training session or otherwise.  She gave 100% at all times and was loved by her teammates.

Now about that writing on the wall.  Here is a breakdown of the previous classes by numbers of how many entered the program and how many of those same players remain today:
2015     7 Freshman     2 still playing
2016     13 Freshman   5 still playing
2017     11 Freshman   4 still playing

So in those three years 31 Freshman students entered the soccer program yet only 11 are still playing there today.  You can probably surmise why by now.

With the loss of her athletic scholarship our DD returned home and is now attending a local school.  She has told us repeatedly she is done with soccer despite those other schools coming back and telling us they would love to have her.  Hearts broken.  

Moral of the story?  Hell I don't know.  Do your research, pay attention to the little details or just prepare to be screwed and have a plan B.

The End.

Hardcore.
Hope she changes her mind and considers the other offers.
You are only young once.

Sorry for the hardy laugh when I got to the end.
After reading all of that and then coming to your tag line.......

That is disgusting from the school/coach.
Is it possible to name the school/coach so others don't fall for the bait and switch?

The moral of the story is "Do your research".  I harp on people all of the time for not doing their research when spending $3k+ per year on a club soccer team.  The same applies for the recruiting and college selection process.

Will it absolutely prevent a situation like Irish Luck's from happening?  No.  Will it significantly decrease the chance that you and your DD get stuck in a bad situation?  Absolutely.  

C'Mon folks, this is the age of the internet.  The amount of information available to help you make an informed decision is immense, if you are willing to put in a few hours of effort and approach it with some level of common sense and objectivity.

1) Just about every college these days has links to archives of their rosters and team stats going back at least 5 years.  Go back 3-4 years and do direct year-over-year comparisons of the rosters.  What's the typical non-Senior roster turnover from year-to-year?  How many Freshman AND non-Freshman transfers are brought in each year?  Cross-reference the non-Senior players that didn't return the following year, against the minutes they played during the previous year?  How many players got what you or DD would call "significant" minutes vs how many players were actually on the roster?  How many girls who barely saw the field as Freshman, stick around and actually work their way onto the field as upperclassmen?

2)  The rosters almost always have a "Player Bio" section.  In particular, read the section on the player's accomplishments in HS/Club before they came to that school.  What level of HS and/or Club did they play?  What kind of superlatives (i.e. All-District/Region/State, ODP Regional team, etc.) did they have?  How does your DD's list of HS/Club accomplishments match up with the roster?  Cross-reference that against the team stats.  Is there a further correlation between the pre-College accomplishments and the players that actually start or see significant minutes?  It's not absolute, but if your DD's Bio doesn't measure up, be honest with yourselves and admit that the chances she's going to be more than practice team fodder aren't very good.  There's usually a reason why the girls with the superlatives got those superlatives.

3)  I've heard too many people get hung up on athletic vs. academic money.  As Irish Luck found out, athletic money is usually a series of 1 year deals that are completely at the coach's discretion to change year over year.  Academic money is usually guaranteed for all 4 years provided your DD keeps herself in good academic standing.  A full athletic scholly and scholly that's 50% athletic/50% academic, is the same amount of money not coming out of your pocket.  Plus in the latter case, 50% is guaranteed over those 4 years.  Who cares how it sounds at the water cooler at work.

4)  Talk to people.  Talk to your club coach.  Talk to your club DOC.  Talk to your HS coach.  These people know the track record of the college coaches.  Make the effort to go to the ID camp with your kid.  Make the effort to attend a game at the school.  Find a way to strike up a conversation with parents of other recruits or, even better, the parents of current players.  You'd be amazed at the perspective you can glean about the coaches and the program.

In short.  Do your homework, and be objective about your kid.  Chances are, you'll be glad you did.

This kinda stuff doesnt stop after high school that's a positive thought. Just remember the judgement day will come.

DeltaTauChi wrote:The moral of the story is "Do your research".  I harp on people all of the time for not doing their research when spending $3k+ per year on a club soccer team.  The same applies for the recruiting and college selection process.

Will it absolutely prevent a situation like Irish Luck's from happening?  No.  Will it significantly decrease the chance that you and your DD get stuck in a bad situation?  Absolutely.  

C'Mon folks, this is the age of the internet.  The amount of information available to help you make an informed decision is immense, if you are willing to put in a few hours of effort and approach it with some level of common sense and objectivity.

1) Just about every college these days has links to archives of their rosters and team stats going back at least 5 years.  Go back 3-4 years and do direct year-over-year comparisons of the rosters.  What's the typical non-Senior roster turnover from year-to-year?  How many Freshman AND non-Freshman transfers are brought in each year?  Cross-reference the non-Senior players that didn't return the following year, against the minutes they played during the previous year?  How many players got what you or DD would call "significant" minutes vs how many players were actually on the roster?  How many girls who barely saw the field as Freshman, stick around and actually work their way onto the field as upperclassmen?

2)  The rosters almost always have a "Player Bio" section.  In particular, read the section on the player's accomplishments in HS/Club before they came to that school.  What level of HS and/or Club did they play?  What kind of superlatives (i.e. All-District/Region/State, ODP Regional team, etc.) did they have?  How does your DD's list of HS/Club accomplishments match up with the roster?  Cross-reference that against the team stats.  Is there a further correlation between the pre-College accomplishments and the players that actually start or see significant minutes?  It's not absolute, but if your DD's Bio doesn't measure up, be honest with yourselves and admit that the chances she's going to be more than practice team fodder aren't very good.  There's usually a reason why the girls with the superlatives got those superlatives.

3)  I've heard too many people get hung up on athletic vs. academic money.  As Irish Luck found out, athletic money is usually a series of 1 year deals that are completely at the coach's discretion to change year over year.  Academic money is usually guaranteed for all 4 years provided your DD keeps herself in good academic standing.  A full athletic scholly and scholly that's 50% athletic/50% academic, is the same amount of money not coming out of your pocket.  Plus in the latter case, 50% is guaranteed over those 4 years.  Who cares how it sounds at the water cooler at work.

4)  Talk to people.  Talk to your club coach.  Talk to your club DOC.  Talk to your HS coach.  These people know the track record of the college coaches.  Make the effort to go to the ID camp with your kid.  Make the effort to attend a game at the school.  Find a way to strike up a conversation with parents of other recruits or, even better, the parents of current players.  You'd be amazed at the perspective you can glean about the coaches and the program.

In short.  Do your homework, and be objective about your kid.  Chances are, you'll be glad you did.

Feel bad for Irish Lucks DD.

All the above is good advice.  Particularly about doing your research and academic vs athletic $.

The other one is to pick a school that you will be happy with even if soccer falls out of the picture.

Thought it was fairly common knowledge that the fallout was very high in the first 2 years with only about a third of the players remaining on scholarship at their original soccer school going into their junior year?

The truth will set you free.