The “Commitments” thread had a lot of really valuable information in it about how the college recruiting process works, but unfortunately it gets lost amongst all of the other posts in that thread. With that in mind I thought that it might be helpful to create a thread where those of us that have actually had kids go through it can post about their thoughts and experiences.
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A Labor of Love
Helping a child who wants to advance beyond youth soccer to play at the collegiate level is a real labor of love. First off, since the recruiting process starts much earlier than the normal college search process there is very little support available from school guidance councilors. You end up having to figure out how to play the game substantially by yourself. Another thing that makes it extremely difficult is your kid will have to think about things and start making decisions years before their peers will have. That puts tremendous pressure on them and it can really impact their whole outlook on bunch of things. Not the least of which can be their attitude towards soccer. -
The Process
There is three parts to the recruiting process. First comes the identification phase. Basically before your kid can get recruited they have to get on the list of prospects that the coaches are following. If your kid has a big resume from doing well in something like ODP they will probably be on their list to begin with, if not the process starts with your kid reaching out to those coaches and asking them to come watch them play. The next part of the process is the evaluation phase. Before anything really can happen someone from a school’s coaching staff has to come see your kid play and make a determination if they fit into what they are looking for. Be prepared for this to take more than just a little time. Coaches will typically want to see more than one game and may want more than one person on the staff to evaluate your kid. If the coach decides that your child fits into their program they will proceed to the final step which is the offer phase. If your kid is a highly desired prospect coaches will be in a hurry and will try to lock them up as early as possible. Kids in this position typically are committing to top D1 programs late in their sophomore year. The timing of the offer process falls out from there in a cascading effect. The upper level D1 schools will be looking to lock up their recruits by Thanksgiving, Christmas at the latest, of a recruiting classes Junior year while the upper level D3 programs will target the early action notices in the fall of that classes Senior year to have things solidified.Comment
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College Sports Are A Business
Don’t ever lose site of the fact that college sports are much more businesslike than most kids have experienced in their youth or high school athletic careers. If your child is getting financial assistance to play a sport in college they essentially become an indentured servant and will have a very different college experience than the average student. Even in D3 there are expectations that must be met. While playing in college may sound like fun to the average high school athlete, they really should be prepared to treat it more like a job than an extracurricular activity if they want to be successful. Your child should know that if they don’t come in and perform to expectations that at the very least their playing status will be challenged the following year, if not their money. Don’t think for one moment that just because they were offered a scholarship one year that it will automatically carry over all four years. Also don’t fool yourself into believing that a coach won’t replace your kid if they can find another player who is better, even if your kid has played well. Most coaches are operating under a produce or perish mandate. As one of my coaches once told my team, “if you don’t win, the staff will get fired. If that happens, you’ll be taking food off of my kid’s table”. Do not underestimate the lengths that coaches will go to keep their job and enhance their resume for the next one which most realize they will inevitably have to look for.Comment
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Coaching Changes
When there is a coaching change at a college, all deals are null and void. If the coach was fired things will not be pretty for the existing players who should at the very least expect radical changes to the status quo, if not a complete overhaul. In football they used to use the term “run off” to describe the process of getting rid of unwanted players so they could use their money for someone else. What they would do is make life a living hell for the player until they quit the team. While I doubt that things are as rough as the old “meat on a hook” days of Darrel Royal, parents should really take a look at the rosters of some programs that have experienced a coaching within the last couple of years before they allow their child to commit to a program that has the potential to change coaches. Make sure your kid goes into the situation with their eyes wide open.
There are a couple of situations that may signal a coaching change may in the wings. Look for a coach who is obviously on the move up the ladder. This would be a young successful coach who is several years into their first job at a lower level school or a mid career coach who is just completing a turnaround of a mid level program. On the opposite side of the ledger look for someone who is not meeting expectations (which does not necessarily mean losing). Believe it or not there are places that will keep a coach in place because they have no expectations for the program and almost feel that one warm body is as good as another. What you should be wary of is a coach whose record is trending downwards below the program’s historical average wins. Unless there is some reason, (ie funding cuts) at some point the AD is going to make a change. Another type of situation to be wary of is the revolving door program. This is the kind of place that changes coaches every 5-6 years. If the school is either constantly firing coaches or can’t hold on to them, it usually means that there are deeper issues that you may want to investigate. I don’t mean to suggest that these types of situations are the only ones where a coaching change may occur or that they absolutely guarantee a change will take place. My bottom line is that you should have your antenna up and ask a whole lot of questions when your child runs across a program that fits into one of these molds.Comment
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Tremendous info!!!Comment
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Players Matter
Very helpful BTDT.
I'd add that when visiting the campus, your player WILL be evaluated by the players she/he meets and stays with. I didn't realize this at first but often the first words out of the coach's mouth would be something like "The girls all loved . . . ." Or something like "A was a little shy at first but once the players got to know her and she warmed up, they thought she was a riot."
I don't for a minute beleive that what the players say is determinative BUT it can't hurt to have experienced players supporting a recruit who is going to be spending a lot of time with them.Comment
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BTDT - I enjoy your posts, thank you. Perhaps a way to recoup all the money (to say nothing of time and energy) you invested in sports is to write a resource guide for parents of HS athletes looking to go to the next level? Either that or rent a hotel conference room and charge admission for a seminar? From the looks of it, there appears to be a market for this kind of knowledge.Comment
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Yes, Thank You, BTDT. I appreciate all of the info you provide to this forum.Comment
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My @#!!& Kid Is Driving Me Nuts
The recruiting process is a scary thing for most kids. For most of them the process starts well before they themselves are ready to deal with the issues that come with it. In the early stages it seems kind of fun to them but that soon fades and the excitement is replaced by boredom as the monotony of what really is an adult sales process becomes apparent. Couple those feeling along with the normal confusion and fears that are part of the college selection process and you can imagine that a lot of kids will end up trying to avoid the whole thing entirely. All you need to do is start talking to parents of U17’s in similar circumstances to realize that avoidance type of behaviors are really rather common and you are not the only one battling with your kid to respond to coaches emails. Your need to come to grips with the fact that your kid will drive you nuts as you watch them avoid things and just say or do dumb things that you are sure will cause a coach to turn to another player. It probably will and there is nothing you can or should do to prevent it. Focus on the fact that this is a journey for them. They are going to make mistakes and they will have to learn from them but take comfort in the knowledge that the same thing is going on in all the other households so there is bound to be at least a few coaches left for your kid to talk to.Comment
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The recruiting process differs depending on the type of school. Broad categories:
D1/D2 (free money!)
Ivy
Academically competitive d3 (NESCAC, etc.)
other d3 (sometimes hidden money for academic "merit")Comment
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Always Ask
"How many recruits will be coming in?" And "Will I play?" And "Do you have a JV team?" My daughter went to a D3 and 17 freshman showed up for preseason. Then a few days later another 10 walk-ons showed up. Come to find out the school also had a JV team, so it was easy for the coach. He didn't have to technically make any cuts.Comment
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I visited 3 schools, 2 for overnights, staying with Soccer players and eating and sleeping on their schedule and in their dorm room/dining hall. This was 20+ years ago and int eh off-season. At both schools fraternities were very big. Needless to say, I was shown a good time and told by the players that the coach would not be told what we did or didn't do. Both places they said if we told on you, we'd be telling on ourselves. At both places I had a VERY good time as a HS Jr-Sr. This is likley not what happens these days, but I still remember it very well. I had the feeling that they did report that I would "fit in."Originally posted by Unregistered View PostComment
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A part of this also involves the night life during a visit. On one visit my kid called me and said she was being pressured to drink and knowing we had told her to not fall into that during the visit she called. Despite what we told her she did drink due to the pressure to "fit in" with the players and other recruits.Originally posted by Unregistered View Post
A call came from the coach the next day and part of the conversation centered around that "I understand all kids party, but to come on a visit and do it is not smart" there was no mention of the current team members partying, just the recruits. Overall a bad scene, and two weeks after the visit the coach was no longer there. It was too bad she loved the school prior to the overnight and had a great money package due to academics. Went to another school, is playing and loving life...just mom and dad are shelling out a bit more than they had hoped. Lesson learned by all of us that weekend! She made 4 overnights and that was the only one where she ran into problems.
I guess the lesson is, DTA...dont trust anyone! These kids set up the recruits, not just my kid as she had club teammates there at the visit as well and the same thing happened to them. If there is that type of scene/pressure just during the visit then you would imaigne the stuff that goes on during the year.Comment
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always remember
That you and your player go thru this process once, the coachs do this for a living and you are part of the process for them to keep their job. Ask how many players graduate and play 4 years, the number is very low.
There is ALWAYS a new player coming in for your spot, your child needs a thick skin as they are now part of a group of players that are all solid for the most part and there is an adjustment preiod for lots of kids, they may no longer be the focus of the coach/team, just another player.
It may not sound like a big deal but it can be, it is sometimes tough to make that adjustment along with the adjustment of going away for college as well.Comment
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