Ask the Coach, Women's College D1

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In general, how well do US youth clubs prepare players for the college-level game? And to piggyback on that, you mentioned your personal preference for what you saw out of DA versus ECNL in general; what specifically do you find better about those clubs/players? Was it their ID process for putting players onto DA teams; conditioning; style of play; or something else?

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A question, where do you place D2 as a soccer opportunity for girls? Do you see it as a lower D1 situation, a slower paced D1 or a competitive alternative to D1?

I think it's another option for the players for sure. Overall, the D2 budgets tend to be slightly less, so there aren't going to be as many bells and whistles. However, as with anything, there are likely D2 programs that could beat some D1 programs, just the same as there are some D3 programs that could beat some D2 programs.

If some of the D2 schools seem to be a fit, academic and otherwise, there's no reason not to consider.

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In general, how well do US youth clubs prepare players for the college-level game? And to piggyback on that, you mentioned your personal preference for what you saw out of DA versus ECNL in general; what specifically do you find better about those clubs/players? Was it their ID process for putting players onto DA teams; conditioning; style of play; or something else?

The preparation for the college game has improved immensely for sure, on all levels. I think every one of our incoming 20s has a 'personal trainer' so they are all experienced in the weight room and also receiving specific conditioning coaching. The level of coaching/instruction at at the club level has continued to improve as well, but regardless the jump to college is going to be a huge transition for most. College freshmen are dealing with so much change, and lots of ups and downs, making it hard to be a consistent impact player. Of course, there is a lot of variance with so many clubs from a variety of different places, so some of our players will be more prepared than others.

Regarding the DA, as stated earlier, my opinion was that the OVERALL level of play was simply more consistently high. That is likely due to higher percentage of really skilled players, better athletes, and the fact that their training model was more conducive to success. The training to game ratio should be 2-1 or 3-1 and many of our youth models don't achieve this, mostly in order to be economical with games.

A huge factor with the quality of DA games was likely the showcase structure which scheduled 3 games over at least a 5-6 day period. Compare that to the ECNL where they play 3 games in 3 days....that's too much load on the kids, and the quality diminishes. On the flip side, DA kids had to miss a ton of school and parents could barely have a job and manage the schedule! But it made for good soccer!

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Heard that some East Coast college coaches prefer to recruit on the West Coast for impact players because the level of play there is consistently high. Is this your experience or are D1 coaches finding high levels of talent in the Northeast, and specifically New England, that rivals what they find in other regions?

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Heard that some East Coast college coaches prefer to recruit on the West Coast for impact players because the level of play there is consistently high. Is this your experience or are D1 coaches finding high levels of talent in the Northeast, and specifically New England, that rivals what they find in other regions?

Level on the West Coast is higher for sure, but there are plenty of good players on the East coast and hard to convince players to come across the country. Look at the rosters of those Cali schools....lots of Cali! If they express interest in us first, and they are a player, then we would pursue, but we don't make a habit of doing a hard press for West Coast kids just because of the likelihood they'll stay out there.

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When it comes to recruiting videos can you provide a little behind the scenes with how college programs process/review all the video they receive and how it reaches a head coaches attention? Any big mistakes in videos that can be an immediate turn off?

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When it comes to recruiting videos can you provide a little behind the scenes with how college programs process/review all the video they receive and how it reaches a head coaches attention? Any big mistakes in videos that can be an immediate turn off?

To be honest, we don't put a lot of weight into video. Highlight videos are just that, highlights. Doesn't show off ball movement, decision making, tactical reads, etc. Usually easier to eliminate kids based on video, and if they do show any promise, we'd make sure we see them live next opportunity. In the event we can't get to see a recruit bc of location etc, it could be useful but we'd want to see a full length game video so we would be able to assess all that I mentioned.

We would never make a decision based solely from video.

Biggest mistake would be those who fail to tell us their number or team color!

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When it comes to recruiting videos can you provide a little behind the scenes with how college programs process/review all the video they receive and how it reaches a head coaches attention? Any big mistakes in videos that can be an immediate turn off?

Not the coach/OP. My D just had a conversation with a coach and with the lost Spring season/showcases and the NCAA blackout through the end of August, he basically said to get video of any scrimmages her team has this summer and that they are fine with full game footage as he wants to see what is happening off the ball as much as what is happening on the ball.

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To be honest, we don't put a lot of weight into video. Highlight videos are just that, highlights. Doesn't show off ball movement, decision making, tactical reads, etc. Usually easier to eliminate kids based on video, and if they do show any promise, we'd make sure we see them live next opportunity. In the event we can't get to see a recruit bc of location etc, it could be useful but we'd want to see a full length game video so we would be able to assess all that I mentioned.

We would never make a decision based solely from video.

Biggest mistake would be those who fail to tell us their number or team color!

Not saying that you would make a decision based solely from video, but are you saying your program doesn’t look at the videos submitted? Or do you just find full game videos to be the only useful format so highlight videos are totally ignored? Since short (~5 min) videos are often requested/recommended by coaches, just trying to understand whether staff or the head coach themselves would watch a 30-60 minute long game segment for every player that would email them one. Seems like you could spend weeks watching video in that format!

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Not saying that you would make a decision based solely from video, but are you saying your program doesn’t look at the videos submitted? Or do you just find full game videos to be the only useful format so highlight videos are totally ignored? Since short (~5 min) videos are often requested/recommended by coaches, just trying to understand whether staff or the head coach themselves would watch a 30-60 minute long game segment for every player that would email them one. Seems like you could spend weeks watching video in that format!

Well to give you an idea of what we're dealing with, we've been contacted by approximately 1200 players in the 2021 class alone. On average, they send 3-4 emails per. Some send just one and some send 20. We are also receiving emails from 22s, 23s, 24s. In sure, We probably receive an average of 200-250 emails per month, with the highest number by far being before the big showcases. Many of these players have highlight tapes they either attach or more likely are part of their 'recruiting service profile." There are just not enough hours in the day (except perhaps currently!) to watch all the videos. We will try to look at them, but just like the how the recruiting funnel works, less than 20% of the players who contact us are at the level to play here, so it becomes a time-efficiency decision, and whether it's a good use of time to watch loads of video when most of the players aren't at our level.

If a player is already on our radar from having seen them before, or from a coach endorsement, then we'd be more likely to watch of course. I apologize if that's too brutally honest, but it's the truth.

Again, I can't speak for others who may put more emphasis on video, and can only answer from our perspective.

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Not the coach/OP. My D just had a conversation with a coach and with the lost Spring season/showcases and the NCAA blackout through the end of August, he basically said to get video of any scrimmages her team has this summer and that they are fine with full game footage as he wants to see what is happening off the ball as much as what is happening on the ball.

Good point....having said all I did before, it's entirely likely we will see a shift in recruiting where we are forced to rely more on video than in the past, at least maybe for the short term. And, if showcases are not happening then a lot of time is freed up to devote to videos that we simply didn't have in the past.

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All of this changed dramatically last year because one overweight football player (who probably had a congenital heart defect) died bc of a hardo football coach in TX who continued to run them in excessive heat.

The NCAA came out with emergency guidelines that have to do with 'transitional' periods, ie, coming back to school and maximal fitness tests. Some schools adopted the 'guidelines' as the letter of the law, some didn't. We do not conduct the same fitness tests we did in the past as our Strength and Conditioning/Hi performance coach manages our entire training program.

Given that, it's a hard question to answer. Even those who do still conduct tests are all over the map in terms of what they do, and the hi performance trend has caused a shift in how we train and what we test. Once you have committed to a school and receive the summer workout, do every single bit of it, and then some. Even then it will be a really tough transition for most.

To the OP, my D is rising senior in a non-NE program with an RPI usually in the 25-100 range (for context), and this is their fitness passing criteria:

Mile - less than 6 min 20 seconds
120's (that are timed somehow) - minimum of 7
Pacer - over 16.5

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Well to give you an idea of what we're dealing with, we've been contacted by approximately 1200 players in the 2021 class alone. On average, they send 3-4 emails per. Some send just one and some send 20. We are also receiving emails from 22s, 23s, 24s. In sure, We probably receive an average of 200-250 emails per month, with the highest number by far being before the big showcases. Many of these players have highlight tapes they either attach or more likely are part of their 'recruiting service profile." There are just not enough hours in the day (except perhaps currently!) to watch all the videos. We will try to look at them, but just like the how the recruiting funnel works, less than 20% of the players who contact us are at the level to play here, so it becomes a time-efficiency decision, and whether it's a good use of time to watch loads of video when most of the players aren't at our level.

If a player is already on our radar from having seen them before, or from a coach endorsement, then we'd be more likely to watch of course. I apologize if that's too brutally honest, but it's the truth.

Again, I can't speak for others who may put more emphasis on video, and can only answer from our perspective.

Thank you. Your honesty is not brutal and actually very helpful. You mentioned the ‘recruiting service profile’. Are these useful from a coach’s perspective?

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What style of play do you encourage in your team, and how does that impact the qualities you look for in a recruit?

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With more time on my hands than I like, and understanding the angst so many of you are going through with regard to your recruiting process, I figured I could offer to answer questions/provide some perspective.

Note: I am a Women's College Coach at a D1 school, and have experience at the D3 level too.

I will be as honest as possible and not afraid to say "I don't know," as there are a lot of unknowns right now, even for us!

3, 2, 1, GO.........

Thank you for taking the time to do this! This is one of the more informative posts I have read on TS. I would imagine that once you trust a club coach that would go a long way in streamlining your selection process. I guess where I am going with my question is whether you target players from certain clubs and not so much from others due to who the coach is and your relationship with them?