College showcase question

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Coaches will always contact the club coach if they are interested in certain players from their ID camps, even as freshman.

If the coaches are no longer allowed to say anything about recruitment to the club coach or the player until junior year, how can this help?

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College coaches can contact club coaches.

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Thanks for sharing your experience. Maybe this year is the "wasted" travel year and next year can be looked at as good experience and exposure for the year that follows. I will keep in mind the idea of only attending certain showcases too. It would be nice to save the money for the years that recruitment takes place.

8th grade is the experience and comfort year, 9th grade its on

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8th grade is the experience and comfort year, 9th grade its on

Lol. This little fiction is based around an 8th grader who the parent projects to be a D2/D3 prospect. It’s not on for them until their Junior year and it’s a sad commentary on the education work the local clubs are doing if that is not widely understood. The whole point of of the fiction is whether or not it is really worth it to be with a group that is going through their recruiting process when your kid isn’t. I suspect it’s really a bitch about the birth year change. The thing about that is it really isn’t anything new. ODP has always followed the birth year. I have the same profile kid with a December birthday who was always the youngest. No doubt about it, it sucked for that kid but the rules are the rules. You eventually realize, especially with this level of player, that no one really cares about what is fair for the masses. My advice to those in this situation is too understand the track your kid is on and work your recruiting process based upon that track. Learn to say no. Trust me, you’ll see plenty of families saying no once they get what they want. Do not feel compelled to go to any event that really isn’t going to help your kid’s process unless you have some odd reason to want to piss your money away. Your reality is your kid will find their deal through an ID clinic and that will happen sometime later, probably during their Junior year. Objectivity and patient are a virtue with this level player.

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College coaches can contact club coaches.

And players can still call them. The college coach tells the club - tell Mia I'll be in my office between 2-4 on Tuesday.

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8th grade is the experience and comfort year, 9th grade its on

For TOP players only. The vast majority the bulk is 10th, lower level into 11th. The new rules will make that more so the case.

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You definitely don’t get “brownie points” in club soccer for spending money to support other kid’s college ambitions. It’s more like don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out.

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Going through this with my 03 daughter who is going into 10th grade. Been to several showcases, most recently ECNL Seattle. Lots of eyes on the players, but you have to be very proactive. The number #1 priority for us is getting her list narrowed down to a few schools and targeting them with emails, ID camp attendance, phone calls, etc. From what I am seeing, coaches are a lot more receptive if you show genuine interest in their program. Visit schools, call the coach when you are on campus to see if you can stop by, drive to the field and see if any players or coaches are around and talk to them. Sometimes it feels like having a second job.

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Going through this with my 03 daughter who is going into 10th grade. Been to several showcases, most recently ECNL Seattle. Lots of eyes on the players, but you have to be very proactive. The number #1 priority for us is getting her list narrowed down to a few schools and targeting them with emails, ID camp attendance, phone calls, etc. From what I am seeing, coaches are a lot more receptive if you show genuine interest in their program. Visit schools, call the coach when you are on campus to see if you can stop by, drive to the field and see if any players or coaches are around and talk to them. Sometimes it feels like having a second job.

I thought the new rules prohibit meeting with the coach on campus until 9/1 of junior year.

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Yes absolutely she should drop him a note. The coach cannot respond back, however, there are ways around it. Utilize her club coach to set up a time for her to call him (he can't call her). Technically they're not supposed to talk about "recruiting" but that's a new rule and unlikely to be followed and tough to prove.

My son (rising sophomore) went to an I'd camp and emailed a few coaches ahead of time. Two wrote back, one asking him to keep them updated on grades and video. I thought they couldn't reply to kids before junior year? It's fine with me that they did, but I'm trying to understand the rules as we also are new to this.

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I thought the new rules prohibit meeting with the coach on campus until 9/1 of junior year.

If you "happen" to run into them, there's really not much they can do. From what we've seen, they won't talk about specifics relating to recruiting, but they will talk and get familiar with the parents and players and will know they have genuine interest in the school. It gets her on the radar so when they see her at a showcase they will pay closer attention to her.

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My son (rising sophomore) went to an I'd camp and emailed a few coaches ahead of time. Two wrote back, one asking him to keep them updated on grades and video. I thought they couldn't reply to kids before junior year? It's fine with me that they did, but I'm trying to understand the rules as we also are new to this.

They can send camp info and ask for updates, but can't really do much more than that (in writing ;) )

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For TOP players only. The vast majority the bulk is 10th, lower level into 11th. The new rules will make that more so the case.

I wrote the "its on" and I certainly agree that there are no offers (even before the new rules) for freshman except in rare cases. With that said, the prospect funnel and the game of showing mutual interest does indeed begin freshman year.

I also agree with the Waterfall and Targeting concepts. Tippity-Top recruits go early to best schools and it all flows down from there. There are very few of those recruits and very few spots at Duke/Stanford/etc. It quickly flows into a matchmaking game between quite good but undifferentiated players and respectable but undifferentiated programs. Everyone just wants to get some by the end of the process, and go-ugly-early is a proven strategy

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I thought the new rules prohibit meeting with the coach on campus until 9/1 of junior year.

It does, but you can still do unofficial visits at any time. Also players can still talk to coaches, via phone or at ID events, just not about "recruiting" (how enforceable is that?!). Player has to initiate the phone call

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I wrote the "its on" and I certainly agree that there are no offers (even before the new rules) for freshman except in rare cases. With that said, the prospect funnel and the game of showing mutual interest does indeed begin freshman year.

I also agree with the Waterfall and Targeting concepts. Tippity-Top recruits go early to best schools and it all flows down from there. There are very few of those recruits and very few spots at Duke/Stanford/etc. It quickly flows into a matchmaking game between quite good but undifferentiated players and respectable but undifferentiated programs. Everyone just wants to get some by the end of the process, and go-ugly-early is a proven strategy

Can't help but wonder what, if any impact the new rules will have. If no real "recruiting" discussions can take place until 9/1 of 11th grade, is there still going to be the same rush to recruit early? If official visits, where coaches, players and parents can spend some time together, don't happen until that date, will coaches be ready to give out offers? will players be ready to accept? It's one thing to visit the campus and do the school tour, even attend ID events, but are a few phone conversations enough when technically "offers" can't go out?