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**Guest** · 08-08-2023, 07:42 PM

If you care about athletic status.Your not very bright

**Guest** · 08-08-2023, 07:50 PM

It makes no sense to limit your options early in the process by declaring DI only or DIII only. You can find good academic schools with good soccer programs in both DI and DIII. Fewer in DII and NAIA because of the academic piece (the soccer teams can be better than some DI teams though, especially in men's soccer), but not none. What you really want to check, though, is whether being on the soccer team is consistent with taking full advantage of a school's academic opportunities.

1. Ask when a school practices. If it's in the middle of the day, then you obviously will not be permitted to take classes in the middle of the day because they will conflict with team practices. Many DIII and a much smaller number of DI schools block off time (typically 4-7) and don't schedule any classes during that time. That time is reserved for team practices and student activities. If the school doesn't have lights on its practice fields, you'll need to ask about how they practice later in the season. They may start at a time that avoids conflicts, but move it up earlier later in the season and create those conflicts right as your kid is hitting mid-terms.

2. Check out the travel schedule. If a team has to travel a considerable distance to many games (and flight is not the criteria, because a six hour bus ride can be just as bad as a flight), you need to take note of when the games are taking place. If it's Saturday night, chances are you have to leave on Friday and you probably can't take Friday classes. If, however, you're traveling across time zones, you may have to leave even earlier or arrive back later. All of that travel can result in classes missed or simply not taken during the season because of the conflicts. If you're thinking of majoring in a science and there are labs for classes on Friday, a team may not let you major in that subject. Sometimes you can schedule those classes in the off-season, but that might not be possible because the school only offers certain classes in the fall that are needed for the major.

3. Ask about spring practices and schedule. If you want to do internships, study abroad, or any other activities, that might not work with the spring schedule. Even in DIII, there are differences. NESCAC schools have typically had no organized coach-led team practices in the Spring, which is supposed to offer space to do other things, although they have captains practices and some coaches really monitor attendance by speaking with the captains. Most other DIII schools have spring practices/games and the allowable amount of days recently increased significantly, from 15 days to 24 starting in 2024 (including one game day, which could consist of multiple games to give everyone playing time). They can spread that out from Feb 1 to five weekdays before finals, when it used to be five weeks. If coaches intersperse that with weightlifting sessions with the performance coaches only, they can keep a DIII athlete pretty busy with mandatory activity. That can be a real plus for a kid who wants something closer to the daily structure of DI practice schedules in DIII or it could be a real negative.

4. Ask about mandatory study sessions. Both DI and DIII coaches have them, but not all have them. Those can be great or they can be a time suck if your student works better in a quiet space alone.

On the soccer side, there are questions we all know about your child's level, whether they will get playing time, whether the practices will be serious and the players will be competitive. You have to see for yourself by attending games and watching practices. Only thing I can add is that there are both DI and DIII soccer programs that are disorganized and the practices are frustrating for the serious player. There are good and bad coaches at both level and there are more than a few DI coaches that played at DIII, so it isn't like there is some magic sauce in DI. Facilities also differ significantly. There are some wealthy DIII programs with better weight rooms, fields, and indoor practice facilities than DI schools, although on average DI is going to be better than DIII. There are also some DIII programs that outdraw DI programs. Some small LACs often have a lot more money for everything than DIs and when 1/3 of the student body plays varsity sports (a common % in small LACs), you're just going to have a lot of resources for the athletes. Power 5 (or whatever we call it now) schools aside, DI soccer can be the stepchild of a poor DI school's athletic department. Finally, playing time is no certainty at either DI or DIII. You can't assume you will get playing time at a DIII just because it is supposedly "lower" level. How do you improve your chances? Go where you are wanted. That could be DI or DIII. Coaches look for different things, run different systems and have different ideas about what they need in a player. Find the coach that really wants you and explains why they want you, rather than begging for the coach to take you. Even then, coaches move all the time and you could go from wanted to unwanted overnight.

On the social side, you may want to ask other players the size of the non-traveling roster each week. A large non-traveling group can be great news if your kid would rather stay on campus and study/socialize etc than travel and sit on the bench, especially if the group of teammates is large enough to keep them company, or it may be devastating and lonely to miss out on those experiences for an entire season or more. And this can be true in DI or DIII. As someone pointed out upthread about Endicott, there are DIII schools that have 40-50 on the roster because they use it to generate enrollment.

One other fairly minor question on the DIII side is whether they provide gear, how much, and whether players have to pay for it. Usually, coaches fundraise for it, or it's not that expensive for parents use to paying for it in club, but if not everyone gets it because it's not mandatory, it can make DIII feel pretty minor league if the players don't have matching backpacks and jackets/warmups.

**Guest** · 08-08-2023, 08:02 PM