2018 Boys Soccer Verbal Commitments

[Unregistered]

The OP is not the PR agent. He lists colleges alphabetically by division. Then someone else came in and separated the kids by club, even including kids in new clubs possibly after they committed. Let’s get back to the original list. I don’t have any sense he has skin in the game.

Happy New Year. Maybe relax a little and take an early sip of champagne.

Then why reformat the list to highlight the number of players coming from each club?

[Unregistered]

Then why reformat the list to highlight the number of players coming from each club?

Clearly, the OP didn’t do that.

[Unregistered]

He's done the lists for several years and had always been club agnostic. Someone else is trying to spin it into something more. It's a list. People can interpret it how they want. I see no need to separate by club

No matter whether op does it or someone else does it, the end result is always the same. His list becomes a marketing tool for the clubs. No matter how innocent the op thinks their work is what it really does is cloud the reality that for boys there is almost no opportunity for them to parlay their participation in club soccer into much of anything. One of the biggest lies out there is that all the high brow colleges factor soccer into their admissions process. While technically possible the truth is when it happens it is really just a unicorn sighting, an outlier with totally unique circumstances that are not easily replicated. The reality makes the op’s list nothing but a fairy tale.

[Unregistered]

The OP is not the PR agent. He lists colleges alphabetically by division. Then someone else came in and separated the kids by club, even including kids in new clubs possibly after they committed. Let’s get back to the original list. I don’t have any sense he has skin in the game.

Happy New Year. Maybe relax a little and take an early sip of champagne.

Looking at the numbers over 8 seasons is not a PR exercise IMO. Of the 10000 or so boys playing in MA each season, about 200 or so or 2% get asked to play in college. Of those, more than half play little or none and are cut, quit, etc. I know way too many families in this category. Generally ruins their whole college experience. Down below 1%. Of the 100 or so that play, about 10 start a lot for D1 colleges, or .1%. Of these a sizeable fraction comes from players recruited from outside MA to play at MA prep schools(ZL/JH/etc). Of these less than a handful do this for top twenty caliber teams. Perhaps one or two have a shot at the next level. Sounds pretty sobering to me, but I am proud to have known a few of the kids that climbed this mountain.

[Unregistered]

But sadly those sobering numbers are not in any way reflected in the op’s lists.

[Unregistered]

No matter whether op does it or someone else does it, the end result is always the same. His list becomes a marketing tool for the clubs. No matter how innocent the op thinks their work is what it really does is cloud the reality that for boys there is almost no opportunity for them to parlay their participation in club soccer into much of anything. One of the biggest lies out there is that all the high brow colleges factor soccer into their admissions process. While technically possible the truth is when it happens it is really just a unicorn sighting, an outlier with totally unique circumstances that are not easily replicated. The reality makes the op’s list nothing but a fairy tale.

LMAO, BTNT. You will disparage anything. Clouded? Biggest lie? You're an idiot. The participation in club soccer or equivalent doesn't have to parlay into money OR admissions help. It's about being able to actually play. If Tufts doesn't recruit you, you aren't playing there. If you aren't a high level club player you won't be on the field for Amherst, Bowdoin, Haverford, SLU, Hobart, Rochester, Brandeis, Chicago, Emory, Hopkins, Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon, Messiah, Calvin, Vassar, Williams, Middlebury, Rowan, *****burg, Christopher Newport, Wheaton, Babson, North Park, Loras, etc, etc, etc. No one who is a real player at any of the above and many, many more are disappointed and hoodwinked about their club soccer participation. You laughing and dedicating your entire life and New Years Eve to disparaging others in a sad attempt to elevate yourself and rationalize your choices doesn't impact any of these kids in the least. I've never run into a D3 player who says "gee, now that I know what BTNT thinks I see how badly I misjudged everything. You're a pig, pure and simple. Have another large pepperoni.

[Unregistered]

Looking at the numbers over 8 seasons is not a PR exercise IMO. Of the 10000 or so boys playing in MA each season, about 200 or so or 2% get asked to play in college. Of those, more than half play little or none and are cut, quit, etc. I know way too many families in this category. Generally ruins their whole college experience. Down below 1%. Of the 100 or so that play, about 10 start a lot for D1 colleges, or .1%. Of these a sizeable fraction comes from players recruited from outside MA to play at MA prep schools(ZL/JH/etc). Of these less than a handful do this for top twenty caliber teams. Perhaps one or two have a shot at the next level. Sounds pretty sobering to me, but I am proud to have known a few of the kids that climbed this mountain.

So what’s the average club soccer expense for those 10,000 players? Compare that to the total athletic scholarship money earned by the group. The resulting ratio is beyond obscene.

[Unregistered]

So what’s the average club soccer expense for those 10,000 players? Compare that to the total athletic scholarship money earned by the group. The resulting ratio is beyond obscene.

Why? And how is this different from other typical sports, gymnastics, singing, drama, art, etc? Are you on youth baseball sites bemoaning Little League participation? On a crusade to ban T-ball?

[Unregistered]

Then why reformat the list to highlight the number of players coming from each club?

Why wasn't it formatted that way originally?

[Unregistered]

But sadly those sobering numbers are not in any way reflected in the op’s lists.

Op here. I posted that last comment. The first season is always the optimistic building of the list. Then I report season by season how they do. The target of this thread is parents of soph and juniors in HS. They should look at a full thread to capture the entire story before they decide. Some of the parents of the given class enjoy seeing their kid's name up. It is not for them. Their decision has already been made.

[Unregistered]

LMAO, BTNT. You will disparage anything. Clouded? Biggest lie? You're an idiot. The participation in club soccer or equivalent doesn't have to parlay into money OR admissions help. It's about being able to actually play. If Tufts doesn't recruit you, you aren't playing there. If you aren't a high level club player you won't be on the field for Amherst, Bowdoin, Haverford, SLU, Hobart, Rochester, Brandeis, Chicago, Emory, Hopkins, Ohio Wesleyan, Kenyon, Messiah, Calvin, Vassar, Williams, Middlebury, Rowan, *****burg, Christopher Newport, Wheaton, Babson, North Park, Loras, etc, etc, etc. No one who is a real player at any of the above and many, many more are disappointed and hoodwinked about their club soccer participation. You laughing and dedicating your entire life and New Years Eve to disparaging others in a sad attempt to elevate yourself and rationalize your choices doesn't impact any of these kids in the least. I've never run into a D3 player who says "gee, now that I know what BTNT thinks I see how badly I misjudged everything. You're a pig, pure and simple. Have another large pepperoni.

Thought the goal was to get an education so who really cares what it takes to get on the field. That being as it may the fact is grades are all that matter when it comes to getting admitted to the schools you list and all soccer can do at best is sway the decision between two qualified applications. That only happens in a very low number of cases.

[Unregistered]

Op here. I posted that last comment. The first season is always the optimistic building of the list. Then I report season by season how they do. The target of this thread is parents of soph and juniors in HS. They should look at a full thread to capture the entire story before they decide. Some of the parents of the given class enjoy seeing their kid's name up. It is not for them. Their decision has already been made.

Why haven't you broken it out by club before? That is fairly useful info.

[Unregistered]

Thought the goal was to get an education so who really cares what it takes to get on the field. That being as it may the fact is grades are all that matter when it comes to getting admitted to the schools you list and all soccer can do at best is sway the decision between two qualified applications. That only happens in a very low number of cases.

LOL, YOU decided FOR US what are decisions are about. You think kids and families don't consider at all whether they'll get on the field? You really are thick as a brick. And look at you....Dec. 31, 2017 and you're still obsessed with little 'ol D3.

[Unregistered]

Why haven't you broken it out by club before? That is fairly useful info.

What don't YOU do something? The info always has been there when available. If you can read you can see what clubs most kids came from in all of the OP's original posts.

[Unregistered]

Why haven't you broken it out by club before? That is fairly useful info.

There are differing views on that. I personally don't want this is devolve into a whose club is better thread. There are plenty of places for that. Someone else is doing it.