The ugly truth about playing college soccer

[Unregistered]

You do realize those lists are absurd right? If you actually have the rigor to look into the methodology behind the lists you wouldn’t post them to prove your point.

[Unregistered]

Just saying that there is nothing wrong with just being a student. There is a lot more than just a club level kid's soccer IQ that goes into being a D1 level player. When you read all of these parents making claims about the "best" players going to D3 because they didn't want the commitment they are basically inferring that they were actually D1 level prospects but those parents are really just delusional and making excuses for their kid's choices. First off motivation is a huge part of the equation closely followed by work rate. No matter what any one cub soccer parent thinks, it actually is a huge leap from the club level to the D1 college level. The players at that level are significantly stronger, faster and more experienced than a club level kid because first of all they were identified and recruited as capable of playing at the level and secondly once there they put a tremendous amount of highly focused work into earning playing time. It all has an impact. The reality is once a kid takes their foot off the peddle they stop being a D1 prospect even if they once had the potential to be one and the earlier they do that the farther away they actually become from being one. The real issue that many of these parents don't want to admit to themselves is human nature being what it is, when a kid makes the decision that they don't want to be a D1 athlete a lot of times it is because the kid themselves realizes that they don't have what it takes to get themselves there. There is a lot of fear of failure behind the decision. This is especially true on the girls side.

Isn't this kind of an obvious point? If you stop putting in the effort then other people will pass you. You can teach kids soccer...it's nearly impossible to teach them work ethic.

It's easy for a coach to tell if a kid is physically bigger/faster than the other kids at the ID Camp. It's a little less easy (but still easy for college coaches) to see if a kid has field awareness and soccer skills. It's very hard to tell if a kid will stop trying half way through freshman year because for the first time in his/her life they aren't getting the playing time. What does the kid do at that point...does he quit? Hopefully the coach recruited a kid with work ethic and he/she works hard to improve and earn playing time?

[Unregistered]

The problem with your logic has always been two fold:

1) You always want to grade middle school potential as a though it were realized. It takes work to make it to the D1 level and once a player stops chasing the D1 brass ring they stop working hard enough to make it and because of that they never actually reach the potential they might have had.

2) You always want to lump what are effectively middle tier academic choices in with what are actually top tier academic choices. Here are the current rankings.

https://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/

As you can see most of the NESCACS are not truly top tier academic choices. There are at least 18 colleges currently ranked higher than the best of them. The reality is the kid who has the grades to get into Williams might not have the grades to get into MIT, Harvard, Yale or even Duke. Granted there are no actual bad choice once you get to that sort of list but choosing Williams over Harvard so your kid can play soccer? Not sure a whole lot people will do that. Not even sure many would even pick MIT over Harvard or Yale for that reason. The reality is once you start getting below that top tier academic level there are a lot more choices than just D3 schools IF academics truly are the priority.

The problem with you is that you have no logic, BTNT. You distort and misrepresent everything and just keep insisting on your point of view which you insist is our point of view.

And there are 15-20 college rankings list. It is laughable that you present the Forbes one as definitive. It is just ludicrous to argue that Williams, Amherst, U Chicago, MIT, Hopkins, Wash U, Pomona, Midd, Bowdoin, Carleton, Grinnell, etc aren't good enough or are some huge compromise just for the sake of playing soccer. So why play D1 then? Just because of the money, even though the time and logistical and desire requirements compromise what one can do at top end D1s?

Where you really go off the rails is with families like mine, who never claimed anything about D1 ability or shooting for D1 and then having to backtrack or whatever. You STILL seem to think that a D3 is wrong even for D3 level players.

But, again, why do you care? How is this such a major problem for you?

[Unregistered]

Isn't this kind of an obvious point? If you stop putting in the effort then other people will pass you. You can teach kids soccer...it's nearly impossible to teach them work ethic.

It's easy for a coach to tell if a kid is physically bigger/faster than the other kids at the ID Camp. It's a little less easy (but still easy for college coaches) to see if a kid has field awareness and soccer skills. It's very hard to tell if a kid will stop trying half way through freshman year because for the first time in his/her life they aren't getting the playing time. What does the kid do at that point...does he quit? Hopefully the coach recruited a kid with work ethic and he/she works hard to improve and earn playing time?

You would think it is obvious but then how do you account for the string of posts talking about "best" players deciding to go D3 because they don't want the commitment? Do we honestly think that kid is working their butt off to become the best possible player they can become after they make that decision?

[Unregistered]

The problem with you is that you have no logic, BTNT. You distort and misrepresent everything and just keep insisting on your point of view which you insist is our point of view.

And there are 15-20 college rankings list. It is laughable that you present the Forbes one as definitive. It is just ludicrous to argue that Williams, Amherst, U Chicago, MIT, Hopkins, Wash U, Pomona, Midd, Bowdoin, Carleton, Grinnell, etc aren't good enough or are some huge compromise just for the sake of playing soccer. So why play D1 then? Just because of the money, even though the time and logistical and desire requirements compromise what one can do at top end D1s?

Where you really go off the rails is with families like mine, who never claimed anything about D1 ability or shooting for D1 and then having to backtrack or whatever. You STILL seem to think that a D3 is wrong even for D3 level players.

But, again, why do you care? How is this such a major problem for you?

Forbes is one of the oldest and it is the only one that doesn't separate liberal arts colleges out of their rankings.

[Unregistered]

The problem with you is that you have no logic, BTNT. You distort and misrepresent everything and just keep insisting on your point of view which you insist is our point of view.

And there are 15-20 college rankings list. It is laughable that you present the Forbes one as definitive. It is just ludicrous to argue that Williams, Amherst, U Chicago, MIT, Hopkins, Wash U, Pomona, Midd, Bowdoin, Carleton, Grinnell, etc aren't good enough or are some huge compromise just for the sake of playing soccer. So why play D1 then? Just because of the money, even though the time and logistical and desire requirements compromise what one can do at top end D1s?

Where you really go off the rails is with families like mine, who never claimed anything about D1 ability or shooting for D1 and then having to backtrack or whatever. You STILL seem to think that a D3 is wrong even for D3 level players.

But, again, why do you care? How is this such a major problem for you?

Most here think that if you were truly satisfied you would have given up this silly argument years ago.

It is quite interesting that you seem to throw out how your kid is going to be at Mass General when the match doesn't get announced until mid March. Just saying that is beyond "face saving"

[Unregistered]

Most here think that if you were truly satisfied you would have given up this silly argument years ago.

It is quite interesting that you seem to throw out how your kid is going to be at Mass General when the match doesn't get announced until mid March. Just saying that is beyond "face saving"

My recollection is that the poster stated that his son interviewed at MGH and several other top places for his residency.

[Unregistered]

Can we all just agree that top players on your kid’s team that quit soccer, or decide to go D3 for “quality of life” reasons, were never going to cut it at the D1 level?

You can continue to preach that they had D1 talent but without the drive to grind things out they’d never survive the process.

[Unregistered]

Where BTDT really fails in his logic is with his lack of understanding of nuance and degree. Things seem to be too much black and white with him.

"Soccer either has to be all in at D1 or otherwise it is not worth doing in college at all" seems to be his point.

[Unregistered]

Can we all just agree that top players on your kid’s team that quit soccer, or decide to go D3 for “quality of life” reasons, were never going to cut it at the D1 level?

You can continue to preach that they had D1 talent but without the drive to grind things out they’d never survive the process.

If we agree, will BTNT stop with his nonsense? It's only been 13+ years.

[Unregistered]

Most here think that if you were truly satisfied you would have given up this silly argument years ago.

It is quite interesting that you seem to throw out how your kid is going to be at Mass General when the match doesn't get announced until mid March. Just saying that is beyond "face saving"

Wow. Speaking of "face saving," the med school thing really bothers you, doesn't it? And that can happen from a lowly D3.

[Unregistered]

Someone posted what the all conference women from about 10 years ago from Tufts are currently doing. My recollection is that it was fairly impressive.

somehow they found a good balance.

[Unregistered]

Most here think that if you were truly satisfied you would have given up this silly argument years ago.

It is quite interesting that you seem to throw out how your kid is going to be at Mass General when the match doesn't get announced until mid March. Just saying that is beyond "face saving"

Not following. What argument??? You mean that there are a significant number of D3 schools that are plenty good enough? That one? Too funny, BTNT.

[Unregistered]

Where BTDT really fails in his logic is with his lack of understanding of nuance and degree. Things seem to be too much black and white with him.

"Soccer either has to be all in at D1 or otherwise it is not worth doing in college at all" seems to be his point.

You clearly have no clue. If your kids aren't all in at the D1 level they end up getting ground up and spit out. You can't half ass it the D1 level and expect things to work out favorably.

[Unregistered]

Someone posted what the all conference women from about 10 years ago from Tufts are currently doing. My recollection is that it was fairly impressive.

somehow they found a good balance.

So what is your point? Don't you think the all conference players from schools like Stanford, Duke and Georgetown from 10 years ago found similar success in life? Those kids were probably smarter than the Tufts crew as well as being better soccer players. Why assume they didn't find equal or greater success?