Ask the Coach, Women's College D1

[Unregistered]

Where does high school soccer fit in with recruiting? You’ve mentioned club showcases, clinics, and contacts, but is HS soccer a source most college coaches use for recruiting?

I'd say it factors in a bit depending school, and location, but club is going to mainly take precedence. In NJ for example, the level of HS soccer can be very good. The issue is they play in the Fall the same as college so our time is extremely limited in season. Division 1 coaches are less likely to simply go scout a high school game as opposed to attend solely to get a look at a particular player.

[Unregistered]

I have some real specific q's-

2022 D was "contacted" on 15th, but didn't receive call until 16th from her top choice school. Assuming this means she is not on coach's top 5 "wish list".

D hadn't attended any ID events, would that affect where she falls on the list?
What can D do to finagle her way up the ladder?
What do typical athletic aid offers look like?
Will coach factor in possible academic merit & financial aid in offer?

TIA for any info!

Talent is goin to affect where everyone falls on the list, but clearly she is in the mix if she got a call. That's a good sign. Don't read into the 16th vs. the 15th. Especially in 2020, a lot is going to change because we'll have not seen these kids play in 6 mos so many offers will be delayed.

Attending an ID camp merely confirms her interest so it does make an impact to us---sometimes we are 'splitting hairs' on players, so yes those who get our attention by attending a clinic may separate themselves in that regard. If they are the top choice, make sure you daughter 100% emphasizes that. In the end, we want kids who WANT to be here and fall in love with our school and our program. Continue to reinforce that and keep your name in front of them.

There is no "typical" offer! WAYYYYY to many variables here. Some huge state school programs are so cheap they can give close to full rides for many. Those with price tags of 50k-60k have to stretch dollars around more, so there will be very total full rides. In the end, the best players will get the best offers. If for some reason money is not an issue, by all means LET THE COACH know because that can affect the likelihood of you getting a spot.

All aid counts towards "equivalency" which is a complicated topic because NCAA allows a maximum of 14 "full rides". Schools handle this differently too...at our school, because we don't want to get blindsided finding out that a player qualifies for a huge amount of financial aid at the last minute that counts against our equivalency (and can cause us to be over the allowable limit), we operate by a "whichever is more" scenario. IE< if we offer a player 20K, and they then get 10K worth of financial aid, they will only get the greater---$20K. We explain this during the commitment discussions. As far as Merit money, we are an elite university and offer no merit money, but for the schools that have it, that also counts against the equivalency. I'm not sure all schools handle it like we do.

Of course, D3 is a whole other animal where the only money you will get is Merit and/or Financial Aid. In some cases, that can be more than the scholarship you would receive at a D1 school however!

[Unregistered]

Adding to the question about High School soccer - do you ever find players that can’t afford to play top level girls? So High School only or High School and ‘town travel’? What would your advice be to these types of players?

How frequently do girls get scouted from Community College or Div 3 programs and transfer? Are there particular CC or D3 teams you keep an eye on?

For us personally, nearly all of our recruiting comes from club soccer. I can't recall a player in recent history that didn't play some level of Club soccer. There is some talent to be found at the CC and D3 level. We cannot 'scout' D3 level, but some of these players end up in the transfer portal and transfer to D1....there will be a few, but not too many. There are a lot of international players and some talent to be found in the JuCo world too, and I think many programs will put a decent amount of effort into it. Much of it is based on developing relationships with programs and then having a little pipeline with a program/coach you know and trust. We don't do any of that ourselves. Just too busy!

[Unregistered]

For us personally, nearly all of our recruiting comes from club soccer. I can't recall a player in recent history that didn't play some level of Club soccer. There is some talent to be found at the CC and D3 level. We cannot 'scout' D3 level, but some of these players end up in the transfer portal and transfer to D1....there will be a few, but not too many. There are a lot of international players and some talent to be found in the JuCo world too, and I think many programs will put a decent amount of effort into it. Much of it is based on developing relationships with programs and then having a little pipeline with a program/coach you know and trust. We don't do any of that ourselves. Just too busy!

What is the process for recruiting international players?

[Unregistered]

What is the process for recruiting international players?

In light of the current financial crisis for colleges, do you think there will be a cut to the amount of scholarship money available for soccer?

[Unregistered]

What kind of fitness standards do you require on the first day of practice. Can you give us some minimum numbers for a pacer test, 40 yard dash, 300m dash, etc?

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.

[Unregistered]

Talent is goin to affect where everyone falls on the list, but clearly she is in the mix if she got a call. That's a good sign. Don't read into the 16th vs. the 15th. Especially in 2020, a lot is going to change because we'll have not seen these kids play in 6 mos so many offers will be delayed.

Attending an ID camp merely confirms her interest so it does make an impact to us---sometimes we are 'splitting hairs' on players, so yes those who get our attention by attending a clinic may separate themselves in that regard. If they are the top choice, make sure you daughter 100% emphasizes that. In the end, we want kids who WANT to be here and fall in love with our school and our program. Continue to reinforce that and keep your name in front of them.

There is no "typical" offer! WAYYYYY to many variables here. Some huge state school programs are so cheap they can give close to full rides for many. Those with price tags of 50k-60k have to stretch dollars around more, so there will be very total full rides. In the end, the best players will get the best offers. If for some reason money is not an issue, by all means LET THE COACH know because that can affect the likelihood of you getting a spot.

All aid counts towards "equivalency" which is a complicated topic because NCAA allows a maximum of 14 "full rides". Schools handle this differently too...at our school, because we don't want to get blindsided finding out that a player qualifies for a huge amount of financial aid at the last minute that counts against our equivalency (and can cause us to be over the allowable limit), we operate by a "whichever is more" scenario. IE< if we offer a player 20K, and they then get 10K worth of financial aid, they will only get the greater---$20K. We explain this during the commitment discussions. As far as Merit money, we are an elite university and offer no merit money, but for the schools that have it, that also counts against the equivalency. I'm not sure all schools handle it like we do.

Of course, D3 is a whole other animal where the only money you will get is Merit and/or Financial Aid. In some cases, that can be more than the scholarship you would receive at a D1 school however!

So a kid can not get merit/financial and athletic?

[Unregistered]

What is the process for recruiting international players?

We don't focus any of our time on international recruiting as it's a whole other ball game! Therefore, I can't shed too much light on it. There are and increasing number of programs who spend a lot of time in this arena, maybe because there's not as much competition for players and some darn good ones to be found.

Many of these programs seem to get a 'pipeline' or connection to a specific club/country.

[Unregistered]

So a kid can not get merit/financial and athletic?

Actually I didn't do a good job explaining before. The "whichever is higher" would also mean if we offered 20K scholarship and they were awarded 30K of need based financial aid, they would get the 30K total, so in that case yes. The entire 30K counts against our equivalency. We don't experience it a lot because we are offering most of our players a solid scholarship and it's rare that someone will qualify for aid that exceeds it, although it happens on occasion. We have no merit money.

(as stated previously, if we offer 20K scholarship and they get 10K financial aid, they will only get 20K--10K scholarship plus 10k aid)

I can't speak for how other programs handle.

[Unregistered]

What kind of fitness standards do you require on the first day of practice. Can you give us some minimum numbers for a pacer test, 40 yard dash, 300m dash, etc?

This would be interesting to know.

[Unregistered]

How does one go about finding out if a program is fully funded? I've heard that many programs don't fully fund the 14 scholarships available to women's soccer, but other than asking a coach directly, how would you know?

[Unregistered]

Two questions:

1) How do coaches really feel/manage recruits’ academic aspirations or academic major requirements in D1? For example, if a player wants to pursue a STEM major are coaches sympathetic and helpful to the demands a harder major places on a player’s time? Looking thru some rosters, majors often seem to be “softer” ones like communications or undecided so are they being steered in that direction by their program?

2) How should a player gauge whether they will get significant playing time during the recruiting process? Is the mere expression of interest from a college coach enough to assume that they see you as a potential starter?

[Unregistered]

How does one go about finding out if a program is fully funded? I've heard that many programs don't fully fund the 14 scholarships available to women's soccer, but other than asking a coach directly, how would you know?

I don't think it's possible to find out other than asking the coach....no one has ever asked that question, but I think it's a great question to ask a coach!

I assume they would be honest with you. And, in terms of determining how competitive a program is, I'd say that is a pretty good piece of information to have.

We are fully funded and have a very expensive tuition you're talking a lot of money , but there are a lot of rumblings of budget shortcomings currently, so the situation could change for all.

[Unregistered]

Two questions:

1) How do coaches really feel/manage recruits’ academic aspirations or academic major requirements in D1? For example, if a player wants to pursue a STEM major are coaches sympathetic and helpful to the demands a harder major places on a player’s time? Looking thru some rosters, majors often seem to be “softer” ones like communications or undecided so are they being steered in that direction by their program?

2) How should a player gauge whether they will get significant playing time during the recruiting process? Is the mere expression of interest from a college coach enough to assume that they see you as a potential starter?

I can only speak for our program, and we are a very elite academic university, but also with a very competitive soccer program

1) Many of our players are in very demanding majors (pre medical track, pre law track, business school, etc), and academics are a priority. Our academic advisors are dedicated to work with athletes and help them navigate schedules to avoid conflicts. They are able to work around practice and game schedule in the fall and if conflicts are necessary the spring is where they sometimes occur. We usually have some players who are late/leaves early for a spring practice, and on occasion may miss an entire day of practice. That is unusual, and done only when there are no other options for satisfying a class requirement.

2) That is a loaded question! Our answer to that question is always this: If we are recruiting you, it is because you have the ability and potential to make an impact on our team. We will never, ever promise a player playing time, and any coach who is doing that is doing them a disservice. These players commit sometimes 2+ years away from arriving on campus, and soooo much will happen in 2 years. There is an expectation the player does their part in terms of continuing to work really hard, develop, and meet the demands of the college game fitness wise as well--some times they do not follow through with that responsibility. Many people think coaches determine playing time, when actually the players will determine it because we are going to put those on the field who put us in the best position to win. You many notice there are 25-40 players on college rosters...if you do the math, way more don't play then do. Some very good players don't play because at the college level, everyone is good, and were all stars of their respective club teams. Control what you can---preparation, fitness, commitment to improving everyway you can, and being the best teammate you can regardless of playing time.

[Unregistered]

Where does high school soccer fit in with recruiting? You’ve mentioned club showcases, clinics, and contacts, but is HS soccer a source most college coaches use for recruiting?

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?