HS or Club for Recruiting?

[Guest]

It's a strictly cost-benefit analysis: Colleges have pretty strict recruiting budgets and they need to be efficient. So they go where the quality, or number of players they can recruit, is high vs. the cost to attend (time and money). Unless the coach is local, and the quality of the HS is good and they have a specific player, it's highly unlikely they would attend a HS match. They probably would be more likely to see a club match because, at least, they may see other players. The problem is the overall quality of HS soccer is very, very low (a different discussion for another day).

My recommendation: as a parent with a kid playing D1 (mid level) and D3 would be to skip HS soccer completely and consider additional, or cross training in another sport that has some transferability. As a club coach, getting players back from HS is a 3 month process to help players get back to their prior level (generally speed/type of decisions)

Nice post! I spoke once with a retired Division 2 soccer coach and he said his budget was so limited that he had to attend events that had critical mass of good players. He did stress the importance of my daughter marketing herself on social media in addition to playing on a high level club and getting good grades. My daughter is in the ECNL. While I'd love for her to skip high school, she does like the opportunity to play with her friends and hear her name announced on the school's loud speaker. I am always concerned about her getting hurt. It seems the strategy in h.s. soccer is to seek out the finesse players and run them over and the referees are generally pretty terrible in h.s. as well.

[Guest]

Nice post! I spoke once with a retired Division 2 soccer coach and he said his budget was so limited that he had to attend events that had critical mass of good players. He did stress the importance of my daughter marketing herself on social media in addition to playing on a high level club and getting good grades. My daughter is in the ECNL. While I'd love for her to skip high school, she does like the opportunity to play with her friends and hear her name announced on the school's loud speaker. I am always concerned about her getting hurt. It seems the strategy in h.s. soccer is to seek out the finesse players and run them over and the referees are generally pretty terrible in h.s. as well.

Why would it be important for a player to market themselves on social media??

[Guest]

Why would it be important for a player to market themselves on social media??

Not the poster but more kids are creating separate social media profiles for recruiting and coaches follow them.

[Guest]

Not the poster but more kids are creating separate social media profiles for recruiting and coaches follow them.

Seriously? What is a coach going to learn from following players' social media? Seems like an utter waste of time.

[Guest]

Player marketing, a successful social media setup would help the coach keep tabs on a player. Players usually post what schools they are interested in, ID camps/clinics they went to, how their season is going, highlights, random skill videos...etc. All the things that recruiters would usually get in emails or from talking to a players coaches. Social Media Manager is an actual job title now, welcome to the new age.

To answer the main question, HS is on level with playing township for most schools. Recruiters don't have the time or money to go to these games. They would rather go to a large tournament and see as many players as possible for the least amount of money in the shortest time.

[Guest]

Seriously? What is a coach going to learn from following players' social media? Seems like an utter waste of time.

Game highlights etc. Yes they can also email the same thing to programs and this doesn't eliminate the need to keep in contact with programs you're talking to. Like someone said it's an extra tool in the toolbox but isn't a necessity.

[Guest]

Game highlights etc. Yes they can also email the same thing to programs and this doesn't eliminate the need to keep in contact with programs you're talking to. Like someone said it's an extra tool in the toolbox but isn't a necessity.

We were old the complete opposite from a number of different college coaches. They will actually reject kids with too much on social. Interesting to hear the other coach told you the opposite.

[Guest]

We were old the complete opposite from a number of different college coaches. They will actually reject kids with too much on social. Interesting to hear the other coach told you the opposite.

Depends on what is on the social. First, yes, if it's too much it gets annoying. And, second, if it's stuff that could get them or the program in trouble, it will hurt them.

But, they will follow a player's social, skills and work out clips, and if those are linked to her recruiting page where her highlights are stored it's a good thing.

[Guest]

Game highlights etc. Yes they can also email the same thing to programs and this doesn't eliminate the need to keep in contact with programs you're talking to. Like someone said it's an extra tool in the toolbox but isn't a necessity.

I just can't seriously imagine a college coach scrolling through Instagram to keep tabs on players. Game highlights? Most college coaches I've met have said that any player can send highlights that make themselves look good, so there's almost no point to looking at highlights.

[Guest]

Depends on what is on the social. First, yes, if it's too much it gets annoying. And, second, if it's stuff that could get them or the program in trouble, it will hurt them.

But, they will follow a player's social, skills and work out clips, and if those are linked to her recruiting page where her highlights are stored it's a good thing.

Can you name one coach who has told you they do this?

[Guest]

I just can't seriously imagine a college coach scrolling through Instagram to keep tabs on players. Game highlights? Most college coaches I've met have said that any player can send highlights that make themselves look good, so there's almost no point to looking at highlights.

Believe it. I've seen girls at college showcases tweet at coaches who are attending to let them know what field their playing on and at what time. It's definitely a tool to add to the toolkit.

[Guest]

Can you name one coach who has told you they do this?

Told to get one? No. Asked if they had one and followed it? Every single one we spoke to once the discussions got more serious.

[Guest]

I just can't seriously imagine a college coach scrolling through Instagram to keep tabs on players. Game highlights? Most college coaches I've met have said that any player can send highlights that make themselves look good, so there's almost no point to looking at highlights.

That's changed for many. I've had coaches say they take highlights with a grain of salt - they are highlights after all. But after Covid they started looking at least on the surface, but nothing will replicate watching from the sidelines of a competitive game.

[Guest]

Believe it. I've seen girls at college showcases tweet at coaches who are attending to let them know what field their playing on and at what time. It's definitely a tool to add to the toolkit.

Hmmm. Why wouldn't those players email their schedule to the college coaches a week or two ahead of the showcase so that the coach can use that information when they are planning what fields and games they will attend? Tweeting "I'm here on field 3!" doesn't seem like it would be very effective. Can you imagine a coach at a showcase getting 200 tweets from a bunch of players when games are starting and then scrambling to figure out where they need to be? This is perhaps the stupidest thing I've seen on this forum.

[Guest]

Told to get one? No. Asked if they had one and followed it? Every single one we spoke to once the discussions got more serious.

I can't imagine this being true for any college coach beyond some low-level D2 and D3 coaches, and even then it feels like a stretch.