What college recruiting advice do you all have for a player on a top area team (boy) who is now eligible to be contacted by coaches? Do you use specific sites or services? How important are ID camps and how do you decide which ones to go to? Have your clubs helped? When and how do offers come - junior year or later? Appreciate advice from parents who have gone through this.
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Ask around there are varsity blues type services if you know the right people. -
None of the parents who have actually gone through this are on this forum. Just wannabes.
The first piece of advice is: Don't listen to anything you read on this forum. Get it from more credible sources.
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If you are on herr looking for advice, you are in the wrong place. Go talk to your coach or college advisorComment
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I have a son playing in college. Boys recruiting moves slower than on the girls' side. You don't need to pay for one of those online services - they're scammy. Your son should start sending emails introducing himself to coaches, with his stats, grades, and links to game film on Hudl or YouTube. Google what to put into it. Keep intouch with coaches when you're going to a tournament and send game schedule. Keep in touch every month or so with info about soccer, school, summer job, whatever. For camps, you have to learn how to distinguish between the huge money grab camps and ones where they're really looking at players. Seattle U and UW camps are good practice even if he might not play at that level. No harm if it's local. My kids had some coach contact come out of the PNW camps. Coaches will start to invite him to camps in response to his email - you need to help him figure out if it's a personal invite written by the coach or a cut and paste email blast. Personal invites (ie I saw you play at Surf Cup and thought you did xyz; would love to see you at our camp) will mean a lot more. Also, unless your kid is the top top player (which he probably is not if you're asking for recruiting help) don't spend your money going to camps for schools where his grades/test scores aren't already in the range of the typically accepted student. Admissions at many schools will let in a few kids who are an academic reach, but those situations are rare. Plus you don't want your kid to struggle academically when he's already going to be spending so much time on sports. It's a lot to juggle. If he has strong GPA/scores and is a solid player, he will have options. He just has to put himself out there - essentially, it's a job search. Be persistent and approach the right prospectsComment
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Thank you! I forgot one more thing: if you're interested in a school, keep contacting them regularly until coach tells you to stop! They often will if the kid is just not at the level of play for the team or if they aren't recruiting that position this year. Help your kid to not take it personally - it's actually helpful! And don't burn bridges. My son had a school he really liked tell him jr year they weren't recruiting his position so he could stop contacting - and then fall of sr year the coach reached out to him because their plans had changed! By then my son was already going in another direction, but you never know!Originally posted by Guest View PostComment
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