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**Unregistered** · 01-07-2020, 09:36 PM

Coaches begin tracking players early, so these tournaments do have some value from a recruiting standpoint, even in 9th grade.

Unless the NCAA rules have changed, your daughter can start talking to D3 coaches now at schools she might be interested in where soccer might help with admissions. That means she can: send coaches her playing schedule & invite them to watch her, ask to introduce herself to a coach if she goes to tour the campus etc. I think she can invite D1 & D2 coaches to watch her play also, but they can't write back --unless rules are tighter than they used to be.

In terms of camp invites, there'e three levels: an invite that's not personal at all, an email blast where they've taken time to input her first name, and a personal note signed by a coach that says, I saw you play, we'd love to work with you at camp. You can ignore the ones that are just blasts...but if your daughter is really interested in a particular school, it's not to early to go to camps.

The chances of a coach discovering a player are pretty slim unless you're a superstar on or a team with a lot of visibility. It really helps to reach out to coaches and ask them to come out and watch you play, and to go to camps that truly interest you. Avoid the big camps with multiple schools in attendance unless you can find out how big the camp is. A camp with 100s of kids is just a money grab. A camp at a school your kid really likes that includes a campus tour and a chance to meet current members of the team that is less than 100 kids is ideal.

**Unregistered** · 01-07-2020, 09:37 PM

Originally posted by Unregistered View Post

Newbie question here: My 9th grade daughter has attended some schowcase tournaments. In talking with the parents, they have told me they thought the cost for these tournaments was beneficial, as they received emails from colleges after the tournaments. In my mind, these are just spam, and have no relevance, but I actually don't have a clue. My kiddo may or may not play in college--she's too young I think to make that decision. She may choose to go to a school that won't let her play, who knows at this point. So I have two questions: 1)What is the point of showcase tournaments at this age? She is first year on an ECNL team, not sure yet what that means since the regular season is just getting started. Does it matter at this age? 2) How do you differentiate between spam and actual interest, since coaches are prohibited from initiating? Thanks!

Most of the emails you get after showcase tournaments are spam. One very obvious way is to scroll to the bottom and if there's an unsubscribe button, it means you were added to some mass mailing list, likely generated by pulling the names and contact info of the kids attending the showcase tournament.

I don't know what the recruitment rules are now - they've changed and my daughter is a senior and already committed so i haven't been paying attention. If the coach is allowed to talk to your player face to face, and they are really interested in her, they'll do that right at the showcase tournament, which does make them beneficial. If they aren't allowed to talk to her, they might talk to her coach and hopefully your coach is good about sharing that information with your player (not all are).

In addition, your daughter really needs to do her own homework. Go to ID camps and visit schools. It's important to find schools she would like regardless of soccer. I know everyone says that but after seeing some of my daughter's friends and future teammates deal with injury after injury in college, I don't think that can be emphasized enough. If she finds some schools she likes where she thinks she might want to play soccer too, she needs to reach out to the coaches before showcase events, email them her schedule, and ask them to come watch her play. If she does that and they show up, that means they are at least interested. If they show up at a second game, obviously that means they are more interested.

And in terms of ID camps - my daughter found those as valuable as showcase tournaments in some cases. Some are clearly money grabs for the university, and she was smart enough not to waste her time or our money attending ID camps for schools that she wasn't interested in. If she finds a school she likes, an ID camp is a great opportunity to connect face to face with the coaches, show them her energy and work ethic and skill level, and follow up with invitations to come watch her play.

Last thing circling back to the emails. Here are two examples of real email versus spam.

Real: My daughter went to a showcase and got an email from a coach who said (paraphrasing) "I watched your Saturday night game but wasn't able to stay and talk to you because I had to get to another game. I really liked your strength on the ball, your ability to make accurate passes to anyone on the field, and your voice and leadership. You would be a great 6 for our team. I would love to connect with you about coming to campus for a visit. Here's my phone number." (my daughter was older than yours and obviously the contact rules are different)

Spam: My daughter got an email from a coach who said "I was very impressed with your play at Surf Cup and want to invite you to our upcoming ID camp. You'll have a chance to visit campus, play with our current players, and meet our coaching staff. Registration form is attached and we would love to see you." Sounds exciting, right? EXCEPT...it was sent a week before Surf Cup games began. And as we found out later, every single one of her teammates got the same email, word for word.

Hope this helps! Bottom line is it's not too early for her to start looking. When my daughter was a freshman she wasn't sure she wanted to play in college. We advised her to take actions as if she was definitely going to play - look for opportunities, keep an open mind, and see what happened. She did, and found her school junior year. In comparison, some of her teammates who were equally on the fence decided junior year they DID want to play in college, and found themselves scrambling because they had waited so long. It's better to start looking now and at the very least, you'll have some nice family time visiting schools and talking/thinking about her future together. Enjoy - it goes by WAY too fast.

**Unregistered** · 01-08-2020, 11:46 AM

This is fantastic, thank you both. My kiddo isn't a super star, just a quiet, hard working good teammate who is reliable, strong, and steady. I'm not sure if that is college material, but I think she has room to grow and see.

I have a follow up question to this. My kiddo has recently gone to some showcase tournaments playing in the top bracket, but the team didn't make it past semi finals. She has also been to tournaments on different teams, where they won their bracket, but their bracket was 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th from the top. In my mind, winning a 4th down bracket isn't really something to brag about, and I doubt college coaches are showing up to watch those games. But those got soccer points....

Any follow up thoughts on relevance to which bracket, and how far you go is involved in attracting attention? What if you have a steady kid on a team that is in the top bracket, but the team won't be top five in the tournament? I'm guessing she doesn't have much of a chance? I already imagine that top bracket winning team superstar is going to have options. What about a few down from that?

**Unregistered** · 01-08-2020, 12:17 PM

Originally posted by Unregistered View Post

This is fantastic, thank you both. My kiddo isn't a super star, just a quiet, hard working good teammate who is reliable, strong, and steady. I'm not sure if that is college material, but I think she has room to grow and see.

I have a follow up question to this. My kiddo has recently gone to some showcase tournaments playing in the top bracket, but the team didn't make it past semi finals. She has also been to tournaments on different teams, where they won their bracket, but their bracket was 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th from the top. In my mind, winning a 4th down bracket isn't really something to brag about, and I doubt college coaches are showing up to watch those games. But those got soccer points....

Any follow up thoughts on relevance to which bracket, and how far you go is involved in attracting attention? What if you have a steady kid on a team that is in the top bracket, but the team won't be top five in the tournament? I'm guessing she doesn't have much of a chance? I already imagine that top bracket winning team superstar is going to have options. What about a few down from that?

Being on a top team helps with exposure -- you're more likely to be seen by random coaches you haven't taken the initiative to contact -- but it's not what's critical. Coaches care about the player and the needs they have for their own rosters. She should be reaching out to coaches at schools she'd like to attend. She should be realistic -- you know if she's Pac12 caliber or not-- but not pessimistic. There are lots of great programs in every division that need good players. Some top soccer D3s are just as intense as a D1 in terms of demands and even the competition they face. Focus on schools she likes and then research the soccer.

One of my kids pursued D3 in another sport and reached out to about 50 schools with an intro and film. A handful of schools flat out told her she wasn't at their level, so she just crossed them off and kept emailing the other. She ended up with one firm offer to play from a prestigious school that's great for her major and a handful of colleges who offered her walk on tryouts. She came to this sport late after burning out on soccer, she doesn't have the right build for it, and she's in the most competitive/least recruited position but she still found a roster spot. It can happen.

**Unregistered** · 01-08-2020, 05:35 PM

+1 for the post above.

It�s best to be on the best team in the highest league she can make for exposure. Even better would be to find a team she can be a starter on. College coaches can�t evaluate players if they are bench warmers during games with little playing time. Wouldn�t worry about win/losses at tournaments.

**Unregistered** · 01-09-2020, 12:04 AM

Originally posted by Unregistered View Post

Most of the emails you get after showcase tournaments are spam. One very obvious way is to scroll to the bottom and if there's an unsubscribe button, it means you were added to some mass mailing list, likely generated by pulling the names and contact info of the kids attending the showcase tournament.

I don't know what the recruitment rules are now - they've changed and my daughter is a senior and already committed so i haven't been paying attention. If the coach is allowed to talk to your player face to face, and they are really interested in her, they'll do that right at the showcase tournament, which does make them beneficial. If they aren't allowed to talk to her, they might talk to her coach and hopefully your coach is good about sharing that information with your player (not all are).

In addition, your daughter really needs to do her own homework. Go to ID camps and visit schools. It's important to find schools she would like regardless of soccer. I know everyone says that but after seeing some of my daughter's friends and future teammates deal with injury after injury in college, I don't think that can be emphasized enough. If she finds some schools she likes where she thinks she might want to play soccer too, she needs to reach out to the coaches before showcase events, email them her schedule, and ask them to come watch her play. If she does that and they show up, that means they are at least interested. If they show up at a second game, obviously that means they are more interested.

And in terms of ID camps - my daughter found those as valuable as showcase tournaments in some cases. Some are clearly money grabs for the university, and she was smart enough not to waste her time or our money attending ID camps for schools that she wasn't interested in. If she finds a school she likes, an ID camp is a great opportunity to connect face to face with the coaches, show them her energy and work ethic and skill level, and follow up with invitations to come watch her play.

Last thing circling back to the emails. Here are two examples of real email versus spam.

Real: My daughter went to a showcase and got an email from a coach who said (paraphrasing) "I watched your Saturday night game but wasn't able to stay and talk to you because I had to get to another game. I really liked your strength on the ball, your ability to make accurate passes to anyone on the field, and your voice and leadership. You would be a great 6 for our team. I would love to connect with you about coming to campus for a visit. Here's my phone number." (my daughter was older than yours and obviously the contact rules are different)

Spam: My daughter got an email from a coach who said "I was very impressed with your play at Surf Cup and want to invite you to our upcoming ID camp. You'll have a chance to visit campus, play with our current players, and meet our coaching staff. Registration form is attached and we would love to see you." Sounds exciting, right? EXCEPT...it was sent a week before Surf Cup games began. And as we found out later, every single one of her teammates got the same email, word for word.

Hope this helps! Bottom line is it's not too early for her to start looking. When my daughter was a freshman she wasn't sure she wanted to play in college. We advised her to take actions as if she was definitely going to play - look for opportunities, keep an open mind, and see what happened. She did, and found her school junior year. In comparison, some of her teammates who were equally on the fence decided junior year they DID want to play in college, and found themselves scrambling because they had waited so long. It's better to start looking now and at the very least, you'll have some nice family time visiting schools and talking/thinking about her future together. Enjoy - it goes by WAY too fast.

Great post...thanks for the advice!