What are you saying?

Why do DIII girls say they are committed when it has no substance? The school is promising anything and they don't know until they are accepted in the senior year. Yet there are commitments for the class of 2015 now.

I,ll pass on UCONN and take John Hopkins any day (D3)

Diii

I can name 15 D3 schools I would rather my daughter go to over UConn...no offense

I just looked quickly through the 2015 list:

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/playe...men/2015/123/3

I only saw EJ from Oakwood on it, and Penn State as her committed school. Most if not all of the schools are D1 schools. Many girls did not have commitments yet. Am I looking at the same list you are?

It is actually Johns Hopkins...with an s. As an alum, we take it very personally when you forget the s.

No offense taken. I agree 110%. UCONN is a good school but as they say, you go to school for an education not sports.

Look at Connecticut college. 10 commitments. 7 from class of 2014, 2 from 2013, and one from 2015 Jennifer Balzan

Are you kidding me? The only reason my kid plays for Cfc is so she can make a boat load of money playing pro soccer in the us and stand on top the Cfc pyramid looking down on all other inferior plyers

It's actually a valid question. First, remember that a commitment as a sophomore to a DI schools is not binding (to player or coach), and is just an unofficial commitment.

Some of the higher academic DIII colleges have a process in the summer after the player's junior year when they can get pre-reads from admissions as to whether the player can be admitted with the coach's support. The coaches have only a limited number of "supports."

As in the case with DI early commitments, these aren't binding; but as with DI coaches, if the DIII coach doesn't follow through on their agreement to support the player, they'll soon not have any good players.

And from what I understand from friends who have had girls and boys go through the process, girls are done earlier than boys. Not sure why that is but seems to be true.

As for the level of play, each player/student is different and has different reasons for attending a school - hopefully academics come first. Some know that while they enjoy the sport they don't want to live and breath it all through college. I know two D1 athletes (soccer/LAX) who dropped out of their sports after sophmore year. After playing for so many years they were just burnt out. Going D3 allows for a more "normal" college experience. In the end it should be about a good academic fit. Soccer is icing on the cake.

The answer to your question is..... there is NO REASON to say you are committed to any D3 school. All it means is that you like that school and you hope you get in. My 4 year old is committed to Middlebury, for example.

Same is true of pre-Junior D1 hopefuls. This is just a way for kids and parents to broadcast something that they hope will convey status. And it does - among the ignorant. It really is silly but people have been so pent up for so many years in the hunt for the great white whale (I mean, scholarship) that they simply can't hold it in any longer: Avast, mateys! thar she blows! A hump like a snow hill!

My daughter recently graduated from a top D3 academic school and soccer program. She was recruited by this program starting sophomore year in High School. She was a good club player and got some HS recognition. Money was never discussed openly in D3 but believe me it's there. There's a lot of code language used in D3 recruiting. Early on the coach asked if she had a "generous rich uncle", which confused us and she said no, but later on coach said she'd feel like she had one if she went early commit, which she did. We didn't write one check to the college the four years she was there which we felt bad about seeing how she had a 1.9 cum GPA, but what the heck she helped them make post season all four years she was there, and she made league honorable mention senior year. She also had some great "no show" jobs along the way which helped with her cash flow. We made some great friends along the way and there was a ton of drinking before and after each game, much more than High School where it's frowned on. My wife passed out a couple of times after the tailgate parties and she wandered off once but campus safety found her and reeled her in and kept a lid on it. What a friggin riot that was! Yeah and the soccer was ok too. Good thing about D3 it's kind of like High School where you can slaughter some teams and pad your stats good. I think my daughter got a hat trick four or five times in her career. So anyway that's D3 and we loved every minute of it. The education paid off too, she met some really rich young man who's ready to propose any day now. he looks like he could be wife beater so we already have a good lawyer lined up and then believe me we're all going to be living large!!

Just imagine what kind of swag deal she could have gotten if she committed in middle school! The moral of the story is that you can't commit early enough. Make sure to send some of that U9 game footage to the coaches at Conn College and Wesleyan. They LOVE that stuff - can't get enough of it.