<p>Thanks takeitallin. The situation you describe feels very much like what we have observed. He has known some very talented players that have chased that dream and not achieved it. I think that is part of his hesitation to give up the other sports. Also , he sees the sheer time these boys invest, most at the expense of their grades, and hesitates even more. I just plan to enjoy this season–4 games this weekend–and hope he does too. We will check out club offerings on each campus. </p>
<p>Another thing to consider at D3. Being recruited and being able to play for a college are two very different things. Coaches have limited recruiting slots … where they are working with admissions to get their players in. Less slots that new players they need … so lots of D3 schools have numerous players who “walked on” and play solid minutes for their school.</p>
<p>My kids high school soccer team probably has at least 1-2 D3 walk on guys a year. Some because they didn’t get recruited at all ans some who were recruited at some schools but picked a preferred school for non-sports reasons and then tried walking on at their preferred school.</p>
<p>Just a quick note on DIII sports - a daughter of a very close friend of ours, a rising college junior, is transferring from one DIII school to another. At her new school, she is switching to playing a completely different sport in a completely different season.</p>
<p>Her new coach came to see her play over the summer to see her ability and she will be a " walk-on" junior.</p>
<p>The gal is happy as is the coach.</p>
<p>No completely unusual in DIII</p>
<p>Thanks 3togo and threesdad. I had no idea that D3 sports did not recruit for all slots. I knew they did not give scholarships to all but assumed they still recruited for all. I also did not know that one could potentially walk on later than freshman year. Very interesting. I have known some boys that have tried to be walk ons but at D1 schools. None have been successful. </p>
<p>D3 schools are not allowed to give any sports scholarships- only academic. Many of them do not recruit all of therr players and often do include some who get into the school academically and then try-out after they are accepted. Since they do not offer sports scholarships, it is a little harder to recruit players in the same fashion that a D1 or D2 school might. They can sometimes offer an edge on getting accepted but that is dependent on the school. It is tough anymore to be a walk-on at a D1 or D2 school. Many D1’s for men’s soccer will have finished their roster for the 2016 schedule within the next couple of months- women’s teams have mostly already finished. It would take a pretty exceptional player to walk-on after they have been accepted to a D1 school. </p>
<p>It was good to be back with all the soccer crew this weekend. It makes some things clearer. Several boys have been chasing the D1 dream playing in club tournaments and some are growing weary of it. They are traveling a fair amount, playing in all kinds of weather, and missing out on some things at home while they are away. It sounds like some are planning to cut back to meet the academic demands of junior year. It does sound like club is becoming more and more demanding of time and money. One trip will require air travel. Several will require driving 8 hours. I think my son much prefers playing his 3 sports. I must admit my thought was “isn’t it better to put that money in his college fund”?</p>
<p>Thanks to all for your comments. I have learned much. </p>
<p>Sounds like you have your priorities straight! Best of luck with whatever he decides to do!</p>
<p>I apologize in advance for the "rah rah " of this post but my name should have tipped you off somewhat. No matter what my DS decides he now has the story to tell his grand kids. His team played their local private school rival last night (his school is public). Many of last year’s seniors and their parents came to the game. That is how big this game is to the team. Anyway, in his first game as the #1 GK, he had 7 saves, several punch outs, and he had to defend a PK from a senior that was 2nd team all state last year and is a D1 recruited athlete. It was a beautiful shot, low and just inside the post–one of those slow motion moments as a GK parent. The full extension save sent the ball outside the post, the crowd went wild and his teammates used his name as the closing huddle cheer. At least he knows he can compete at that level. His years at GK may even become the basis of a decent ap essay. 
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<p>“We get warned each year that the (soccer) players cannot even go to a tryout while their HS team is still in post-season play.”</p>
<p>That’s really weird. I live near NYC, and all the top teams, whether Academy or not, recruit in April or May for starting in the fall. In most cases, they will have one practice per week starting at the end of regular HS season (fall, so end of October), with anyone in post-season HS play excused from practices. Some even send HS teams to Columbus Day tournaments, but almost all go to Thanksgiving tournaments. My son does not play on an Academy team, but he plays 11 months of the year at varying intensities. He was up at 6 am this morning for pre-season practice and his club team had a scrimmage that he missed due to vacation two weeks ago.</p>
<p>I would say if anyone loves football and soccer equally, and wants to play in college, go for football. MANY more spots available. And frankly, if people are saying he “can play D3” there is no huge barrier to looking at D2 and even some D1 schools for football, where he’d at least get some money.</p>
<p>If he loves one sport more (like you just mentioned how good a GK he is, and GK is heavily recruited but only perhaps 1 per year at most per school unless kids are leaving), he should go for that.</p>
<p>But the whole thing about time commitment for soccer is very true - the US does not have the infrastructure that other countries have. If we did, there would be residential academies for each MLS team, and probably one for each non-MLS academy. In that case, they dovetail HS classes and soccer and it works out great. However, note that there are more and more travel football teams too - my son’s friend was a GK on a previous soccer team, and he left it to play travel football (as a kicker). Cost his parents $10,000 per year for traveling around except during HS football season. Pretty much guarantee D1 recruiting (there are a lot of D1 football programs of varying quality though).</p>
<p>PS - save the newspaper clippings and the link to the story - even if he is recruited for another sport, showing a high amount of athleticism and performance under pressure is important.</p>
<p>Sounds like your son could do well if he chose soccer Cheeringsection-how exciting for him! I think it is a tough choice for kids who are all-around athletes to decide if they want to to continue in multiple sports or specialize in one. Good luck with him deciding which direction to head, although at least he has plenty of options!</p>
<p>rhandco- the rules vary by state. In Calif., Academy players may not participate in HS soccer at all, so a lot of kids like my son stayed away from Academy all together because they wanted to play for their high schools. Our HS players may not participate in Club soccer in any way while HS is still going, including try-outs, practices, etc. Since our regular club season is in the fall (Sept.-Nov) they are usually done before HS starts. Then HS is usually over in Feb/March at which time the players can go back to the Club tournament season. My son also played Club year round, but completely stayed away from club during the HS season. Our Club Coach used to flip out when any of his player’s high school teams went on to play-offs because that meant he didn’t have those players to practice for the up-coming tournaments. He always said it took him a month to undo the damage that high school soccer did to his players!</p>
<p>I’m not a HS soccer parent but my D has both male & femaile friends on both soccer teams. The boys play Academy soccer and in season for school - one of them actually plays on the one of the USA National teams( he does miss school for national team training) - oh by the way they both are off to ACC schools next year on scholarship.</p>
<p>The girl plays 3 sports for school and was the leading scorer (50 goals) last year in our state.</p>
<p>There are <em>many</em> boys violating the Academy rules near where I live - playing for a private high school and Academy team at the same time. A few even play for public high schools and then join Academy teams, which is against the rules. My son scrimmaged against one of the top private schools in the country, and the kid put on his Academy team jersey and left immediately to play a game for them (also a top Academy, sometimes wins the nationals).</p>
<p>Near NYC, the HS season is fall. The HS team is terrible, so my son will choose the club team over the HS team if he has a choice. The level of training is much higher even for a mid-high level club team compared to 95% of HS soccer teams (that’s even excluding the Academies in our area).</p>
<p>The private high school thing is pathetic - it is for kids who “otherwise would not be attending the private high school if they did not have a soccer scholarship”. One particular Academy program is full of kids from the private high school they practice at. The kids get a $1 to $100 scholarship per year, on a $50,000+ per year tuition, so that they can get the Academy waiver.</p>
<p>It’s good to hear if California is keeping it in line more.</p>
<p>My son does track indoors and spring, while club soccer is on, and works around track when he needs to. He’s won a few track medals but not consistently. Frankly, if his club team has injuries, they will let him miss practices and still play in games, usually on Sundays which don’t conflict with school sports.</p>
<p>^^ Are you suggesting that the private schools are granting token scholarships just so the players can get waivers? I am surprised that people are sharing so much private information with you. In our area the relationship between private schools and DAP teams is not harmonious. It is up to the individual team as to how they handle waivers. Our local MLS team issues many, but our non-MLS club has done away with them. And there is no issue with a player playing public HS and then playing DAP the same year as long as they have not played for the DAP team previously. </p>
<p>Since high school soccer is a winter sport here in CA, it overlaps with the Academy season. The high school sports governing body, CIF, rules players who are playing Academy as ineligible for high school sports and if such a player were caught playing both, the high school team would forfeit all games that player played in. I’m not saying it never happens but it would be very risky for the HS team. As for being able to play Club soccer as well as other high school sports, my son found it was just too much. His Club team practiced 4 days a week for 2 hours. He ran X-country and track for 2 years and then gave it up for soccer. He couldn’t run x-country for 10 miles and then do a 2 hour practice. </p>
<p>My son attended a large, public high school in So. Calif. and they did not compete against privates so I am not familiar with those politics fortunately.</p>
<p>Not sure what the issue is about soccer at High School. Do it if it is fun, but has little to do with recruitability. In most areas of the country, the best High School soccer is lower level than the club (“select” travel teams) soccer, and few if any colleges recruit outside of the club teams. Playing a High School sport can give a boost due to the extra fitness work that they are getting, and it is a great EC for admission to college (especially if captain or All-District selection) but for athletic recruiting it is all about your club team, video, combines or college showcases where the college coaches are seeing you play (at least for soccer). Baseball is probably totally different.</p>
<p>A quick warning about level of play though - even at MIT (DIII) we saw more than one “Academy” level player (the top level of US select soccer) trying to get recruited there (hard to tell if their grades and test scores were good enough but presumably so), so don’t assume that these are all lower level players just because it is DIII.</p>
<p>Most club coaches we saw are very understanding about 2 sport athletes - as long as it does not interfere with practices and games (which usually is not an issue for soccer) but there is a realistic worry I have heard from club coaches that the chance of injuries can go way up when playing HS soccer (perhaps with lower level referees than the top level of club soccer play typically gets?). </p>
<p>I would expect that it is slightly easier for a GK to do multiple sports.</p>
<p>My son is playing Dll and we have found the same thing- there are are players who could probably play D1 playing at lower levels-even on college club teams. Not everyone wants to make sports a priority and there are opportunities to play at all levels. </p>
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<p>I was a GK in high school and I definitely used that as the basis of my essay!</p>
<p>RiceP,</p>
<p>I agree with you about the comment that GKs can more easily play more than one sport. I think soccer field players do benefit from the hours of playing club year round. GK training, instinct and ability is perhaps more important for a GK than year round club play. One the other hand, being a GK in college can be very challenging, as even the very skilled GKs can (and do) spend an eternity on the bench waiting for a chance.</p>
<p>It used to be that sports was an outlet for the kids to get away from the stress of high school – a way to encourage leadership skills and life long fitness. Now it seems that we are using sports as yet another source of stress. Whatever your son wants to do is what he should do. Is a given sport causing stress because skills aren’t improving as they should, then drop one. If your son really loves three sports, he should continue with three. Three sport varsity athletes are a rarity these days. Adcoms likely would be impressed with a solid gpa and that type of time of time commitment.</p>
<p>One more thing. I think the ec myth should be debunked. Adcoms aren’t looking for breadth of ecs as much as they are looking for depth. If you have a baseball kid that plays baseball 24/7 and that is reflected in the application, that is fine - especially if the kid is going to play baseball in college. Kids who do Model UN, the spelling bee, Japanese Club, special olympics and volunteer at their church supper may be downplayed because it is likely that each is a 4 hour a year activity. By contrast, a varsity athlete will spend at least 10-15 hours a week just on the varsity team, and many of them spend even more time by adding a club or summer team. I suggest avoiding the ec stress.</p>
<p>This weekend my DD played at a college play day. There were three D-1 teams, four D2 teams, and one club team. The club team is from a HUGE school, and they were clearly the weakest team which showed me that the hours and hours my daughter spends in the weight room and conditioning really matter. One of the D-1 teams is a higher level, the other two were at the same level as the D-2 teams. The biggest difference? The size of the teams. The D-1 teams and a couple of the D2 teams had 35-40 players. Many of those kids will never see playing time except at these little play days.</p>
<p>I’m sure the club team has a good time playing other club teams. My niece, who could have played D1, loved the level of competition of the club team and the balance with school.</p>
<p>This play day was very good in that there were 8 schools from the area, and many were the schools that my daughter had considered and interviewed. Also there was a high school level competition so that those girls could see all the schools, what they looked like, how they played. If you child is considering a group of schools in your area, see if there is a tournament like this in your area because it is good opportunity to see them, see how the coaches operate, even talk to the team. We have another play day which is just the 5 schools in our conference in a few weeks, but of course anyone could wander by and watch.</p>