Advice for a parent of a future athletic recruit

<p>For soccer, I second the suggestion for ODP or Development Academy team (if there is one is your area). You really need to get on a good traveling team. If you can’t find a Development Academy team, find out which clubs have teams that go to the big showcase tournaments such as Jefferson Cup, Disney, Dallas Cup, Surf Cup etc., especially during the sophomore and junior year.</p>

<p>Here’s a list of recent 2009 recruits and the clubs they are from. It should give you an idea of which clubs recruits tend to come from in certain areas of the country:</p>

<p>[ESPN</a> Boys’ soccer commitment list -ESPN Rise SOCCER](<a href=“Kansas still No. 1 ahead of Duke showdown; Tennessee rises to 7 - ESPN”>Boys' soccer commitment list - ESPN)</p>

<p>Firstly, most parents think at some point that their children are on their way to becoming Parade All-Americans. What, one in a million actually do? If he’s as good as you claim him to be (and, maybe he is), he’ll be getting bios soon enough to fill out and send in.</p>

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In some cases. Though as someone who works in recruiting at my current major D-1 university, I can tell you that it’s not uncommon to be tracking 8th graders.</p>

<p>That’s unfortunately all I can comment on due to my current position and NCAA codes of conduct. Good luck though…just make sure your son is all-in if he wants to pursue that track. Once you get an athletic scholarship, the school literally owns you.</p>

<p>I have soccer/lacrosse/both players in my house. Soccer you’ll need to play on the highest level team your club has. It’s easy for college coaches to watch the kids play at the showcase tournaments, which typically start at the U16 age level. (Also, I’ve heard from kids coming out the other side that ODP is pretty much a money-making outfit with little/no real benefit, unless you make the state pool. The Academy teams are <em>tremendous</em> opportunities to get noticed.) For lax, there are tons of summer recruiting camps, many of which require a coach’s recommendation.</p>

<p>Two more comments–the uber-wise CC posters will tell you any kid should pick the school he wants to go to, not the team/coach he wants to play for. It is, after all, about getting a college education. Coaches leave, kids get injured; in fact, best advice I’ve heard is that when it comes down to the final selection, make the choice assuming you’ll get injured your first athletic practice and are left just with the college part. Also, even at D-I schools, soccer and lacrosse are not revenue sports. Ergo, full rides are almost non-existent.</p>

<p>A little more info about scholarships in the NCAA - I know this confused me in the early part of recruiting and still confuses many parents. </p>

<p>Football and basketball are sometimes referred to as “head count sports” - meaning that the scholarships are full scholarships - if a player gets one, he/she gets essentially 100% of the cost of attending the school. </p>

<p>All of the other sports, including soccer and lacrosse, are known as “equivalency sports”. Basically the NCAA allows for a certain number of scholarships per team and those are split between the team members in unequal portions. </p>

<p>In the case of soccer, the NCAA has set the D1 limit at 9.9 scholarships for men and 12 for women. With D2 it is 9 for men and 9.9 for women. </p>

<p>As an example, a D2 Mens coach might provide 18 players on his team with 50% scholarships (18*.5=9). In practice, he would offer everything from a 75% ride to a 25% ride adding up to the 9 scholarships.</p>

<p>In equivalency sports, “full ride” or 100% athletic scholarships are extremely unusual. More often, the athletic scholarship is blended with academic (merit) and financial aid to make up the scholarship package.</p>

<p>To further complicate matters, not all schools fund all of the scholarships that they are allowed to fund - so a D1 mens soccer coach might only have 5 scholarships to work with even though the rules allow for 9.9. </p>

<p>There are all kinds of additional complications, but hopefully this helps in understanding a little more about equivalency scholarships - and why the notion of a “full ride” is extremely unlikely.</p>

<p>My son was recruited for track… here are some thoughts based on our experience:</p>

<p>while on official visit to Penn, they had an information session for their Wharton undergraduate business program, one of the most difficult acceptances in the country. I asked what factor most prevented kids from success with their sport and their schoolwork and the surprising answer was not workloads…rather the thing that most limits athletes was INJURY… the athletes we talked to agreed with that view, no one had anything bad to say about their workloads. </p>

<p>I completely echo Ingerp’s comments… I have a niece who had a tough experience with the coach and ended up transfering, ultimately it all worked out fine, but it was not fun to go thru a season on a team as an unwanted with little to no playing time…I have a co-worker whose son’s coach left before the start of the freshman year… that kid ended up transferring to 3 schools before landing successfully… </p>

<p>there is a series of articles about atletics and college recruting (written about track) but actually relevant to many sports… on a Colorado Milesplit Website that you might want to read. There are 5 articles overall… not the end all on the subject but definitely helpful to gain insight… I would use the google to find the articles…LOL…</p>

<p>the explanation by Scualum about how scholarships work is right on the money… and one of the tips the Colorado coaches mention is to watch the rosters to see how many kids survive for all four years. As your child is young still, you can watch the rosters at some of the schools you think might be within his grasp… </p>

<p>personally, our experience with recruiting was 100% satisfying with each and every coach honest and forthright with our child and with us. CC did provide us with knowledge from other experienced parents and it helped us make it thru the anxious time until the likely letter and acceptance letter were in hand.</p>

<p>If he’s not good enough to make the varsity team as a freshman I’m not exactly sure I would be pursuing the college recruitment process as hard as I would be pursuing academics…</p>

<p>I dont think you should ever pursue athletics over academics. The latter should always come first and I honestly don’t think you’ll ever get another answer, especially on this website.</p>

<p>I think making varsity as a freshman is dependent upon where you live in the country and the school you attend. It would be really unusual to make boys varsity at Delbarton, Boys Latin and a couple dozen others as a freshman – after all you don’t get much better if you never get playing time. Second: Recruiting camps are good, and yes you need coaches recommendations, but those usually are for rising jrs and seniors… more of a confirming talent search vs seeking it.</p>

<p>But I agree hugely that you pick the school and not letting the school pick you… unless it’s an Ivy or equiv that comes knocking. :-)</p>

<p>I don’t think making varsity as a freshman is an indicator of ability - actually in my mind it would generally be an indication of a weak program.</p>

<p>Athletic recruiting isn’t really my thing, but I’ve seen a fair amount of it with friends’ families over the years. I haven’t seen anyone really recruited who wasn’t pretty much a star in 8th grade, but I have seen a lot of 8th-grade stars not make the cut for recruitment in 11th or 12th grade, even if they were still very strong competitors locally.</p>

<p>scualum, I agree. That’s the case with ds’s team, where he started as a freshman on vsrsity. It was a very weak team with no depth. Thankfully, it’s getting better!</p>

<p>Got a question. My daughter is a diver, late starter and gymnastics transplant. She had a top ten finish at states which garnered some interest from a Div I school coach who contacted us and set up an official visit. This school isn’t her first choice, though. She’s emailed the first choice school’s diving coach and hopes to be invited to visit soon. We know we’re behind the eight-ball, high school coach is new and of no help. Question is - she’s willing to compete as a walk-on to try for a spot. We’ve been told it’s better to try to get a spot from a coach sooner than that so she’ll have athlete’s preferences in classes and dorms. Any advice on how to proceed with the coach of the school she wants to attend?</p>

<p>I would just like to add one more thing about high level traveling teams with ODP and Development Academy teams.</p>

<p>Both are very, very expensive. Unless you get on one of the Development Academy teams that are sponsored, or get a scholarship from USSF, these teams cost several thousands of dollars a year.</p>

<p>As most people know (and it gets repeated on many youth sports forums around the country), the money you invest in these sorts of soccer traveling teams very rarely comes back in the form of a significant college athletic scholarship.</p>

<p>^ this is definitely true. My brother is most likely going to play Academy next year but the club is sponsored so it’s not too horrible $ wise (but my dad will still spend plenty of gas money getting him to/from practice/the airport because it’s not super close to where we live).</p>

<p>The trips with ODP aren’t cheap either if you get selected to the regional camp/overseas trips.</p>

<p>another twist on the post from JHS, it can be a real challenge as a parent to get a superstar from 6th or 7th or 8th grade to college and keep the passion for the sport alive… for so many kids it becomes work or a job and they lose the fun aspect of it all and consequently it is easy for them to get distracted… so, if your child excells and revells in their sport consistently for many years, then celebrate that…but do not be too disappointed if their stars fades in hs… one of our best athletes at our hs did not do any winter sport this season… and refused to pursue recruitment for any sport for college… I think he is burnt out… and it is sad to see him limit himself this way… but he is okay with it and it is his choice… he will excell at individual pursuits instead of team sports… I am confident he could have had many wonderful choices but he did not want to pursue a single one… so try and pace your youngster is my advice… and it is a very, very fine line between pace and burnout… in my opinion…</p>

<p>“I haven’t seen anyone really recruited who wasn’t pretty much a star in 8th grade.”</p>

<p>S was cut from his 8th grade team, is playing high level DIII as a recruited athlete, and had DII offers. Bottom line is that there is constant reshuffling until the middle of high school.</p>

<p>I’m glad to hear that, EMM1. Rocky is a more satisfying story than Them That Has, Gets. And I agree that there is reshuffling in high school, but my unscientific observation has been reshuffling among a group of kids who were already standouts, or maybe a kid who is really gifted athletically switches sports. (It may depend on the sport, too, what the shape of the development curve looks like.) </p>

<p>For example, I have a cousin who is All-American in her sport. She didn’t start playing other than for fun until 8th grade, but she was very athletic, and her older sister was a club star and recruiting target in the same sport. By the end of her first season, she was getting private sessions with the coach of a nearby DI college (the college whose team she now captains). She wasn’t dominant at 14. She didn’t have all the skills yet by a long shot, but the potential was pretty obvious.</p>

<p>I have also seen the maineparent scenario several times – burnout among stars.</p>

<p>No disagreement about the maineparent scenario. One particularly striking case is that of Della Donne–a basketball player at a local prep school who was touted not only as the best player in the country that year, but the female equivalent of Michael Jordan. Recruited at UConn, left after one week and is now playing volleyball at Delaware, I believe.</p>

<p>“Bottom line is that there is constant reshuffling until the middle of high school.”</p>

<p>Absolutely. So much (for boys in particular) depends on growth. We learned that lesson the hard way with our oldest, who was a baseball player. That 7th or 8th grade star who tops out at 5’9" in high school is going to have a harder time than the late bloomer who is suddenly 6’4’’ as a junior.</p>

<p>It is extremely important that your child’s coach knows that s/he wants to play the sport in college and is interested in being recruited. Unless your child speaks up and actually tells this to the coach, the coach may not know; he’s not a mind reader. My S plays lacrosse and has been on the varsity team since freshman year. The HS team is quite a weak program, and we view it as an extracurricular/fun activity. His “real” team is his club lax team (summer, fall, winter), with a “real” coach and other “real” players. We (S and parents) told the coach that he would love to be recruited for a D3 mid-tier team. The coach asked all about his grades, his other ECs, etc. and we have private review sessions once or twice a year to go through his strengths and weaknesses. Coach is aware of the recruiting process (has a son in college playing lax himself) and knows how to help my son achieve his goal. </p>

<p>So, unless you actually, literally tell the coach that this is what you want, don’t assume he just knows.</p>