My D tried to call a coach yesterday and he didn’t pick up. She left a message. My question is when does she call him back? Does she try him again today or wait a couple days? I don’t want her to look like a pest trying to call him.
Thanks
What year in school and college division level are we talking about?
D is only a 8th grader right now.(crazy right?) We are trying to get a jump on this. This is her 1st attempt to call a coach so she is very scared. She a soccer player so we see girls soccer recruiting starts early. Really just want to start creating relationships with coaches of schools she wants to target right now. She has been sending them emails since this summer. Before her Spring season starts up hoping to contact a few coaches by phone.
She is targeting D1 schools.
8th Grade is far, far too early to be contacting coaches. I’d be very surprised if your daughter got anything but a courtesy response.
Coach isn’t even allowed to return that call by NCAA contact rules. She can call them, of course - maybe email and ask what’s a good time to reach him. I know the girls soccer world runs on a ridiculously early timetable, but that does seem awfully young.
We know coaches can not call her back but what we see trending in girls soccer is early recruitment. She basically just wants to start a relationship with coaches so they know who she is. So she is just not another email they get. They put a voice to the name at least.
The other funny thing we hear and I have seen on this board is that is never to early to start this whole process.
I would say its never too early to start the process, but maybe the process needs to be redefined a little. Regardless of the timeline I can’t imagine any sport where 8th graders should be calling college coaches. Would seem to me attending college camps and competitive events this summer, showing coaches that your level of play is above that of others attending, etc. is how the process should start for an 8th grader. Then coaches will make contact through club coaches, HS coaches, etc.
@lubbub I understand what you are saying but what if the player can’t attend the camps of the colleges they want to go to. What if the coach is not at the events she is going to attend. You can always email to coach and let him know the event you will be at but how many emails does he get like that? College coaches and Asst’s cant be at every event and see every girl. Although, if you call a coach and have some kind of relationship with the staff that might give you an edge over another player with the same ability, correct?
There are already girls giving verbal commitments that graduate 2018. I understand things could change for those girls but don’t you think those girls have had phone contact with the coaching staff at the schools.
Don’t get me wrong here, I have always thought this whole process was starting too early but do I hold back my D or try the best I can to guide her to make correct decisions in this process?
Unfortunately 8th grade isn’t too early for a soccer girl to be starting the process but there isn’t need for her to be reaching out unsolicited quite yet.
Typically, the earliest recruits are one of two things. 1) local kids playing for a club coach who is also a college assistant. 2) National camp invitees, Regional Team players and id2 players are seen at a national event.
For those in group 2 the college coaches will reach out to the player’s club coach and ask them to tell the player to call.
A similar process happens with the next phase of early commits. Players are seen at showcases and college camps. College coaches then express their interest through the club coaches.
At this point what D should be doing is putting together a soccer resume with contact info (for herself and club coach) graduation year, photo plus team and individual accolades and upcoming showcase schedule.
Email that along with a note about why she is interested in the school and the program. Send it to the head coach, and assistants especially anybody responsible for recruiting. Make sure to include her showcase/tournament schedule.
A few weeks before big tournaments send another note with her schedule.
She has the soccer resume and has been emailing coaches with her schedules for big tourneys( WAGS, Jeff Cup, Etc) Also, if her ECNL team is playing in that area for the weekend.
She has done National and Regional stuff also.
So I tell her to wait for now, just keep emailing the coaches she wants to?
Dreadpirit (love your name BTW) is right- unfortunately female soccer players do get recruited very early. It’s really too bad as I doubt many 8th graders have any idea of what they are looking for in a college at that point. Up until 10th grade, my son’s only goal was to attend a D1 school, without any regard for the academics of that school. By 11th grade, he realized he had worked really hard in high school to maintain good academics and that the school had to be a good fit academically. He made up his list based on the academic fit and then looked at the soccer teams. The school he ended up targeting as his #1 choice was a D2 and he was lucky enough to end up there playing soccer.
As an 8th grader, dreadpirit is right as to how she will be seen at this point. I’m not sure how much value there is in calling coaches at this point. I think she is better off sending informative emails, including her current game schedules, academic stats,etc. She should have a hi-lite video that she can send to coaches so they can see her level of play. One thing my son’s team did to prepare to call coaches was to do a role-playing event where local coaches, parents and older players came in and acted as college coaches during pretend phone calls It seemed to really help out some of the kids who were a bit hesitant about initiating coach calls. Good luck in this very stressful process!
I’m not familiar with soccer but my child’s sport also recruits early. When my child or we left a message we indicated a time we would call back. E.g., “I’ll try you again at 3:00 this afternoon and if I’m not able to reach you at that point I’ll call again tomorrow at 11 am.” In our case a coach always picked up. I wouldn’t be overly discouraged if a coach didn’t pick up, especially if u r on the early side for recruiting. But I wouldn’t keep doing that over and over again if u weren’t getting some sort of positive response/feedback.
Any sport where 8th graders are regularly committing to a school is ridiculously out of control and in need of governance. I’ve seen 8th grade girls and boys who you would have thought will be All Americans never even get onto the playing field in 11th and 12th grades.
My D is a D1 athlete who never even attempted her sport until 8th grade, and that was only for social reasons and to have some fun.
I’m glad I’m not a part of any sport on such a recruiting timeline. Most parents participating probably wouldn’t like me very much.
@GKparent2019 - you need to remember that there is a better than 50% chance that your kid won’t be playing soccer in 2 years. I know the dropout rate very well from 35 years of coaching this sport.
If she’s scared to be talking to a coach, she’s not ready to talk to a coach, nor should you be pushing her to do so.
She should be focussing on her academics and on her training. There is no way she is ready for a higher level of soccer, even if she is playing on a top ECNL team.
We are lucky we did not have a girl trying to get recruited for soccer. Recruiting for women’s college soccer starts MUCh earlier than for men. There are a lot more positions open for women in college soccer than for men as many schools use it as one of their primary sports to meet Title IX requirements. Colleges start recruiting early and often have their rosters full by the incoming athletes junior year. Men’s soccer teams do not start recruiting nearly as early. It is tough to plan so far ahead. We know many, many players who lost interest as they went thru high school and everything else had to take a back-seat to their sport. Of all of the kids my son went through high school with and played soccer with as he was coming up, he is the only one currently playing at a college level. Some of the kids who were top players when they were in 8th grade either never got any better, or lost their passion for the sport as they went into high school. The only exception is that the kids from the higher level club team he ended up on are mostly playing college now- none are from our immediate local area as they came from a wide area. I can’t imagine looking at colleges as an 8th grader. There are far too many unknowns. When my son was still serious enough about playing college at the end of 10th grade, he was still fairly scrawny and much smaller than he is now. He went to a few camps before junior year and was playing against a lot of transfer students who were 20-25 years old. It was ridiculous as it was like a kid playing against grown men with beards! Although girls often mature earlier than boys, there is no way they are mature enough (physically and mentally ) to know where they want to spend 4+ years in college when they are only in 8th or 9th grade. I know my son was burned out on looking at colleges by the time he graduated and he only started really looking at the beginning of his junior year. I also feel it is a mistake to only target D1 schools. I’m not saying she might not end up playing D1, but to limit your schools academically to only D1’s is saying that soccer is the main focus of your college search, rather than academics. It is a tough act to balance sports and school and the search is very stressful. 8th grade seems too early to start, even as early as women’s soccer is recruiting.
But the OP wants to do the early recruiting, whether we all think it is the right thing for the girl.
So a couple of the good suggestions are to say when you are going to call next or to leave a message for the college coach to call the club coach.
Thanks everyone for your input.
Believe me I know my D is too young to figure out where she wants to go to college.I understand that there is a good chance she doesn’t play in College. This is why I push her and all my kids to get great grades. As the NCAA said, most of us go pro in something other than sports. So I understand this all sounds crazy, it sounds crazy to me.
For now, she will keep emailing coaches. Maybe next year we will revisit calling a coach again.
Good luck. Hope I didn’t sound too harsh, it wasn’t my intention. Communicating through your club coach sounds like the right answer to me.
Focus on the grades! I have 2 in college playing D1 sports, and one in Med school who got a lot of academic money. Going through college is much easier on academic scholarships than being an athlete. And good grades make you much more valuable as a recruited athlete.
GKParent,
I think that is a good call. I agree with you that the vast majority of athletes who are at a level to play college sports need to be aggressive with recruiting by calling and emailing coaches. There are a few who don’t – and those exceptions are spotted at a tournament or recruiting camp, or there is just a loud buzz around them. I also suspect that those are the ones who are recruited early.
For the vast majority of athletes that do need to be aggressive in recruiting, it may pay for them to wait and to be a bit more mature for coach calls. I don’t think it is easy for a high schooler to make that telephone call, but I am guessing it would be very hard for an eighth grader. I know it would have been for my kids.
On the issue of early recruiting, as I understand it, nobody likes it. I suppose it is just a matter of time before the NCAA steps in. Yes, girls mature early, but they also peak early. Sometimes the uber fast 7th grade field player will slow down as maturity settles in. When you think about it, as much can happen in the 5 years between 8th and 12th grade as can happen in the 5 years between 3rd and 8th grades. Finally, remember that the earlies are only verbals, which is another way of saying that the athlete has committed to the school, not vice versa. So if something happens to the athlete, like injury, the coach will disappear pretty quickly.
GKparent- you should check out a lengthy post by KeeperDad from a couple of years ago. His D was recruited for D1 soccer, and he gives a great narrative of the process they went through. The comments are still applicable and you will get a lot of info by reading through his posts! He was very helpful about answering questions also if he is still around on these boards. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/1291234-college-recruiting-tips-for-soccer-p1.html