<p>While D is on a D1 team in college, she did very little by phone. Would someone mind sharing a “script” for an initial phone call to a coach?</p>
<p><<< From one SockherMom to another…THANKS for the great advice!!</p>
<p>takeitallin - definitely feel free to print it out and take it to your club’s meeting. I posted it so it would be shared!</p>
<p>Mom22039 - I don’t have a script per se, but if you’d like, I can PM you a link to a list of questions we prepared for my daughter to pick from when she was speaking with coaches.</p>
<p>Keeper: There is one big difference…in baseball, there can be a professional exit strategy for the most talented; not so in softball. Once the collegiate softball career is done, the athlete realistically needs to earn a living via her degree; unless she wants to coach.</p>
<p>Threesdad - yes, of course. I played baseball in college for one year, but no matter how much I dreamed, there was never any realistic chance of a professional exit! <grin></grin></p>
<p>Keeper: I played baseball for 2 years. Once I figured out I wasn’t going to be the starting CF for the Yankees (there was no prayer ever of having this happen), my playing days in college were done. The focus then was graduating on time, which, with the help of summer school occurred. A far better and worthwhile accomplishment.</p>
<p>@KeeperDad: Thank you so much for all the advice. I, too, wish my husband and I had this information just a wee bit sooner but it’s certainly going to help nonetheless. Your advice and suggestions are as thorough as we’re likely to find anywhere. You seem like you’ve been a great dad to guide your daughter the way you have…best of luck to her and your family as she enters college. Thanks again!!</p>
<p>CTMomm - thanks so much for the kind words. I’m glad you’re finding the information helpful - it can be a long journey, but well worth all the effort and emotion in the end. Good luck to you as well!</p>
<p>KeeperDad - Thank you for great great advice!! I would very much appreciate it if you could pm me the questions you guys prepared for your daughter. Thanks in advance!:)</p>
<p>Lewinho - thanks for the kind comments. My pleasure. I’ll shoot you a PM with a link to the questions in just a moment.</p>
<p>KeeperDad - Thanks again, very valuable information and covering questions!</p>
<p>Great information. We have just started the process…D is a sophomore and contacted some coaches via email before attending a showcase tournament last month. D is also attending a college combine this month. We have just started visiting colleges while on vacation or at tournaments trying to narrow down the type of school she is interested in. If possible could you share the list of questions for coaches. I am trying to get her more involved in the whole process but I know that speaking to coaches will be the hardest part for her. Many Thanks!</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing KeeperDad. Very useful list of questions that will be very helpful to my D.</p>
<p>Hello Keeper dad Can you please forword the link to the list of questions? Thank you very much for the valuable writeup on soccer recruiting… The main question I wrestle with every time is should the soccer player focus on academics first and soccer later? The place where this becomes a real dilemma is for example choosing the rigor of high school to attend… A more rigorous high school (or a private school) has the students competing very aggressively for grades and getting into the top 5% is a real work of dedication over the 4 year period. So focus on high level soccer for example playing at the academy level is going to be a challenge for the soccer player who also has high GPA in mind. Any thoughts on this? BTW you did mention a norcal site … can you please post a link to that as well? Thank you so much…</p>
<p>Indie: My D’15 is a freshman @ an academically challanging private school. One of her Biology classmates is a member of the U15 US National soccer team. The young man does need to miss school for national team training, but is diligent about keeping his grades up in line with his class peers.</p>
<p>Athletics and academics can co-exist. It does take some juggling and time managemnt, however.</p>
<p>Hi indie18. Thanks for the reply and questions. We’re not allowed to post links to non-authoritative sites, but I will send you a private message with the links to the questions and the NorCal forum.</p>
<p>Regarding your question about high-level academics and soccer at the same time, Threesdad’s answer is a good one. Our daughter is in a very intensive academics program at her school. Balancing the two can be challenging, but as Threesdad said, time management is a good skill to have (and they learn it because they are forced to learn it). When our daughter was recruited by an ECNL team before last season, one of the factors which informed our decision to not pursue that opportunity was the affect it would have on her academics - largely because of the travel time it would take to get to practices and also the tournament schedule.</p>
<p>So I think it’s good that you’re considering what affect high level soccer would have on your child’s academics. It’s a very important part of the recruiting process - as I said, our daughter’s academic success gave us a tremendous amount of flexibility in the process because she didn’t have to rely on the amount of an athletic award in making her decision.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>Awesome both of you… My angst is because his coaches are giving us hints that he could be an academy player one day. However nothing is guaranteed. But if that happens we would like to look at that commitment and trade that off against his potential academic commitments which are very high as well since he is in an IB school. So far the challenge has been as you rightly pointed out time management and once or twice I have had to step in to rearrange his weekend activities so that he can accomplish all his commitments. But it is getting better and he is getting better at it as well. It is only going to intensify as high school goes on hence the queston on switching to a less demanding high school where the GPA would be still be high but the effort required to achieve it (relatively speaking in comparision to his current peers) would be lesser. This would depend on his class mix etc but thats where we are…
I did receive the links as well thanks once again Keeperdad.</p>
<p>Great thread, with very useful information thnks!</p>
<p>I’m wondering what you recommend for a student in an international school in Europe who would like to play soccer in college in the US? He’s currently in 9th grade, will most likely get an IB diploma, and is playing for his (small) city’s elite club team. Finances are not really a problem. It will obviously be much harder for him to be seen by coaches though he is open to doing a summer camp in the US in 2013.</p>
<p>It sounds like he should be working on videos and putting together his profile, but do you think it makes sense for him to contact college coaches directly once he has those? Or would it be more effective to work through an international recruiting service? And how would he know which is a reputable service to use?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance, and KeeperDad, I’d love a copy of those questions for coaches.</p>
<p>Indie: FWIW, our family did the exact opposite of what you’re contimplating. We moved the DD’15 to an academically superior private school.</p>
<p>DD plays field hockey and softball for school. Outside of school athletics D’15 plays club softball; 10 months a year. Softball at this current level is not academy level soccer, but beginning in fall '12 it will be for DD as the college softball showcase circuit will begin for all HS softball players from sophmores on. This requires significant travel, hotel stays, etc, if your student-athlete wants to play at the next level from DI- DIII.</p>
<p>There is no exit strategy for softball, as there are for football, basketball, hockey & baseball. Unless you are one of a handful of players, a softball career is completed after the last out recorded in your final year of collegiate ball. The athlete is then off to earn a living like the rest of us, perhaps playing an occasional beer league game or volunteering to coach in the local recreation or little league.</p>
<p>For DD’15 to compete academically with her peer group, she needed to strenghten her time management, reading & writing skills. Her school stresses and offers additional help to teach their students how to manage time, how to properly take notes and how to prerpare and study for exams. Quite an adjustment for a 9th grader coming from public school but when implemented over an entire academic year, the difference from beginning to end of school term are very evident. </p>
<p>DD is not the classic CC 4.0+ student, she is 3.4-3.5, with 1 honors class this term and 2 next year. The idea is for her to be prepared to hit fully prepared academically for college in 3 years, whereever she lands.</p>
<p>DD’s classmate who is mentioned above and who plays soccer is a good example. The young man attends DD’s school which is very strong academically. He also has the freedom to be excused from school for national team training, provided he receives and submits his assignments, makes up tests missed, etc. The young man misses enough days due to training he may not be eligible to graduate from year to year in public school as public schools here have a minimum day attendence requirement. If you don’t meet minimum attendence you don’t graduate the year, or are required to attend summer school, regardless of grades earned or reason for missing school. Works best for all.</p>