Kiddo loves soccer and football (kicker). In HS in our state he can do both because Soccer is a spring sport. In college that is not the case so he will have to pick. He’s a sophomore. At this point from our family perspective it is a case of do your best in both and see what options provide you the best fit for athletics, and more imporatant academic, your major, overall fit, and finances. How much it will end up costing will play a huge role. He is a great student and we know not to count on athletic scholarships. He (at least at this point) has what looks to be enough talent to pursue either sport at some level (we aren’t ivy bound people). Will it hurt him if he isn’t focused on one or the other direction when reaching out to coaches, etc? Will they think he isn’t serious enough? Or will the fact that he is a multisport athlete show well for him?
It’s not inusual for a soccer player to be the hs kicker so I don’t think it will hurt him at all.
@vhsdad - good point. I didn’t think of it from that perspective. Thanks!
Agreed, as a soccer parent, we know several soccer players – mostly GKs – who were also high school football kickers, and some of them decided to play college football as kicker since there was more money on the table that way.
@Midwestmomofboys - yes, he’s a 6’3" centerback/backup keeper with a big leg. He really likes both sports. At this point we’ve just encouraged him to continue and he can see what options are available and what is the best fit for him. As a sophomore, getting varsity time in football and soccer season around the corner along with showcase tournaments coming up it is time to begin a little reaching out - although it seems for boys junior year is the bigger time??. I just wondered if that would make coaches hesitate and think he wasn’t serious if he was reaching out about both sports.I’m thinking maybe create 2 emails/profiles and just let him purse the 2 sports seperately?
I only know D3 soccer process, through my kid, so I’m limited help! I would think that approaching separately, as the two sports could well have separate timelines/processes, makes sense. Film, questionnaires, getting a sense of finances, can all help you be ready when the time comes. Men’s soccer seems to have more of a junior year recruiting schedule, though for D1, you want to be on the radar already, through emails letting coaches know which major tournaments are playing. I wouldn’t worry about coaches thinking a two sport athlete is not serious, when the soccer player/kicker seems to be a pretty common overlap. If it were soccer/baseball, you’d wonder which they were really serious about, but not with soccer/kicker. Good luck!
You may want to think about ID camps for next summer. I’d definitely explore both, recognizing that a choice will be required.
I know a couple kids who play both D1 football and baseball, D1 basketball and volleyball, and D3 soccer and lax, so I don’t think there would be a question of commitment.
Thanks everyone!
I would guess that particular combination is pretty common, at our high school last year’s kicker got a scholarship to play soccer in college. As you are probably aware, soccer is an equivalency sport and football is a headcount sport. So for football he will either get 100% or nothing for a schoarship. The one issue you might have is that soccer coaches may think that if he gets a football offer that will win out, because it has to be 100%. I’m not familiar with men’s soccer, but I would guess unless you are a superstar there aren’t many 100% scholarships being handed out. If you are trying to minimize cost of college, that’s probably a factor.
However, I don’t know how many kickers are actually on scholarship. I think on quite a few teams the coach figures he can get some high school soccer player to fill that role. I thought I heard at one time several years ago that not that many schools even in the power 5 conferences offer a scholarship to the kicker. But I could be wrong. @Ohiodad51 might have some insight as to how difficult it is for a kicker to get a scholarship, he’s the resident football expert.
^ A lot of schools try and use a PWO as a kicker/punter/long snapper so they can save the scholarship, although I believe many of the top of the food chain schools are scholarshiping those slots now. Ohio State made news a couple years ago by giving a scholly to a long snapper, apparently the first time Urban Meyer had done so. So I think what you see is that a relative handful of schools are willing to burn the scholly, but the competition for those slots is severe, especially when you consider that most schools will only roster a kicker every three to four years. I have a good friend whose son is running into this issue right now. Kid is an exceptional kicker (ranked in the top 20 by Kohls), but the really big schools that will offer a scholarship are few and far between, and while he has a lot of options at schools one rung down, those schools are not providing schollys.
As far as kicking for the football team and playing soccer, I doubt it hurts your guy at all. Virtually every high school kicker I know is a soccer guy,
From an economic POV, if you are looking at D1 schools football is a headcount sport and soccer is an equivalency so the financial aid is almost certainly much higher for football. ETA: I just read @Ohiodad51 's comment above, so maybe not. If that is so, then see below.
If economics don’t factor into your decision, then I would go dual-track for as long as you have the time for it. I know athletes who have done it for a period (lacrosse and field hockey), but once things started getting serious in one sport, it became impossible in terms of time and money to give the other one the same attention so it dropped away.
@Ohiodad51 - yes, there are certainly a ton of factors that will have to play in over the next 2 years. As he begins to explore what he might want to major in more that will also impact choices. We are also encouraging him down the do well on the ACT and keep your grades up path too. We know most soccer scholarships are partial and it sounds like kicking could be a POW position. Baring him lucking into a big name kicking option he will most likely need the merit scholarships too. Thanks for the input!
OP didn’t say that her son was D1 material, or only D1 material. He might find the best fit in D2 soccer or football, and football is not a headcount sport then.
There are many 2 and 3 sport high school athletes. A few become two sport college players, but they are really top athletes (John Elway, Bo Jackson, Dion Sanders, about half the UMaimi football team who were on track scholarships during the penalty years). My daughter had a teammate who was a soccer goalie and played on the lax team, and another who gave up soccer to play lax (she’d been a recruited soccer player and had never played lax before).
There is one girl on laxpower looking at hockey and lax. She can be recruited for hockey now, visit schools, talk to coaches, but can’t do the same for lax until she’s a junior in high school because of the new recruiting rules.
@twoinanddone - correct, He is probably a D2 level soccer player and I’m not sure on the kicking. He’s talented, but he’s a sophomore and we don’t have the money to go to al lthe high level ranking camps so most likely that would be a smaller school too. We are fine with that. It’s about the right fit. He will do well wherever he goes. I just didn’t know if pursuing both sports would cause coaches to not look at him as much. It sounds like he should just treat them as seperate things and see what is available and the best fit.
^^This. I think that when you start talking to coaches , the pieces will fall into place.
@3kidsMultipleSports, not certain the academic focus, but D2 doesn’t necessarily mean stronger athletics as compared to the top D3 programs - that’s true in both timed and position sports.
And D1 doesn’t mean the athletes are better than D2 or D3. My daughter’s D2 team played a D1 (very low rank) last weekend and beat them. Next weekend she’s in a play day with five D1 teams and five D2 teams. There will be wins and losses by all the teams and the level of play will be close (that’s why they are invited).
The difference I see in D1 teams is they are bigger girls. You don’t see many 5’1" girls in D1.