<p>A little background 1st, my daughter is a soccer GK for a top club in PA. They play in the ECNL and play at all the top tournaments. She is only going into 8th grade this year. Her grades are very good, not top of her class but I would guess top 5 to 10 %. She has told my wife and me that she wants to play college soccer. Not only does she want to play college soccer but wants to play for UNC. UNC is one of the top programs. </p>
<p>I read a NY Times article about how college recruiting has started earlier then ever. Coaches are trying to get players to verbally commit early. The article actually quoted the UNC head girls soccer coach that he was at a recent ECNL soccer event scouting U13, U14, and U15 girls.That is 8th, 9th and 10th graders. Crazy in my eyes. </p>
<p>I have read that players can email college coaches and let them know they are interested in coming to their college. Are college coaches able to respond to those emails? Should I let my 8th grade daughter email the UNC coach to let him know that she is interested in coming to his school? Part of me thinks it is too early but if coaches are looking at players her age then would it be such a bad idea to let her? </p>
<p>I am a little torn her. I don't want her too miss an opportunity but I still think she is too young to think about college.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about soccer but have read the same early recruiting stories. I would say that it would not hurt for her to “get on their radar” by emailing. Yes, they can respond to her via email but they can not call her. </p>
<p>At that age, the coach cannot really reply specifically. They can email her general updates about their program, the school etc. go to NCAA.com and look up contact rules. The dates are sport specific.</p>
<p>Once an athlete enters 9th grade they become a prospect, and limited contact (mentioned above) may commence. After Jr. Year, coaches can reach out and call athletes, etc. Student can call coach at anytime, and coach may speak to them. Coach cannot return a missed call prior to the end of Jr. Year.</p>
<p>It’s a great problem to have. We watched friends kids struggle to get noticed. Not fun. Just remember, D1 sports recruiting is a business. Treat it as such, and <em>try</em> to leave emotion out of it. Your best bet is to use your skills to get you into the best academic institution possible (of course fit is a huge part of this) and remember that you are only 1 injury away from not being able to play. Gotta be happy with/without your sport .</p>
<p>One of the lacrosse blogs recently posted the names/schools for the class of 2016 (sophomores) who have already agreed to play at certain schools, and they range from the biggest names (Maryland, Syracuse) to the Ivies (Brown, Yale, Harvard) to the academies (Navy). The postings were in alphabetical order so it’s clear the names were ‘held’ until after the high school season and then posted, and that many had probably ‘committed’ earlier in the year or perhaps even as freshman. There is no binding commitment, and in fact I know someone on the list who may not even have the grades to play in high school, never mind get into the college she’s selected.</p>
<p>I wish I had known more about recruiting when my daughter was just starting college. She would have gone to more recruiting showcases and tried out for more all star teams (Under Armor, Brine) because the college coaches do go to those. There are also a lot of camps that are a ‘must’ but my daughter had said she didn’t want to go, and that she didn’t want to play in college. By the time she had decided, most of the top teams had more than enough recruits. She found (well, I found) a program perfect for her but a lot of that was dumb luck.</p>
<p>I’d say UNC’s team will be filled by her sophomore year. If she really wants that school, I have her start writing, calling, and attending camps and showcase tournaments. For the tournaments, she can send an email with her schedule (“Hey coach, I’m playing at the ABC Tourney at Disney next weekend, and I’ll be wearing #5 on the Kicks team. We’ll be on field 12 at 3 pm…”) Even if the coach doesn’t go to the tourney, they often have access to the video. </p>
<p>She might also find some other schools she’d ‘dreamed’ about all her life, even if those dreams just came into focus.</p>
<p>Shellz - You are correct it is a great problem to have. We as parents understand the business of colleges just children do not completely understand that part. I guess that is why we, as parents are there to guide them. It is also hard for my D to look past the soccer part right now. Hopefully that will come. </p>
<p>twoinanddone - Luckily my daughters Academy does all the high profile Tourney’s and Showcases. Plays in the ECNL league which is also a great thing.She has started to get US National training which is huge. I might have her start next soccer yr emailing the coach or coaches she wants to let them know where she playing. </p>
<p>My niece is a current HS junior, plays in many national soccer tournaments, when I was looking at schools with one of my children she tagged along and visited with the college coaches of the schools we visited. Some Div 1 and 2 schools. I sat in on the conversations. She was a rising junior at the time(so last summer). Many if not most schools at the level my niece was interested in said their recruiting class for 2015 were basically filled. This was summer 2013. She had made contact with many of them in 9th grade. </p>
<p>So looks like by the time 10th grade rolls around, contact should be well in place. </p>
<p>Ropeman – soccer is early and hard. Saying you want to play for UNC is definitely shooting for the moon – someone gets to be their goalie, but do they actually recruit a goalie every year? It’s great that your daughter has high hopes and she and you should pursue them but you need to make sure she realizes what tall cotton she is shooting for and that ND, Stanford, Duke, etc teams are all pretty good schools that might need a goalie too. I see no problem in your daughter sending out an email now, though 8th grade is probably too early to worry. My daughter plays another D1 sport, but she has friends who play D1 soccer and my wife and the local state U major D1 coach went to same HS and they have talked about the recruiting game at various local alumni events. I suspect summer after 9th grade and club season during 10th grade are the key times for the best of the best D1 programs. Goalie at UNC is a really big deal. I doubt Anson Dorrance gets laser locked on an 8th or 9th grade goalie – too much of a gamble for such a crucial position. I suspect he’d wait a while to be more sure.</p>
<p>Doubtful - Thanks for your response. My wife and me understand UNC is shooting for the moon. We have tried to let my D know what she is shooting for and that it is a tough thing. I hope my D understands too but we do not want to kill a dream quite yet. We have suggested that she looks at other schools so maybe we some research she will change her mind on her own.
Thanks</p>
<p>We started preparing for the process when our daughter was in the 8th grade, but she didn’t start sending emails to coaches until the summer after her freshman year. I think if we had to do it over again, we would have suggested that she start sending emails sooner and that she be more aggressive in trying to initiate contact with coaches through phone calls. In the end, though, the process was very successful for her - she ended up at the school she had dreamed of playing for since she was 9 years old.</p>
<p>I’d be more than happy to answer any questions you might have - either about our experiences with the general process or the specifics of goalkeeper recruiting. I can only speak from our experience and a bit of what I’ve read (I try to keep up to date on developments in the soccer recruiting arena because we end up helping families from time to time), but we always found it helpful to listen to a variety of perspectives.</p>
<p>I’d suggest talking to your daughter’s club coach. If this is one of the top clubs in the state they should be on top of college recruiting and should help … they may even have a specific college recruiting person on staff.</p>
<p>KeeperDad - I have read your posts and it was very informative. That for all that info.</p>
<p>3togo - I think the club does have someone that knows and could help with recruiting but part of me still believes it is too early to think about this stuff. I want to do more research and understand the process more before talking to someone at the club. </p>
<p>^ for me the first conversation with the club recruiting guy/gal now would be … 1) please explain the process to me … 2) when should we kick this into gear … 3) what should we be doing now. I do not think there is a negative to asking too soon … but there is a HUGE negative to asking too late … for me, there is a huge bias to ask early as you can always wait after the conversation if you are early</p>
<p>For certain sports, including girls’ soccer, even though we as parents might think it is too soon for 9th graders to be talking about it, we can’t control the recruiting especially if you are looking at particular schools. They will fill their teams. I was looking at the lacrosse recruiting for 2016’s, and many of the top schools (academically and athletically) already have 7-10 recruits listed from this year’s sophomores, and that’s a full roster. Even Harvard, Yale, and the Naval Academy have recruits already when these kids haven’t even take SAT/ACT or an AP class.</p>
<p>A team will make room for a star, especially a goalie, but for all of us with kids with just a regular amount of talent, the door closes quickly. I really didn’t know what I was doing, and left a lot of it to my daughter. Really, she was 16, what did she know? She’d be contacted by coaches and not tell me. She’d respond to coaches at schools she’d never go to. I also was very unsophisticated on how to negotiate the scholarship amount, how it worked with merit and FA. It worked out, but I think we were lucky.</p>
<p>There is a series of article on athletic recruiting that ran several years ago. It features a lax player from Villanova, and a swimmer at Fordham, and some male soccer players. Although 8 years old or so, the info is still good and talks about what to expect, what is expected of the athlete in school.</p>
<p>3togo - I will have to do some research to see who would handle recruiting from my D’s club.</p>
<p>twoinanddone - Thanks for the input. I am glad to hear that everything worked out for your D. I think most teenagers dont tell their parents everything. Just as your D didn’t, I am thinking my D will do the same thing. That is why I want to stay on top of the process as much as possible. I will also look for that article to read.
You also mention you were looking at 2016 recruits for Lax and most schools are filled. Where do you find that info? I had a hard time just finding the recruiting classes for next yr. </p>
<p>No, most schools are not filled, but some are filling up, especially for certain positions. A school may sign 12 for the freshman class, but only one goalie or 2 defense because of the returning players. A few schools have listed 7 recruits for 2016, and that’s more than 50%.</p>
<p>For lacrosse, there is a site that contains a lot of info called Laxpower. It posts articles about lacrosse, coaches, controversies, the World Cup. There is a forum for discussion, rankings for high school and college, All Americans, and it keeps a very unofficial list of recruits by year/school/state. There are just over 2000 who have committed for 2014, including Div 3 and NAIA (so not binding), and there are about 200 who have ‘committed’ for 2016 with some schools listing as many as 7 recruits. For 2015, there are about 800 listed so far, but that will shoot up after the summer showcases. Some schools don’t report until NILs are signed, others post immediately, some never post; the numbers are very unofficial but it gives a good idea of how the schools work.</p>
<p>Girls mature earlier than boys. Other than in football, college coaches tend to wait for at least some boys until early junior year, often later for some programs, because boys are still growing. The D1 schools my son is being recruited by for soccer always take some seniors; one Ivy took 7 seniors in May to complete their 2018 class. Another Patriot League school recruits at least 5 seniors each year. His top choice D3 school is just now sending out prospect day information, and they would hope to recruit some 2015s before January. Another D1 is having their recruiting camp next week for 2015s.</p>
<p>Girls coaches tend to spend a lot more time recruiting based on the tournaments my son has gone to that have had both girls and boys sides. If your daughter is in the ECNL and attending national tournaments, she is getting seen by U15. If she isn’t, it’s a good idea to have her start attending college camps freshman year for either her top choice, a local college, or a camp with many colleges.</p>
<p>One drawback of ECNL and the USFF DA program on the boys side is that if your child is not getting playing time, the coaches won’t see him or her. A club team that has a college recruitment rep on staff might be a better idea, especially if your child doesn’t want a big name soccer school.</p>
<p>I think the most difficult part about an 8th or 9th grader getting recruited relates to grades and test scores. If your daughter is targeting Ivies, she has to do well enough each year to get to the next level of AP and honors classes. And maintain her sport at a high level. This puts more pressure on kids, IMHO, then if they start looking at getting recruited at the end of sophomore year, when they have two years of grades as a baseline. This is less of an issue if your child is targeting state schools and has solid grades.</p>
<p>Rhandco - Thanks for the input. To be honest right now my D has no idea what she wants to do in college other then play soccer. Right now she wants to play soccer at a high level. Her club is in the ECNL and playing time is not a problem as long as the College Coach is there when she is in goal. The team carries 2 Gk’s and they each play a half. This is what we are told the club does at every level. She is the teams #1 GK. She does get great grades but I do not think she wants to go to an Ivy league school right now. That doesn’t mean that we will not push her to keep her grades up at A level at least. She has a Type A personality and is very competitive. </p>