Coach names are usually on the school website. And if the email isn’t listed right there, they usually follow a pretty standard first initial + last name @ school format.
Others may have more specific recommendation here but I’d introduce myself and say that I was interested in attending their school and play soccer, give them a brief summary of your playing highlights (current team, position, etc), and say that you hope to have the opportunity to speak with them.
Email the coaches directly. Introduce yourself, give your club info and club coach contact info. Hopefully you have video of you playing soccer. If you do it’s appropriate to send highlights of yourself as a YouTube link when you email the coach. If not, it’s not the end of the world as long as your club coach will be able to speak to the school coach. If you have an interview in person scheduled let the coach know when you’ll be on campus and say you’d love to meet them. The coach may also offer to have you talk to someone on the team currently.
I do want to caution you, unless you’re going to a school with an excellent soccer team, or with easier academics (or if you’re fine with an 85 average), or in the black rock club area, playing a club sport while in boarding school is an achingly hard proposition. If I knew then what I know now I would not have gone down the boarding school road with serious club athlete kids.
For other kids reading this. Coaches are the only staff members it’s appropriate to email directly. For teachers you want to speak with its more “polite” to ask your admissions person if you can email the teacher.
Sorry, I don’t know much about Pennington. Maybe @cinnamon1212 does, her son is a soccer player as well.
Generally, being a day student helps with driving and logistics but not with the fact that high academic boarding schools are designed so that you will quite literally NOT have time to do any out of school activities. The teachers will readily admit that they are giving kids so much work that the kids cannot possibly get everything done well. So if you are already in that situation and now you are trying to add in something that few other kids are doing - your out of school activity - it is really really really hard. I say this as the mother of two academic rock stars, it’s overwhelmingly hard to play an outside sport.
I’m afraid I don’t know about Pennington. You might ask the soccer coach about playing club soccer. He knows that kids who want to play in college have to play club, and he can tell you what kids have done over the years. Best of luck.
Pennington is an excellent choice for soccer. The school team is strong and it’s easy to keep up club - most players do. The academics are not so rigorous, and the school has very good learning support for students with learning differences. In my mind, a day school with a boarding option. Starts at 6th. Generally nice kids.
Yes. It’s essentially a day school with a small boarding population, mostly international and FP. It tends to attract families who are looking for a not so stressful, friendly environment and often sports. There are a ton of other options in the area, day and boarding, for the more academically driven.
Is it worth pinning this thread at the top of “Prep School Admissions”? It seems we are starting to get more and more “chance me” threads for the Class of 2027 and I think this post lays out the dynamic as well as any other.
With one update: consistent with @DroidsLookingFor’s advice, the low end of the acceptance rates now starts at 9% (!) instead of 11%.