thanks for this thread and all who contributed to it. i am enjoying reading your journey. My daughter is a goal keeper in the class of 2023, so will be entering HS next fall and we are getting tons of camp emails and she has started to attend some showcases, due to playing up with 04 and 03 teams this spring. She plays at a top level club and will be playing for a nationally ranked HS program in the fall. She isn’t top D1 level talent but at this time would like to play in college and is a good student. I want to be ahead of the game a bit so I can be sure we don’t miss anything, although her club has a great track record of getting girls to play in college and beyond, i figure the more i know the better so i will be following all of your posts with eager interest.
Look up Andrew Epstein’s college career at Stanford. Listed as 6’0". With him in goal, Stanford won 2 national titles. And he wasn’t actually 6’0". 
Height helps, but it’s not everything.
Had an interesting conversation with a D3 coach this weekend. Couple of nuggets for the board:
- He will primarily start the recruiting process for the 2020 HS class beginning with Memorial Day Tournaments. That’s not to say we won’t have seen players earlier, but that’s when it largely kicks off for him.
- He’ll try to finish by Sept/Oct as that’s when the application period starts to kick in.
- He recruits need/position. For example, he’s only looking for 4-6 players in the 2020 class - fullbacks and forwards preferably. But he’ll be looking for 12-14 kids in the following 2021 class.
- He gave a nice breakdown on what skill set he looks for at each position - this gives you an idea of his preferred playing style. This is probably a good question for players to ask if it’s not offered first by the coach.
- Video - very useful if he won’t get to see you often.
- Would like to see a kid at least 3x before committing to them.
- His ID clinic is a great place to be seen, but he also encourages participating in those larger multi-coach camps that do a nice job of organizing time for the coaches.
- School comes first. Make sure you have the grades. His team GPA is 3.37. I get the impression there is some internal competition/pressure on making sure you have student-athletes and not athlete-students.
- Pick a school based on the school, not the soccer.
- Keep in touch. Show interest.
Did we talk to the same coach??? Kidding, sort of. From my conversation, there was a frank admission that the college game is about results and that direct, physical soccer is one way many get the wins. So, players need to be athletic in measurable ways (40 dash, vertical etc). I didn’t get the impression he needs players to send those metrics, but if you can’t run quick enough, it’s just not going to work because so much of the college game (stupid college substitutions) make match-ups critical. Or, if you’re not a stud/studdette, then you need to be a technical/tactical wizard and nimble enough to breakaway from the 6ft 2 defender trying to crush your scrawny butt.
The large “cattle calls” were also surprisingly recommended for D3 because the D1 players with obvious attributes don’t need to go to the big ID camps, so the D3 coaches know they can find and successfully recruit at the large clinics.
Will the newly adopted NCAA recruiting rule changes drive more prospective D1/D2 players to camps going forward?
Now that coaches can contact rising juniors on June 15th, and both visits and recruiting conversations can commence roughly 6 weeks later, I get the sense that many parents are clearing their schedules to make room for July camps.
It hasn’t made any difference in lax recruiting which has had the new rules for more than a year now. Of course those camps were full before the rule changes too.
What are the new NCAA rules? I asked this on my thread but it wasn’t made clear.
@squ1rrel - google is your friend… http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/di-council-adopts-rules-curb-early-recruiting
Checking back on this thread to see if anyone has any summer soccer camp experiences to report?
My daughter is a rising junior with goal of playing NESCAC soccer. We started after 9th grade doing camps. She did the EXACT multi school camps which are OK IF and only IF a few of your interested schools are there AND you email them ahead of time. By far the single school camps on campus are the best. We did 4 or 5 of these in Spring of 10th grade. You are being seen by the coach at the school you presumably want to go to, and he can give you great feedback. My D went to a camp in the Spring, got great feedback from the coach and we did a campus tour day in June and once he offered his “support” for her with admissions, we were done. She sent him her transcript and that was it. She is thrilled to get it out of the way as a large number of her friends who are rising seniors are still slugging it out trying to get noticed, which can be risky. My advice: go early. Find a few schools you like and where you can both play and get in, and go for it. Do not spread yourself too thin.
@DadfromBoston it might be a girls soccer thing, but as the parent of a boy that sounds a year too early for d3. But could be the difference between girls and boys recruiting.
My son attended the Williams and Middlebury camps this summer, and has a couple more he will be doing. Impressed with the coaches at both schools. Happy to answer any questions if anyone has them.
@cinnamon1212 I think it is a boys vs. girls soccer thing. Most girls are physically “done” growing by around 10th grade, so coaches can glimpse the “finished product.” In contrast, 10th grade boys are all over the map – some are done growing, others haven’t started. So D3 soccer seems to focus more on 11th grade.
For those with boys in the class of 2021 did camp appearances this summer correlate to interest and contact from attending coaches? I ask because 2021 boys are still early in the process.
Which camps were your favorites and why? Where will you target next?
@gkunion my son had emailed with the coaches of the d3 schools whose camps he attended during the school year, and the fact that they said they would watch (or had watched) him at tournaments helped us decide which camps to attend. My son emailed the coaches again before the camps, and thanked them after. One school said if my son kept working this upcoming year, he would be at their level and they looked forward to watching him. I think that’s pretty much the best one could hope for from a high academic d3.
My son and I did not like the multi coach camps held at schools, though he did a few last year. The goal for us now is to get on particular schools’ radar screens, as well as more seriously checking out the schools. The one day camps he attended fulfilled both purposes.
My son will do one d1 camp later this summer. I have low expectations as I do not expect my son will stand out there in the way he did at the d3 camps.
As for where to target next, a lot will depend on what my son decides he likes after seeing small rural schools and larger urban ones. If he leans one way or the other, that’s what we will focus on.
You might be focused on d1; however I suspect the process is the same for both levels – emailing before and after, seeing what response you get etc.
@cinnamon1212 Thanks for the reply. My son is focused on D1 but I’ve explained to him that it’s counterproductive to narrow his scope to just those schools. Unless he grows at least 2 more inches his D1 potential will be limited. Could he make a D1 team at 6 feet tall? I believe he has the work ethic and tenacity to make that happen. Would he play any meaningful minutes? I wouldn’t bet on that…
@GKUnion I feel your angst - a 6ft GK has a tough sell, in some ways. There are goalies that “short” but they seem to be an exception. Most collegiate goalies are taller, even at D3. IMHO it’s b/c there’s no perceived “risk” in taking a 6 ft 3 goalie. But if your son excels and an “enlightened” coach spots him, you’re all set. You only need one at a suitable school for it all to work.
Quick study: Williams has 3 GKs. 2x 6’3", 1x 6’2". Midd is more “favorable” 3x6’1, then a 6" and a 5’10". Of course, that’s a lot of goalies…coach might not be looking for keepers for a couple years unless there’s some attrition. Tufts has 2 6’3 and 2 6’1. My guess is that D1 schools are similar if not taller on average (and maybe not just goalies but also field players?).
@AmBuddha I agree, he and I have done some research. The only sub-6 foot D1 goalkeeper at a top 50 school that is getting a majority of the minutes is Will Pulisic at Duke. He’s Christian Pulisic’s cousin, so his athletic genes are fairly decent. He’s 5’11”, started all 20 games in 2018, and led the team with 1921 minutes.
Luckily my son is only 15 so there’s still potential for growth. With 2 - 3 years left in his recruiting journey he’s already the same height and weight as Will Pulisic. He’s the standard for my son to target until things change.
For now he needs to control what he can control. He’ll continue to strengthen his strengths, work to improve his soccer IQ and concentrate on diminishing his weaknesses.
You’re imparting invaluable perspective. How did Kasey Kassum put it? Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the starts. But the frustrating part is that I’m sure he is/will be a better player than many taller GKs but he won’t get a fair shake, except from the most perceptive coaches and he only needs one of them (from a school that suits him).
Andrew Epstein played 4 years at Stanford and was listed at 6’0". I had several opportunities to be side-by-side with him, trust me on this one, he wasn’t 6’0". 
I remember and mention him, because he played locally and he was an outstanding Keep. He was quick, good ball skills and he was the unquestioned leader on the field.
**Edit: I noticed that I already made mention of Mr. Epstein. My apologies. **
I forgot about this GK. On a visit last season to see my kid at UMich, I saw this Keeper play. He’s 5’10" and very good:
Henry Mashburn
https://mgoblue.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=18551
UMIch has an RPI 25 and just outside the Top 25 rankings.