@DadfromBoston your daughter is a current junior in high school?
How can a NESCAC make an offer before prereads? I don’t think I’m being naive in thinking they are not making offers Spring of Junior year. At least on the boys’ side they aren’t.
It has happened on the boys’ side.
@shuttlebus, huh. What school? If you aren’t comfortable saying, then can you say if it’s a Williams/Amherst or a Trinity/Conn level achool?
@cinnamon1212 the W/A level.
Thanks @shuttlebus! I see the offer was not this year. I would say your son’s offer before the preread was exceptional, he must be a superstar. I know the Ivy coach most recently at a NESCAC told my son that the NESCACs wouldn’t make offers until the summer, and I believe that’s basically correct, though I’m sure your son did get a super early offer too, and that speaks to what a strong candidate he must have been.
@shuttlebus I’ve been mulling over your son’s situation – a d1 caliber soccer player, who’s turned down great D1 offers, and that is so good that an Amherst/Williams level school’s coach would take a chance and make an offer even before the AO has weighed in . . . coach must be very familiar with the AO . . . ok, I’m guessing your last name is Giammattei. 
I think you’re reading into it too much. Plenty of coaches, even in the NESCAC, have a very good idea of what AO’s will say. My kid was told by a coach that his grades would mean the coach wouldn’t need to use a slot for him. And that was before any official pre-read. But I do see your point about those who are turning down D1 offers probably get a little more leeway.
If your son likes the school, he should do the one-day clinics. He will get more time in front of the coaches for that school in their environment. My daughter attended a one-day clinic for Field Hockey this year and despite no ID Camp/Showcase experience was offered and accepted the offer to that great school. The coaches mentioned that anything can happen at a showcase or ID Camp: bad turf that causes bad bounces, selfish teammates, poor conditions, etc., but when you come to their clinic they can see how you perform on their turf and in their environment.
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These soccer recruitment threads have been incredibly helpful and informative - glad I stumbled upon this site. Lots of very knowledgeable posters here.
One question I have with regard to the recruitment process is how involved are the DA/ECNL/prep school coaches in all this? It seems like the majority if not all here are driving the process themselves to initiate a dialogue and be seen at showcases, but do any of the coaches facilitate contact on behalf of their players as an advocate?
I envision a scenario where a coach picks up the phone to a player’s desired school and says ‘We have a player who would be a great fit for your program and projects at the NESCAC level’ - am I completely misreading how it works?
I’m asking as my son is a DA 04 GK who is reclassing next fall to play at a NEPSAC school with a very competitive Class A soccer program. His new school is sending 5 Class of 2020 players D1 and 5 to D3 (none to NESCAC this fall) but this seems an anomaly as it probably has at least 12+ players currently on NESCAC rosters at the moment, many of which are high impact starters/captains.
So being new to all this, my take is recruitment will almost be an inevitable byproduct of playing at a top tier soccer prep school, but don’t want to underestimate the process either. At the moment it’s hard to gauge how aggressive he should be as a rising sophomore/Class of 2023.
He has several NESCAC’s he’s interested in, as well as several Ivies. Any thoughts/insight would be very much appreciated.
These soccer recruitment threads have been incredibly helpful and informative - glad I stumbled upon this site. Lots of very knowledgeable posters here.
One question I have with regard to the recruitment process is how involved are the DA/ECNL/prep school coaches in all this? It seems like the majority if not all here are driving the process themselves to initiate a dialogue and be seen at showcases, but do any of the coaches facilitate contact on behalf of their players as an advocate?
I envision a scenario where a coach picks up the phone to a player’s desired school and says ‘We have a player who would be a great fit for your program and projects at the NESCAC level’ - am I completely misreading how it works?
I’m asking as my son is a DA 04 GK who is reclassing next fall to play at a NEPSAC school with a very competitive Class A soccer program. His new school is sending 5 Class of 2020 players D1 and 5 to D3 (none to NESCAC this fall) but this seems an anomaly as it probably has at least 12+ players currently on NESCAC rosters at the moment, many of which are high impact starters/captains.
So being new to all this, my take is recruitment will almost be an inevitable byproduct of playing at a top tier soccer prep school, but don’t want to underestimate the process either. At the moment it’s hard to gauge how aggressive he should be as a rising sophomore/Class of 2023.
He has several NESCAC’s he’s interested in, as well as several Ivies. Any thoughts/insight would be very much appreciated.
These soccer recruitment threads have been incredibly helpful and informative - glad I stumbled upon this site. Lots of very knowledgeable posters here.
One question I have with regard to the recruitment process is how involved are the DA/ECNL/prep school coaches in all this? It seems like the majority if not all here are driving the process themselves to initiate a dialogue and be seen at showcases, but do any of the coaches facilitate contact on behalf of their players as an advocate?
I envision a scenario where a coach picks up the phone to a player’s desired school and says ‘We have a player who would be a great fit for your program and projects at the NESCAC level’ - am I completely misreading how it works?
I’m asking as my son is a DA 04 GK who is reclassing next fall to play at a NEPSAC school with a very competitive Class A soccer program. His new school is sending 5 Class of 2020 players D1 and 5 to D3 (none to NESCAC this fall) but this seems an anomaly as it probably has at least 12+ players currently on NESCAC rosters at the moment, many of which are high impact starters/captains.
So being new to all this, my take is recruitment will almost be an inevitable byproduct of playing at a top tier soccer prep school, but don’t want to underestimate the process either. At the moment it’s hard to gauge how aggressive he should be as a rising sophomore/Class of 2023.
He has several NESCAC’s he’s interested in, as well as several Ivies. Any thoughts/insight would be very much appreciated.
I’d imagine a NEPSAC coach will help with the process, but the player has to drive it. There are many showcases for NEPSAC/ISL that draw many college coaches, but players also need to get the spring club season sorted. That might be DA or ECNL but probably should be something. Blackrock seems to have carved out an all-star team for boarding schools which sounds like a force on its own.
Specifically, a NEPSAC coach might very well be able to call the target college’s coach, and probably could make sure the player gets a look, or two or three. But I don’t think any college coach is going to take a player solely based on a recommendation, even one from a long-trusted source.
For a GK, the big factors for many are how tall and what’s the need on the roster. Some coaches seem to have the minimum height set at 6’3, when I gotta figure there are excellent GKs under that. Mixed in is also, what are the chances of being the #1 out of 3 or 4 GKs (for the player to consider). In other words, do you want to be the #3 GK on a dominant team when you might be the #1 on most of the other teams in the conference?
In the meantime, for a rising sophomore, I’d suggest focusing on getting starts in the fall, contacting coaches if he does, getting to however many ID clinics he can, and putting himself out there. If dream school coach isn’t responsive, maybe a call might spark something but I would expect that to sway an opinion. Maybe it would help draw attention to a player who somehow got overlooked (but if he’s starting, and in NEPSAC showcases, playing for a club in the spring…those stones have probably been kicked over). So if your GK hasn’t hit his second growth spurt until the senior fall season, then I can see outreach being very helpful. Otherwise, just keeping it simple, he’s got to play and do his thing. It’s all good, water finds its level (fingers crossed).
@Quadrifoglio, you should really be driving the bus. Advice is cheap, and go ahead and listen, but do the driving yourself. I would never leave recruiting to any coach – club or high school – private or public.
Hi @Quadrifoglio and welcome to prep school soccer! @AmBuddha has given great advice; he’s right, you definitely have to drive the bus on recruiting. A well connected coach, like South Kent’s will be more active in helping with recruiting, but most NEPSAC coaches will do pretty much nothing to help with recruiting. They will speak with college coaches that call them, but don’t do a lot of outreach on behalf of players. Again, if the coach is well connected that might be different.
Who knows if the fall season will even happen, but in normal times there is a prep school jamboree at the end of September which is attended by lots of college coaches, perhaps 100+. However, the older goalkeepers will almost certainly play and a sophomore gk almost certainly will not. However as your son becomes an upperclassman, this is an important recruiting event.
Black Rock does take the best prep school players, though if your son will be attending NMH I believe they use the Pro Project. Black Rock is very helpful with recruiting, but again, mostly speaking with coaches that have reached out to them. Most of their coaches are assistant coaches at area colleges (Yale, Amherst, Trinity this year among others). They will suggest schools that might be a good match, and will let you know what level you could/should target. I believe they will advocate for a player as well, when it gets down to the wire.
But until that time, you and your son definitely need to be doing all the recruiting work. For a sophomore, you could think about attending one day ID clinics at target schools to get on the schools’ radar screens. D3 coaches can communicate with you, and ideally you would start an email dialogue with them (e.g. your son would send an email introducing himself to the coach and letting them know he will be attending an upcoming clinic; after the clinic emailing to ask if they have feedback for him etc.)
NESCACs and most Ivies have similar timelines and they can be watching kids sophomore year, but Junior year is when things really pick up so you have some time. I found THE ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP PLAYBOOK very helpful in clearly setting out the process (you don’t have to be shooting for a scholarship, the info applies to all recruiting).
The only place that covers prep school soccer is the New England Soccer Journal; once your son is playing you might want to have a look. It is not always completely accurate but is fun.
@Quadrifoglio I’ve spent some time at the jamboree and the number of college coaches in attendance was truly impressive. @cinnamon1212 is correct that the older keepers will most likely play because they’re in the recruiting sweet spot. Who knows, your son may be exceptional and win the starting spot at his new school. Does he start the majority of the games for his DA team?
Regardless, cast a wide net and reach out to coaches(include ALL coaches from each school on the email). Hopefully you can put together a decent highlight video to include in these emails. Over communicating early to generate interest hopefully leads to targeted schools attending your son’s games.
Very helpful imput from everyone, so thank you to all-
Since he’s going to reclass this year, it sounds like he’s more or less where he should be at the moment. He’s been to a few school-specific ID sessions already, and his U15 highlight video was instrumental during the prep school recruiting process, but it’s almost a year old now.
We had a long talk about the process the other night, and he has a good grasp of it, more than I realized. He remains close with just about every GK he’s ever played or trained with over the years, and many of the older kids have taken him under their wing. Several graduating '20’s who have already been through the gauntlet walked him through the timeline, as have a number of '21’s who are in the midst of it now. I’ll say this about GKs - they are cut from a different cloth, incredibly supportive and want each other to succeed probably because they understand the demands/pressure of the position.
So these days, he’s basically watching/doing analysis on various GK performances, and researching schools/programs to find ones that seem a good fit for him. The biggest challenge right now is keeping his skills sharp and fitness up until training can resume in earnest.
@Quadrifoglio My son is a class of 22 keeper who has been running and working out daily at home. He hadn’t been between the posts for a month until late last week when he met a striker teammate at a local field. He spent 2 hours stopping shots. Two days later he told me how sore he was from diving and landing on the ground. You can’t replicate the punishment they take by doing at home workouts. It’s as if taking a month off had softened his body to impacts.
And just like that, DA soccer is terminated…
@GKUnion Technically yes. But those teams still have places to play. Has Philly told you what their plan is yet?
@eb23282 The MLS clubs obviously prearranged taking control of the Development Academy from U.S. Soccer. They immediately put out a release announcing their new league. The problem is that several teams already announced their jump to ECNL. The USL is also attempting to create a league for their partner clubs that were disenfranchised when the DA was blown up. There’s a mad scramble on right now, as you’d expect. It may leave MLS teams in the lurch to some degree. Their travel will most likely increase by more than 100%.