I have a friend whose dd2 plays competitive soccer as a rising HS freshman. I don’t know the exact level, but she’s been moved up to what I think is the top level at her club and travels several times a year for tournaments and, starting this year, showcases. Her club provides her a “recruiting liaison,” who she met with for the first time this month. It’s what he is saying that I am curious about. I have no reason to doubt him, except that I am a born skeptic.
He said that she could get a verbal commitment by end of sophomore year from a program. And that the verbal commitment is more binding on the school than the student. That timing on a verbal commitment seems early to me, and, if it’s a verbal commitment, how binding is it on the school? I mean, if a bigger, faster forward (or whatever) shows interest in the school, does the verbal commitment mean a thing? And if she’s assuming that the verbal commitment is binding, and then she gets thrown over for another girl, isn’t she left high and dry because she’s dropped communications with other programs?
The mom was told the reason that that doesn’t happen is that it would make recruiting more difficult in subsequent years. And that makes sense. I just imagine some coaches are willing to forgo long-term prospects for a short-term gain.
I’d love to hear what your experiences have been.TIA
Yes, in girls soccer it is very common for the elite to go to the best schools and ‘commit’ by 10th grade, some even earlier. The school could change and revoke the offer, but it would have a bad reputation with all these recruitment coaches and teams. I think most do honor their commitments. Yes, according to the NCAA a verbal commitment is not biding and either side can change its/her mind, but the reputation of the coach making the offer is on the line. While it is true that the student can change her mind, she’d have to find a spot on a school that hadn’t filled its roster with other girls from the sophomore class. It’s all kind of a puzzle of who is available, which team needs a goalie or a forward, which team has a sophomore heavy college team looking to replace them with a lot of high school sophomores.
There are football coaches in recent years who withdrew offers at the last minute, and their reputations are trashed. Some of those coaches don’t care, and there are always other athletes willing to put up with those coaches to get a scholarship and get to play on the top teams while other high school coaches won’t have anything to do with them. Would you want to play for a coach who didn’t honor his word to another athlete? Some do, some don’t.
My experience is with women’s lacrosse, also a sport that looks hard at sophomores for the top teams. In my experience, those who committed as sophomores all went to the schools they committed to. On the boys side, there was a lot more movement by the early commits after junior year.
Thanks for your response. It’s good to know the timeline works.
I guess my fear is that they’ll encounter a coach who would throw her over. And while I wouldn’t want to play for a dishonest coach, I bet some people would jump at the chance if they thought the program was better than the one they’ve committed to.
Parent of male soccer player here – no direct experience (as the mom of boys name would suggest), but we have heard from others that what you describe is how female soccer recruiting works. It really is an honor system, and while there may be the occasional bad apples on the coach’s side, for the most part, concern about future negative consequences curtails slippery conduct.
Everything is pretty much as you described. Timeline is very early for girls soccer players. Top schools are, for the most part finished with 2017’s and have moved on the 2018’s. Some are finishing up 2018’s. That being said, there are plenty of second tier (soccer caliber) d1 schools still working the 2017’s and the right player might still find a spot as a 2016 (but money will not be likely).
There are very few cases of coaches (or schools) going back on verbal commitments - they happen, but not often. Even in cases of injury (D had two teammates with ACL tears Sr year in HS - both missed freshman season in college, but coaches kept their word on scholarships).
Yes your friend is correct the coaches don’t recind verbal offers because of the harm it would cause for future recruiting years. College coaches recruit for years and can’t go against their word, certainly not against players at large clubs. These clubs have thousands of kids and some could/would be future recruits. The big clubs are in the highest level leagues in the U.S. If the coach had a bad reputation the club will make sure the athlete knows about it. Alternatively, money is not guaranteed (yet) for four years so the coach can always make changes the following year.
I think @twoinanddone pretty much hit it on the head. Girls soccer is one of those sports that run on a ridiculously early recruiting timetable. Coaches want to ‘lock-in’ kids and their parents early and assure them they would never renege because that would kill their ability to recruit in the future. Well, some coaches renege when it suits their needs (google Bobby Petrino - yes he’s football, but he’s a poster child for unscrupulous recruiting IMO), and there is always a fresh crop of wide-eyed kids that want to play for a big-time program.
The other caveats are whether or not that coach will still be at that school in 3 years and, at the strong academic schools, whether that kid will have adequate test scores and GPA to get admitted.
So, yeah, early commits usually work out - but a parent that thinks a verbal for a HS freshman is a done deal is a little naive IMO.
Thanks, everyone. I feel much better. They are spending so much money on dd2’s sports at that level, as I’m sure y’all know, and I don’t want them taking bad advice. My closest experience is with football, and most of the kids I know were recruited/deciding up until fall senior year for both DI and DIII programs. Sophomore year just seemed really early.
Since a lot of NCAA Div. 1 & 2 schools use women’s soccer to meet the Title IX requirements for scholarship money, women’s soccer tends to recruit much earlier than men’s soccer. We do know a lot of female soccer athletes who were recruited with athletic money in very early high school. I agree with Varska that while it does usually work out, you always hear about those rare cases where a coach reneges or leaves the school in the interim after recruitment. Nothing is concrete until everything is finalized and in writing. If she is shooting for Div. 1 only then recruitment will start very soon. If she is open to Div 2 that may start a little later depending on the school. Div. 3 cannot offer athletic money, so that recruitment can be much later.
Let me ask y’all this … For some reason, when he talked to them about schools he didn’t mention DII at all. Because they can give athletic scholarships I found that odd. Any ideas? Maybe the DII scholarships don’t go to women’s soccer at the DII level?
Youdon’tsay - D2 schools have 9.9 scholarships for their womens soccer team (if fully funded) where D1 has 14. There is just less scholarship money to share at the D2 level. But the scholarships can be shared in any way the coach wants across the entire roster. Some get none, some full, most partial scholarships. There are approx 314 - D1, 223 - D2, and 409 - D3 women’s soccer programs in the US. D2 schools are generally in the middle with not necessarily being top academic but also not large enough for name recognition. Most tend to go D1 or go for solid academic D3 schools. Ivies and the top non Ivies (Stanford, Duke, etc) are the outliers for obvious reasons.
Another thing to remember is D1 can/do practice/play 20 hours a week where D3 is 16. This is info from an active D1 coach at a fairly small D1 college . There could certainly be differences depending on the program. Consider D1 athletics a “job” for the student athlete.
I think some of the D2 teams are just smaller than the D1 teams, so even though there are fewer scholarships available, there are fewer players to split them. One D1 team that my daughter looked at has about 40 players on their roster splitting 12 scholarships; my daughter’s D2 team has 21, splitting 9.9 scholarships. DD’s school also gives higher merit, so in the end DD’s offer from the D2 school was better for my pocket.,
There is a certain amount of faith you have to take into the process with you. Yes, the coach can leave and leave you high and dry (so DON’T burn bridges; be honest and fair with all coaches you talk to because you never know where you’ll end up or that coach will end up) but you can’t base every decision on ‘what ifs’. Assess the school, the coach, the team, the offer. Will it work for you?
My daughter is the queen of indecision. Should she wear the blue skirt or the red one? (Thank God for school uniforms!) Should she buy the stuffed dog or the stuffed cat? Should she order tacos or pasta? Always questioned her decisions, always wondered if something better would come along. I really thought picking a college would be awful, and I worried about her signing the NLI and then screaming “I changed my mind.” For some reason, she was sure of this decision and asked if she could commit on her overnight visit. I said no because of the money wasn’t set, but at some point I had to just go for it and say yes. It has worked out better than I thought it would, but of course there are still times she hates the coach, the team, the school, the weather, the meal plan…that’s just her nature.
Youdon’tsay - I would tell your friend to have their daughter start looking at colleges. Start to decide at least what type and where she might want to go. Then email the coaches at those colleges of her interest and fill out a recruit form that would be on the site of the soccer teams. She will only get a generic response from the coaches but doing this will put her in their system of recruits. My daughter is going through the same thing right now.
If she has a team liason then she has probably already started to collect clips for a highlight video showing her skills. If not this is definitely something she should be starting . It will help put her on the radar for coaches that have not been able to see her in person.