My daughter is a soccer player who is getting a couple emails from DIII coaches after Surf Cup. She doesn’t really know what she wants in college at all at this point. She’s just starting high school. However, if she does play in college, it would be DIII, not I or II.
How do we respond now? We have nothing to put into recruiting forms (academic interests, test scores, not even a GPA…). Should she write back and say, sounds great, not sure what I’m looking for in a college yet?
It’s probably fine to lead with that and say you’d love to learn more about their program snd school and welcome input on how to make the most of her high school years so that she’ll be s good candidate in a few years. Starting a conversation and developing a relationship is rarely a bad move.
My son ( a sophomore) got a text from a coach after a showcase last weekend for a NAIA school wanting him to come visit. It’s a strong school and he doesn’t want to rule it out, but it is a long drive and since they don’t get days off here to visit colleges until Junior year he just replied that he appreciates the interest and would like to learn more, but will need to wait until next summer to visit. They replied that they would keep him in their database and reach out later. Never hurts to keep the doors open. It is all good experience for them regardless. He plays up on an older team and is bigger than most of his teammates so we weren’t sure if the coach realized he was so much younger.
It’s always good to start a conversation. My son was asked to fill out a few recruiting forms as a sophomore, and there were a lot of blank spaces. They expect that when they contact younger players.
Women’s soccer I think is an early recruiting sport, although I don’t know about D3. I think there is a hierarchy where the top D1’s get players lined up very early, and then it trickles down. Do some searching for Women’s Soccer specifically. There is quite a bit of variation from sport to sport when recruiting happens.
Congrats to your daughter! I would definitely respond to the coaches and acknowledge their email. It’s ok if she’s not sure about playing in college, just keep the lines of communication open with the coaches. I played DI basketball and received my first letter from a coach when I was 13 after playing in a national AAU tournament. Over the next couple of years, the letters came pouring in. I hadn’t taken my ACT/SAT or completed my core courses yet. My parents communicated with the coaches while I was in 8th, 9th and 10th grade and by the 11th grade, I started developing an interest in certain schools. Most of those schools were ones that contacted me when I was younger, so I’m glad we kept that line of communication open. Good Luck!
I will go out on a limb and say that if your daughter went to Surf Cup she has plenty (or at least something) to put in a recruiting profile. Take the time now to draft up a college CV. You can use it to keep track of accomplishments, where her team placed at tournaments, awards, interests, skills. Yes, it is early and it will be constantly updated, but you should make one at some point, so may as well start now. That also makes a great “cheat sheet” for the profiles.
Make a spread sheet of all the colleges that are possibly of interest. When you enter information on the college recruiting profiles, makes sure to record the date that you submitted the profile and the password. That way, you can update the profiles as additional information is gained. For now, leave GPA and board scores blank on the profiles.
You may also want to use the time you have now to request soccer references (not college recommendations) for the CV and profiles.
Start now. Since the profiles are such a bear to complete, you may be pleased later on that you started now.
Thank you all! We did a profile for Surf Cup itself – they have places to write “club accolades” and “high school accolades” and we don’t have too much so far besides club team captain. High school seems like a good place to gather up some recognition, potentially. She’s looking fairly strong on that team, a couple weeks in.
I will start a google doc. :">
Look for anything to put on the profiles - honor roll, athlete of the month, academics, local newspaper team. As she gets more, you can replace the ones she started with. Some don’t come until junior year (Academic All American, all the tournament teams) and those looking at the profile know that.
Just to be clear, when I was referring to recruiting profiles, I was talking about school specific profiles. Pretty much every school has an on-line profile that can be filled out, and most are sport specific. Go to the school of interest and complete those profiles. The jury is out about the value of athletic profiles for tournaments. Sure, if the stars align and a coach falls in love, those profiles can inform the coach. However, I doubt that they are used much after the tournament is over.
To be fair, the jury also is out about the value of completing the school specific recruiting profiles. Put differently, if all you do is complete the profiles, you won’t get very far. I have always maintained that most were never consulted – that they were a “filing cabinet” for a coach to retrieve information when desired. We had multiple coaches express interest and ask that we fill out the profile, not knowing that we already had done so. If the profiles are not consulted on a routine basis, then what is their purpose. I have assumed that they are used, for example, if a coach is looking for a striker with an ACT of over 32 or for comparing stats between two strikers. I could see that they might be more useful for timed sports.
That said, the entire point of D3 recruiting is to be aggressive. The D3 schools have no budgets for recruiting, and this leaves open opportunities for those athletes who are aggressive. Countless very talented athletes who thought the coaches “would come to them” have been disappointed because they were not aggressive enough. That means that EVERY “touch” with a coach counts, including those school specific recruiting profiles. So, plow through them, as annoying as they may be and keep a record of all your communications with coaches. Every time you have a communication by email or text, end it with a question. That encourages continued dialogue and another “touch.”
As someone said, every “touch” is important. Email the coaches and keep emailing them every few months, upating your academics and soccer information.
Find a few colleges where you are interested and go to a soccer ID camp where the coach will be attending, or at the prospective school. Don’t wait for them to come to you.
My son has been emailing coaches since late in 9th grade and has developed some good relationships with them. You have to do the work, contact them regularly, and continue to express interest. Those who aren’t as aggressive fall of the coaches radar.
Also, include all the coaches (head coach and assistants) in your emails. Even at DIII, an assistant could be in charge of recruiting and the head coach doesn’t get involved until your junior or senior year. Remember that due to NCAA rules they can’t respond to your daughter until 11th grade, But keep emailng them every few months.