<p>I have been reading the athletic recruit forum, but have not seen anything specific about soccer for girls. My daughter is a junior, plays on a club team, and varsity HS. She would like to play in college, but does not want it to be the focus of her college experience. We are looking at D3 schools. Any advice on how to really stand out to the coaches? Looking at their rosters, they have very few spots to fill for 2014. She has e-mailed her profile, filled out on line recruiting forms, met with a few coaches when touring the school, and informed them of tournaments. I am just wondering if anyone has any further advice on how to become a BIG blip on their radar screen. Thanks.</p>
<p>This isn’t soccer specific, but it is D3 specific. D3 coaches tend to be wary of being used as backups. I spoke with a track/xc coach at a top D3 and he said, </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So if you want to stand out, you need to make it clear to the coach that you’ve chosen that school, you want to attend that school and he won’t be wasting his time recruiting you.</p>
<p>Thanks that is helpful. On the flip side, my daughter has heard coaches say they could fill their spots with D1 level players who are looking for a better education in a higher level school. I get the feeling they would gladly take those D1 level players if they could. Her top choice schools have 3-4 spots each. It is tough! So may have to go to a bigger school, and hope the club team is competitive to some degree. She does want to focus on academics. Seems very much like a crap shoot ( pun intended).</p>
<p>ELK, In my experience on this forum, Varska’s advice is always well informed as the post above demonstrates. Beyond those you noted, another way to indicate interest is to attend a summer soccer camp at that school if there is one. If the coach does not hold one at their school they are probably participating at camps elsewhere and your D could at least get some more time in front of that particular coach by attending one of those. </p>
<p>Although it’s a couple of years old now, I do have some experience with women’s college soccer recruiting, especially with a D3 focus. You mentioned that the rosters “have very few spots to fill for 2014”. If you are assuming this based on the number of juniors / seniors on the roster then that may not be correct. Below the top 25 or so competitive programs there can be a lot of attrition as the women progress through the years. It is not unusual to see a class of 10 or so incoming freshmen turn into a senior class of 2, 3 or 4 players. So even though class is graduating 3 players, the coach is likely looking for 10 incoming.</p>
<p>One other point, maybe its implied in your post, but I’m not sure what level of academic competitiveness your D is looking at. If you are looking for an admissions bump at some of the more selective D3 schools, you are getting late in the process. The more selective schools that are also strong on the pitch, (e.g. Amherst, Chicago, Emory, JHU, Wash U., Williams) amongst others, will have their incoming classes for 2014 set soon. For many other selective D3 schools the coach tends to have less influence, many times minimal to none on the admissions process and decision.</p>
<p>ELK, based on your daughter’s circumstances, I think going to a camp run by the coach would be ideal. It demonstrates interest and, more importantly, will give the coach a chance to evaluate your daughter over a period of days rather than minutes, including evaluating her as a person as well as a player. Camp or not, your daughter needs to be persistent, because it is a game of numbers. “Crap shoot” is a somewhat accurate description, because her best opportunities likely will be the result of a lot of hard work and a bit of luck.</p>
<p>Thanks again. Also very helpful! She is looking at some NESCAC schools, wesleyan, tufts. Her grades are very good. She will be attending Tufts camp. Unfortunately the Wesleyan camp is when she will be out of the country on a service trip. We went to a Conn College recruit day, and the guy said he recruited 12 kids per year the last 2 years! Looks like we are trying for the wrong year, this year he wants 3. He was very nice and honest, so that all went well, with no hard feelings. And my daughter, said she wouldn’t go to that school, unless playing soccer. So that is fine for me, one school we can take off her very long list. I loved Brandeis, and I am hoping as time passes, she will become more enamored.</p>
<p>Be sure to check out KeeperDad’s posts about College Recruiting Tips for Soccer if you haven’t already. He did a great job of summarizing the whole process- especially for the recruiting process for girls. Boy’s Soccer is a little different than recruiting for girls, but we found that the best place to be seen by college coaches was at high level club tournaments. We have noticed that probably 80-90% of the college coaches attending tournaments such as the Dallas Cup, Surf Cup, etc are from women’s programs. Once you catch the attention of these coaches, they will often times want you to attend their camps to evaluate you further. However, for D3 programs, coaches are sometimes ready to recruit directly from tournaments, especially when they see that a player has good academic stats. My son’s team has a brochure that highlights each player and includes their academic stats, and we hand out these brochures to college coaches at tournaments. Our team has noticed that the kids with high academic stats get a lot more interest from coaches than those with lower stats. I would say the most important thing is for your D to generate a list of schools that she would like to attend academically, and then contact those coaches with e-mails, calls, etc. Be sure to invite each of those coaches to any tournaments that her club is attending, and keep them posted on her schedule at all time.</p>