<p>Hi, I am going to be a sophomore in high school this year. I played varsity last year and i play club year round. I am hoping to play in college and i was wondering if i should start looking and contacting coaches now or wait until later and if so how much later. Thanks</p>
<p>College coaches aren’t allowed to contact any students until they’re Juniors, so wait until junior year. If your club gets you to showcases, thats also very good.</p>
<p>Actually, in most sports coaches can’t initiate contact until July 1 following junior year.</p>
<p>Athlete initiated contact can occur any time, but most coaches would rather you wait until you’re a junior to hear from you.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Coaches CAN send material about the program before July 1st of senior year. My D had several contacts from coaches via snail mail, mostly with information about their school and athletic program. They CAN also send you email. </p>
<p>You can also use one of the free/paid online services that helps students be seen. I doubt if the CC filters will let me say the name, but one of them is [beRecruited.com:</a> Free College Recruiting Service and NCAA Athletic Scholarships Network](<a href=“http://www.berecruited.com%5DbeRecruited.com:”>http://www.berecruited.com)</p>
<p>My kid used it and got lots of information about different programs for her two sports at the end of her sophomore year. </p>
<p>The coaches aren’t allowed to call you on the telephone until July 1st before senior year. </p>
<p>You can visit the colleges on campus and talk to the coaches unofficially before senior year. </p>
<p>It’s a good idea to read up on the rules at the NCAA Student Clearinghouse.</p>
<p>OP, I will assume that you are asking about women’s soccer. Many players find that summer camps or clinics are a good way to make first contact. (Our D has a couple of friends who committed to very good D1 programs after attending their summer camps.) Most D1 and D3 schools spend the majority of their tournament time looking at high school juniors. You should remember, however, that different states have different age cutoffs for school so when you play a U16 team from state A, half the players may be juniors whereas a team from state B may have no juniors. This means that you may have coaches watching your U16 games even if your team is all sophomores. </p>
<p>A school like Stanford already has verbal commitments from eight members of the hs class of 2013. Reasonable people can disagree about what a verbal commit means. The important point is that some very talented sophomores felt they were far enough along in the recruiting process to tell the other schools that they are “off the market.” For most players interested in D1, however, the process does not really start until junior year. </p>
<p>As for communication, D1 coaches can send recruiting material starting Sept. 1 of junior year. Players can contact coaches anytime, and coaches can go through intermediaries to contact players. For instance, a college coach can tell your club coach that he would be receptive to a phone call from you. </p>
<p>For most players, whether interested in D1 or D3, it makes sense to consider attending camps or clinics in the summer before junior year and to contact coaches early in junior year.</p>
<p>gg15, I would offer a somewhat different perspective based on our experience assuming as did coase that you are asking about women’s soccer. I believe you should begin the process of thinking about possible schools, D1 vs D3, etc. and starting the recruiting process in your sophomore year. The more competitive the college both academically and athletically, the earlier you need to start.</p>
<p>While camps and clinics do present an opportunity to visit a particular college and see it and the coach up close, many more coaches will see you at showcase events. I know that in my D’s case, college coaches attended sophomore year showcase matches. This is pretty much the standard in womens soccer. Typically there were 20 or more colleges represented at each match and there were 70 schools represented for one match at Disney! If you contact coaches of colleges that interest you in advance, the coaches will very likely come to watch you even in sophomore year. </p>
<p>After the showcase, you will hear from them if they have interest in you. This can guide you if you do chose to attend camps in the summer before your junior year.</p>
<p>Probably the best advice I can give you is to speak with your club. Even a moderately competitive program will have people very familiar with the college recruiting process.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who responded and yes i was talking about women’s soccer sorry i left that off!</p>
<p>Greysgirl, I would second the response from ThankstoJack. My daughter started the process at the beginning of sophomore year by sending an introductory letter and resume to a list of D1 and D3 schools that interested her from both an academic and athletic standpoint. She followed up with emails before and after each showcase event even though the coaches could not email back. Some communication took place via her club coach. We took unofficial visits to several of the colleges during sophomore spring break and the summer before junior year. I agree that the summer before junior year is an ideal time to attend camps or clinics at your top choices.</p>
<p>My daughter contacted coaches in the fall of her freshman year. She plays a spring sport. They attended several of her games during freshman and sophomore years. She attended a camp to which she was invited during sophomore year. Her school, which she will be attending this fall, has already verballed 2013 athletes. The scholarship offer was made in the fall of her junior year during her unofficial visit. Had she waited until then to contact the coaches, all monies would have been allotted to other candidates.</p>
<p>Check out berecruited.com. My 2013 D is a rower who has received much interest from coaches as a result of the profile info she has on berecruited. We paid the $ for the lifetime membership (maybe $60 total) and she can see which coaches view her. Then, after they view her, she sends a personal email and fills out their recruiting profile. It’s been amazing how much feedback she has received. We have a 2014 D who is following the same path. It’s not too early.</p>
<p>We have used BeRecruited, too. It’s been helpful with many schools - but not necessarily all the ones on my kid’s list. Some coaches won’t use it - but many will. </p>
<p>It’s definitely a good site - easy to set up and use, and some nice search features. </p>
<p>My D started using it in Sophomore year. Two weeks after setting up a profile, she was contacted by one of the Ivy league coaches in one of her sports.</p>