College recruiting, national leagues, PL

yawhatever wrote:I have a '94 that plays on FWFC ( not a major club ) and we are 4th in the U16 Lake Highlands D1. We are in the thick of college recruiting and most kids will commit by this time next year. A few observations:

If you are a D1 team and go to major showcases PL, ODP, and the national league are unnecessary for colleges to get interested in your kid. Relax, typically the national leagues play at the same facility and time as a showcase and the college coaches attend both events.
At the Las Vegas showcase we had an average of 30 coaches at each game. My dd is a defender on the 4th palce team and we have recieved attention from more than enough colleges and every major one in Texas other than A&M.

Very few coaches in comparison go to the PL league games.
If you can't win State cup you probably don't have must chance in regionals ( a few exceptions but better odds in Vegas).
If your kid is good enough, your dd will get noticed and have lots of exposure at the showcases alone. If she is not, the national teams and PL won't make a difference.

College coaches pride themselves in finding talent and have been doing it for years. They are professionals at it and relishes finding the unkown wow girls that everyone else over looked.
We have 1 kid being looked at by Notre Dame and North Carolina, and we are not in PL or a national league. Most the coaches see these as bragging rights for the parents, but just another event they have to attend to scout for them.

When you are playing High school and practicing every day and doing 2 games a week, the kids actually stay fresher or more injury free by limiting non league play to fewer but more exposure events. The extra travel and games does not season them, if they dont have that maturity now, it is unlikely the extra will make a difference. Most U16 teams don't even bother with Labor Day, Memorial Day tournaments in Dallas, but focus on showcases.

The right level of college competition will find your daughter. Her talent level will decide college interest, not if she is in ODP, Pl, etc. The coaches are all over the landscape just looking for diamonds in the rough. If they are looking at my kid who can't decide if she wants to play soccer in college or run track, yours will probably have no problem getting the exposure you want! Mine is a starting D1 player, but by no means a star.

Relax, don't feel you have to spend the money, pick your college choices, email the coach your showcase schedule, and you'll be surprised how many coaches come and scout her or the team. If you have a kid on your team that has the talent to play at one of the top 20 teams in the nation, you will have every school imaginable shwoing up at your games. your daughter just has to show her stuff when they are watching. They typically only watch half the game, so get after it immediatly.

They all have different things they look for but all of them have one thing that will get your daughter dropped, if she appears slow. These coaches pride themselves in teaching missing skills, but they all ax a kid off their recruting list if they think she is slow! Spend your money on a little speed training if yourdd is border line, it's better spent than on what league you play in.

It does not matter if your team wins at the showcases. Most of the coaches don't even know the final score and sit between two fields alternating watching each field, not keeping track of the score.

It really is not as complex or hard as yo think. These coaches jobs depend on finding talent, only a handful have the luxury of sitting back and seeing who seeks them out. It is an extremely competitive enviornment and they WANT to look at your kid! You don't have to entice them lol!
A well placed call from your coach to a college you like is worth a whole season in PL.
It's fun, enjoy it!

yawhatever wrote:Not a great cause /effect analyisis. All your saying is the top clubs put kids on good colleges. This has absolutely nothing to do with National leagues or PL. It just means they have good players and thats why they are a top club. Those exact teams landed top kids at top colleges before the national teams were ever formed.

Look if your just want to wave the flag in support of national teams, fine, but either your dd has the talent or not, if she does, believe me the college coaches will see her and be all over you. If she does not, they wil just line her out on their list as they watch the other kids on the team.

When a coach comes to watch your team he gets a team brochure that has a bio of every kid. Then as kids make plays ( even the ones he did not come to watch , or did not know about ), they make notes on the brochure. The bio will have your kids email and they will send a email saying they cannot cotact your till your junior year, but they noticed you. Then they will call your coach and tell him to line you up for an unoffical visit, or for you to come to their camp. Game on!

In all honesty, the best way to get the top colleges to scout your team, is to have a player or two on your team who draws attention. I state again, from someone who has been there versus just using my noggin and theory, we have two kids on our team who are being looked at by the top colleges, we are not in a national league, are not in PL, ( but did win State Cup last year).

My dd gets seen by all these guys and when she plays well they notice. In the Las Vegas showcase we had 80 some coaches watch our games. At the final 4 showcase we had in the 40's. If your can't some coaches out of that many interested in your dd, your are misguided about what "exposure" will do for her. And the coaches are the best at evaluating talent and the programs that approach you will be compatiable with yoru daughters skill level.

Don't think you have to spend the extra dollars and time just for her to get seen. Actually do some research, talk to a few big 12 coaches, and by all means, if your daughter has a college in mind, GO TO THEIR CAMP! Almost every program ( including the small colleges ) have camps and they are better than anything else to get feedback on your daughters skill level vesus college players. You also get her in front of the actual coaches who will recruit her. But you have to go to the college prep camp, not the camp for 10-15 year olds. They are like night and day.

I'm not trying to be negative or mean on the national teams of PL, but I was lucky enough to have people explain to me how it all worked and my daughter is well positioned now. I am just returning the favor ( play it forward lol ).

yawhatever wrote:
Summer camps are money making ventures for the head coaches. If you're on a team that gets the right exposure (NL, ECNL, Premier, Regionals, Nationals) the camps are unnecessary, and, in some cases, a waste of time. If you need the exposure, then the camps might be useful (especially if you target realistically-you shouldn't bother with UNC camp unless you are one of the very top players in the region, and fit the UNC mold).

DrSoccer wrote:Each player's situation is different. Some want full rides to top 20 D1 colleges, while others just want to get partials to any college team. By looking at the recent signees from LH you can see which team's (PL/NL/D1/D2) players committed where. Although it doesn't show the scholarship level. Some players will turn down partial offers from top soccer colleges to attend a lesser college for free. Many parent's only choose between the highest $ offers, not the quality of the socc. program or education. Also consider that most colleges only have 12-14 scholarships and the class signing size is usually pretty high ex-Rice-8,Portland-7,TCU-8,Tech-9)

Curlpappa wrote:Does anybody send game highlight dvds of their dd to colleges like Im doing for my son in football? Im referring to a middle d1 to d2 starters.

ontheball wrote:I miss the man in the straw hat. Thanks for all the insight.

96Guru wrote:

ontheball wrote:I miss the man in the straw hat. Thanks for all the insight.

Hey OTB, I miss Taco. Where has she been?

yawhatever wrote:

Curlpappa wrote:Does anybody send game highlight dvds of their dd to colleges like Im doing for my son in football? Im referring to a middle d1 to d2 starters.

The more usable is well edited clips on youtube and email them a link along with your showcase schedule. They are more likly to actually watch them since they can just click and view. But some do send a DVD, but it is not very common.