r/CollegeSoccer

Did the math on what we've spent on club fees, travel, hotels, tournaments, and private training over the last few years. It's more than a year of college tuition at a state school. We're not rich, both of us work full time and we've made sacrifices, skipped vacations, drove old cars, ate at home a lot. Now my daughter is committed to a d1 school but only got a partial scholarship. Still going to be paying thousands out of pocket and i see families at tournaments flying to showcases in Florida and California like it's nothing. Are people just going into debt for this or do they actually have that much money. Also how do you tell your kid to keep grinding when you're already stretched thin. Feeling like we're in too deep to stop but not sure how much longer we can keep going.
For live matches and replays https://www.reddit.com/live/1gvoj5bdj405w

There are a lot of posts about what NOT to do. I'd just like a clear one about what you did do that got you there. I don't want this to devolve into a series of rants, just clear, concise:

Played ECNL, sent 235 emails, got 4 responses from d3 schools, went on visits to all 4, preferred XYZ university because ______. Or Played MLSN, used my clubs recruiting coordinator, his friend from Ohio works at ABC College of Arts.

I'd prefer only answers of people who were on actual college rosters as freshman (or parents) in the last 10 years and not just people who heard a rumor about one but I can't police that.

This is a question for people who used him (Zev, who brands himself as College Soccer Guy)

My kid is entering 9th grade in the fall and asking if he should meet this guy to help with college recruiting. His reels show up occasionally for me and usually are interesting but sometimes come off as strange. For example little things like mispronouncing Antonee Robinson's name and saying MLS Next Academy teams don't get badges. I know on a 0-100 scale of importance these are likely about negative 25 but undoubtedly this service is expensive and it gave me pause.

If I had to make a nonexpert guess, again not knowing how puberty/high school will go, my kid tracks towards D3 (solid MLSN AD, with occasional games with HD). Is there a value to hire someone to help with what will likely by a D3 path?

Not sure if there are any college coaches that pass through here but it seems like I've seen a few comment from time to time so here we go.

If a player has an August birthday, in the mid-Atlantic at least, they will be playing primarily with a graduating class below them as all the schools I know of have a September 1st cut off for enrollment. My question is how would this change your view on that player? Assuming the player is playing ECNL or MLS HG.

Follow up, would you recommend "playing up" in some show cases if the organization would allow it if you were going in person to see the player?

I hope that makes sense. I know it's a bit of uncharted ground but that's why I'm looking for a little guidance.

Thanks!

my daughter committed to a d1 school two years ago. She was a star in club, scored every weekend. Now she's a sophomore and barely sees the field. Maybe ten minutes a game if she's lucky. she says she's okay with it but i sit in the stands watching her warm up knowing she probably won't go in and it just eats at me. She works so hard in practice, does everything right but the coach has her favorites and my kid isn't one of them. I don't say anything to her because i don't want to make it worse but man it's tough. anyone else been through this.

My daughter has to pick between a couple options for next season. I don't want to mention age but she's in the recruiting window.

We live in one of the top soocer markets in the US where she's currently on the ECRL team of a nationally known club. She has struggled to break onto the club's top, ECNL, team. The goal for her is to play in college but she's not sure if she wants D1 (the alternative would be a high academic D3).

She has been offered spots on two ECNL teams at two other clubs. Both would entail a tremendous sacrifice for our family (in terms of time spent driving to trainings since both are considerably farther away from our home and we have 2 other kids). As between these two, one appears to be considerably stronger than the other; they'll make playoffs and the players are stronger. My kid would probably be in the bottom half of this team and at the onset we'd worry about minutes. The other team is close to the bottom of the standings, and from the traininings, it appears my daughter would be in the top half. But it's still an ECNL team and would bring the exposure of ECNL. On her current team (RL), she is one of the top offensive players usually plays close to full minutes every game.

From watching the classes ahead of her, my sense is that it would be essential to play ECNL if the goal is D1. In addition, it seems it would be infinitely easier to get the attention of a D3 program playing on an ECNL team (vs an RL team). Does everyone agree?

If so, should we "suck it up" and put her on the weaker ECNL team? She enjoys her current club and it's just around the corner however we're worried that it might not be as helpful in recruitment.

Hello everyone,

My son is trying to make a decision between playing D3 soccer or UPSL, I’m reaching out to get some advice on which is better for his soccer career, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I've always wondered how top D3 schools would do against NAIA schools? I always hear that NAIA is like D2 level.

How would Messiah or UofChicago or Calvin do in the NAIA?

Anyone have experience and can speak to that? Thanks!

(Did a search and couldn't find anything addressing this...sorry if I missed something...)