As the parent of a boy soccer player who will play D3 next year, we learned, sometimes the hard way, that the schedule is dictated by the level of the programs your player is interested in. Though not immersed in the girl side of soccer, we hear it from parents of high school girls – that by fall of junior year, the competitive D1 programs are filled and there is no more athletic money to be had. Now that seems crazy to me, and an issue for club and college coaches to address, but for kids who want to play in college, it is the current reality. There are a number of families who post here who navigated successful outcomes without being tied to the early 9th-10th grade commitment schedule for girl players. But the more common route is early commitment. Girls mature physically before boys, and the physical player you see at age 14-16 is not going to be much different at 17-18. With boys, there is wild swing, with some boys physically mature in 9th grade, seemingly dominating the field, but then outperformed by the late bloomers in 11th-12th grade.
In 10th grade, my son started to consider D1 vs D3 and began some broad research to see what kind of academic environment he preferred. By spring of 10th grade, he was leaning towards LAC, so D3, so we visited a few programs that spring to meet with coaches and start to learn about their recruiting process. Fall of 11th grade, he went to watch some matches of target schools to see the level of play, and continued building relationships with coaches in anticipation of summer between 11th-12th ID camps. As it turned out, some of the most competitive D3 programs had a deep list of possible recruits by spring of 11th grade, and he was late to that process. Unavoidable, in his situation, because of his club situation, but a bit of a shock to realize he was late to the party for schools he really liked by March-April of junior year. He has some great offers now, that he is very happy with. His ability to navigate this process was successful, in part, because he had the time to make some mistakes along the way with programs which turned out not to be his preferred choices. If it all had to happen at once, without the opportunity to learn from his missteps, I’m not sure it would have turned out as well for him.
Long story short – 1 year before recruiting is finalized is not enough time in the soccer world.