My kid’s sport is not soccer but a smaller niche sport. But generally I think it is true that many sports, it is the athlete’s involvement in his/her club that attracts the college coaches, then being in their school varsity team. Our school is also an academically elite school not known for sports. However, majority of the athletes who are being recruited by the academically elite Div 1 schools have never been in the school varsity. Kids with top national ranking weren’t allowed by the school’s AD to be excused from practice to train in their club to prep for national and international events. Some Ivy coach in my kid’s sport even said it doesn’t matter to him if he played in the high school varsity.