My 29 plays club soccer in the spring and is currently on his varsity high school team as well. The two teams play very different styles of soccer, and while he does get playing time on his high school team, it’s not as much as he’s historically seen for his club team. He is not on an MLSNext team, but made it through to - and missed due to other commitments - the second round tryout for the club’s AD team. The disappointment was significant, and he’s set his sights on that for the spring, but right now, he has to sort out how to handle this fall season. He’s working hard to adjust to the high school team’s style of play and is responding to coach feedback about what they want to see from him so that he can get more minutes. The team itself is OK - not great, but not terrible, with most of the kids having a different sport as their primary focus. We have discussed exploring transferring schools to get him into a program that has more dedicated soccer players, but he has a great group of friends, is thriving academically, and is otherwise pretty happy at his school. It seems penny-wise and possibly pound-foolish to change schools just for his sport at this point.
He’s interested in pursuing soccer in some form after high school, and he knows he will have to put together a highlight reel as part of that process. My question is if he doesn’t have great minutes from his school team to showcase and ends up relying more on spring club play highlights, will that become an issue? And if he does end up having decent minutes to showcase from his fall season, but the overall level of play from his team or their competition isn’t great, should he still use those highlights?
Lots of college athletes played on bad hs teams. If they have the talent….
Personally, in your situation, I wouldn’t switch to another hs - which may have a cost beyond the emotional. What guarantee does he have of playing elsewhere ? What if his coach changes and the new coach has a new style ?
As an athlete, you have to adapt.
If he’s in 10th grade, maybe there are simply older athletes ahead of him for playing time.
What if he gets injured or simply doesn’t have the talent to play in college ? Or the measurables - height, speed, etc ?
Personally, he’s happy socially and thriving academically. Why mess with a good thing ?
But this is the perspective of a non athlete parent who is risk averse, in general.
I would be loathe to move a student from a HS where they are happy and have good friends. A couple of things to keep in mind:
-- If he wants to be a recruited athlete, some students do a pg year at a strong school for their sport.
--Many colleges have club teams (some of which do play at a pretty high level). This route will be less time consuming than being a varsity athlete and could be something to consider.
Just as an fyi, most states do not allow this. The majority of those that do are in the Northeast and I believe Florida does also. So OP would need to check their state’s governing body.
Thanks everyone! This is a big help. To clarify, as far as we can tell, he does not want to transfer because the other parts of his school experience are going really well. And he is putting in the work to make the soccer experience better. Honestly, we don’t want him to transfer either - it was just something we talked about during his early season struggles because we were worried about him. But he’s taking this as a healthy challenge, and there are a lot of positives to how this is all playing out that he may not realize or understand just yet. Just one step in a long journey.
All of which points to not transferring to a new high school.
My BIL was recruited for soccer in college. He played for a bit, got injured, that was the end of that. He never regarded it that seriously though and went on with his life. Sports, for the vast majority of students, are a fun pastime. In a similar vein, I am working with a semi-professional dancer who has never attended a physical high school. Her entire life has revolved around dance. Then she got injured and it looks as if her career is over before it started. All her friends are dancers, living together in a training academy. She is now quickly applying to college in the US. I’m not sure if she thinks it was a good idea to give up the opportunity to enjoy her teen years fully.
You might all stop to consider what he feels his future looks like and what is most important in the long run.
If he wants to play varsity soccer at a university he’d be happy to attend, his best chance, by far, is to be a strong contributor on an MLS NEXT Homegrown Division squad. And those folks aren’t even allowed to play high school soccer under all but very special circumstances. Even most so-called MLS NEXT Academy Division players will not be recruited, because this is mainly just rebranding of higher-rated regular club teams. The only realistic exception would probably be a kid who could play MLS NEXT Homegrown but doesn’t, but who has the physical attributes coaches really covet. But even they have little chance.
Therefore, there is no reason to switch high schools, unless you are talking something really specific, such as to Shattuck St. Mary’s in MN, the only high school I know of that’s in MLS NEXT Homegrown.
I just wanted to briefly second this sentiment. Travel club teams in college can be a pretty great solution for team sports kids who really love the competition and camaraderie, but want to make it easier to balance their sport with a more or less normal college experience, academically and socially, at the college of their choice. In soccer in particular, the better club teams tend to have some really excellent players, including recruitable players who either weren’t recruited by any colleges they wanted to attend, or who just decided they didn’t like the varsity route (too much of a time commitment, they wanted better playing time prospects, or so on).
In a way, college club sports remind me of what people at least claim were the old days of college sports–true student athletes doing it for the love of the game. And I think a lot of the kids who do them end up really appreciating that vibe.
I agree that college club teams can be a good alternative, but it’s important to understand what the student/families have to pay for uniforms, field/ice/indoor training time, tourney entry fees, and travel. Some teams aren’t funded at all, while some teams do have budgets provided by the school that run the gamut…from a bit of funding to full funding.
My point…know the deal before deciding to attend said school with the intent to play club. I personally know many students/parents who had no idea the costs they would incur for these teams. I also know students who have stopped playing club because it was too intense/time consuming.
Absolutely, and as you are suggesting, there is a large variety in terms of both the financial and time commitment, even within the same sport but at different colleges, or sometimes between different clubs at the same college (soccer is often popular enough for a college to field both A and B teams, and B teams may have lower fees and time commitments than A teams).
Obviously when picking a college there are more fundamental things, like your overall budget and it having academic programs you might want. But when you are getting more into the “wants” versus “needs” stuff, I think actually investigating the details of any club program of interest can be a good idea.
Absolutely right! My D26 plays club Vball. The upperclasswomen on her team complained that last year they qualified for Nationals and the school refused to pay for any of their travel.
So they wound up not going, which is a shame.
The good news is that it apparently kicked off a round of discussions about what the school is actually doing with their Club Sports money. If they qualify this year, they should get funding and go.
I agree with the above reasons to stick with his HS team.
Reality also when he gets to college, assuming he makes the team, is that playing time is far from guaranteed. Unless he is a day one impact player, he will be competing for playing time with fellow recruits and returning players. Knowing how to handle being a non-starter and what you have to do to become a starter is valuable experience.
Yes, we’re both aware of the difference between HG and AD teams, and we’ve been talking a lot (when he’s willing to listen) about the hard realities of the recruiting landscape for the sport he loves. He’s got his sights set on a HG squad, and aside from the fact that he’s got work to do to standout in any tryout for that squad, his geographic reality will be an issue. He’s at prep school, 90+ minutes from the nearest HG training ground, and his primary transportation (me) is nearly an additional 2 hours from him - depending on the road conditions. The AD squad trains marginally closer. I’ve managed a lot of driving the past few years, since he started logging 90 minute drives to the nearest decent club, along with supplemental technical training, as an 8th grader. But I honestly don’t know what we would do if he did make a HG squad, and what it would mean for his life at school. Right now, it’s a reach goal and he’s focused on improving his playing time and making sure the minutes he gets are quality.
This is something we’ll very much be keeping on the table for him. We learned a fair bit about college club soccer on a few of the tours I took with my 27 last year. And as you said, the tour guides did talk about players who could have played for the collegiate team but opted instead to play for the club and focus on their academics and the rest of college life. I think my 29, headstrong as he is, is still not ready to really consider this option, so if he’s willing to put in the work that becoming a recruited player will demand, we’ll support him on that journey, even if the odds are not in his favor that it will play out the way he hopes it will.
This. While it’s been tough to watch, I am kind of grateful that he is facing this roadblock because it’s challenging his mindset and he’s learning so much about himself and what it means to really work towards a goal.
It’s an average program - definitely not one of the standouts or well-known ones that produce a fair number of recruits and not at the bottom either. He’ll still very much have to put in the work on the field in both seasons, get decent film, and put in the work off the field as well.