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.