Some D2 universities are atypical academically (UCSD, Mines, for instance, or even Truman State). Most D2 universities are more along the lines of Bloomsburg, Cal State Chico, Adams State, Francis Marion College, etc. and focus recruiting top-notch soccer players who may not have the future-pro skills and strengths for D1 nor the academic chops for D3 (or may not meet the NCAA D1 requirements!)
“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take”. You won’t know what will happen until you try it. While I have no knowledge of how high school soccer works, I believe that if you really love soccer that much and have a passion for it, you will definitely get somewhere with it. Also, some people say that for college it’s important to be well rounded, but in many or even most cases it’s better to just be extremely passionate about one thing so it might be okay to let go of one or two ECs to become really good at something. Hope this helped!
The D2 academic requirements are very similar to D1. The D3 players don’t have to go through the clearinghouse, but can’t imagine any wouldn’t clear.
I posted that list to show that top schools require top academics AND top athletics. I don’t know that much about soccer (but did see some of the Liverpool game today!) but even a school like Mines, which doesn’t have the top soccer team, still has a team full of DA/club level players. Schools have plenty of great players to choose from who have top academics.
I’m sure if a truly great soccer player who didn’t play club came to the attention of the college coach that player could be recruited, but how does that player get in front of a coach? It’s hard because all the club players have the film, tournaments, camps, club coaches putting their names in front of college coaches. The ‘high school only’ player has to do it all just to get notices. I’m sure it can be done but it would take a lot of work.
I recognize some of the high schools the instate players attended. They are all top sports schools, but those players also played on club teams.
@Midwestmomofboys I recall Femi (I’m in New England). The exception that proves the rule about HS-only soccer?
@squ1rrel Here’s an anecdote about MIT a very plugged in person told me. He speaks with a lot of college coaches and was “recommending” a player who had an interest in engineering, had 790 math SAT, and played DA. The MIT coach without blinking asked, “What did he score on the math subject test?”. Academics, academics. That all said, MIT athletics is pretty robust (especially helmet football).
Also, MIT accepts 8% of its applicants. The coach said he gets about 40% of his recruits in. So he was pretty pumped that his guys have a 5x better chance. Which is significant, except those players, if recruited anywhere else (and I’ll assume anyone with a realistic/reasonable chance at MIT has similar prospects at Ivy+/NESCAC etc) would be a near 100% acceptance recruit. (Though I thought I read somewhere that Harvard’s recruits have 80% acceptance rate.)
@AmBuddha MIT, Chicago , Carnegie Mellon, top NESCACs coaches all ask for transcripts and test scores berfore they even consider someone for recruiting. For MIT coach asked specifically for Math/Science ACT subscores. The MIT track coach has a page you can google that lays out in detail what he wants (Must take Calc B/C in high school) etc… Anyway that 40% number is after discouraging or not supporting applicants after they have screened through their academics and they want them for soccer. Also, “smart” recruits at MIT are going to ask what number the athlete is ranked. (for soccer the coach is happy to rank 1 through 10 but if you are number 10 for athletics your chances of getting in are much lower than being ranked #1).
to the OP since soccer is a very affluent sport in the US (there’s a story of one of the 1990s womens national teams where multiple players had cardiologists as parents), the tippy top academic schools in D3 easily fill their rosters with just academy or near academy (ECNL on girls side) level players so why “risk” it with someone playing no club. Also academically, showing a player can handle both club and doing well in school is important for top D3s since that’s what they expect in college. Realistically, you would need to email specific coaches and go to their camp if you wanted to be recruited even if you have high school film to see if they have interest with your grades/test scores. Do lots of email contact or phone calls first - never show up “cold” and unknown at a camp.
@anon145 How do I get started? Do I just, out of the blue, email them? What is the rule for when I can communicate them—I am very confused with all of the rules.
soccer at least on the girls side just changed the rules again this year! however, coaches can always answer phone calls if YOU call them. they may not be able to respond specifically to emails though. My last kid is a senior graduating/committed so I don’t know what’s changed. Also, coaches club or high school can act as go betweens so you could ask a coach to make a contact . This seems to suggest after June of sophomore year they can correspond?
https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-soccer/recruiting-rules-calendar
The NCAA rules don’t apply to D3!! So if you email a d3 coach they absolutely can respond. A d1 coach is only allowed to reply with camp info.
OP I would only listen to advice from parents that have been through soccer recruiting. I think there are a few unrealistically rosy posts in the thread.
As for how to start, there are many guides. Basically yes, you email the coaches with a brief introductory letter, your soccer profile and maybe some video.
I really do think you need to play club or DA soccer though, even if Seacoast isn’t that great. Coaches look at individual players not teams.
Also, although you were a top player at age 12, you haven’t been playing and training at a high level since. The soccer players that want to play in college that I know not only are playing ~10 months a year at the highest level they can, they are working out regularly so they get stronger, they are working on fitness and agility. Just because they are putting in the time and work, they are moving ahead of you. Not saying you can’t move ahead of them, just that to keep up or do better you are going to have to put in the time and effort.
All the talent in the world won’t get you very far if you don’t also put in the work.
OP can’t have “lost” that much of his talent if he’s a freshman on the varsity team. And I assume that, even when he’s not playing, he runs/lifts weights etc. (Correct?)
If OP wants to focus on academics and have soccer as a nice bonus, perhaps be recruitable for a high academics/lower soccer results school but academics first, then focusing on academics with HS varsity rather than focusing on soccer with less intensity on academics is a good choice. If OP wants to reach a high level in soccer and have decent academics, then club soccer and fewer AP’s/advanced classes is a better choice.
Or you could take a soccer-focused gap year, ask to spend a year abroad in a banlieue school in France such as Mbappe’s and train in their club there. 
Agree that focusing on academics is always the best idea (ok, or the best idea for 99.9% of players!). But those “high academic lower soccer” schools like MIT, Johns Hopkins, William’s etc are not taking kids that only played high school. Then there’s the Ivy League, where you most certainly cannot just play high school.
I don’t believe the OP was on the varsity team. He wrote he was called up and then sent back. The coach may not have made a good decision, or may have, we don’t know.
The thing to do is look at the roster for any college you are interested in and see what the soccer background of the players is.
@cinnamon1212 @MYOS1634 Our soccer program is one of the most competitive in the state. We have a freshman team, two JV teams, and the varsity team. Our freshman team won states this year, and typically they move up two freshman to JV and almost never to varsity. I was moved up to JV and performed very well, and thus I was moved up to varsity; I was given the kit and officially put onto the roster. However, the game I was supposed to play was postponed until a later date, and I played another JV match in the interim; I was tired and didn’t know the varsity coach was watching, and had a poor performance. You can guess what happened after that.
@squ1rrel I am sure you are a very strong soccer player!
But if you want to pursue college recruiting (and I know you aren’t sure you want to) I would urge you to test yourself with and against the best possible competition.
Prep school soccer is also known to be very strong and even at that level there are freshmen on the best teams (Berkshire, South Kent).
If you want to pursue recruiting you will need to do things that you can put on your soccer resume.
@cinnamon1212 I actually was accepted into Phillips Exeter last year and even though I knew that the soccer there would be a lot more competitive, I decided not to go for other various reasons. I guess that does show that soccer doesn’t mean THAT much to me. Soccer, in the long run, won’t matter much to me as I’m probably not going to go pro, no matter how badly I want to or how hard I work. In the long run, I’ll be better off spending more time on Com Sci to secure a good job. Soccer is great and everything, but what I do now shapes what I will be when I grow up. I fear that if I spend too much time on a sport I love, it might not be as fruitful as if I spend time on other things that could be more useful. College isn’t everything…but then again, I spend a lot of time on this website. Oof
To play devil’s advocate for a moment, though, an athletic recruit with top academics can go almost anywhere. An athletic hook is the strongest hook there is.
Not saying you should pursue soccer recruiting though, just putting it into context. But you have to LOVE soccer and know you want to work on it one way or another 6 days a week for most of the year (as a rule, as a rule).
My I ask a legit question. Can you juggle the ball, only using your feet (no knees, head, etc.) and if so how many times can you juggle it without the ball hitting the ground? Or how how long, in terms of seconds/minutes, can you juggle?
@sushiritto That was a skill I started practicing when I was 7 or so. By age 11 or 12, I surpassed the 1,000 mark (took me around 10 minutes or so). I haven’t tried to break it since then, but I could honestly go on forever. I used to juggle in the confined spaces of my room, and I would mess up only because furniture would be in my way lol. I did this by alternating feet. I can use all part of my body, but going consecutively with my head is a bit hard (record around 20). My favorite is using my heel; I’ve gotten almost 30! I never really pursued freestyle, but I learned how to do the around the world a few years back. I can do it with both feet, and I can also consecutively go from an outside around the world to an inside around the world without another touch in between.
Yes, I was talented way back then. It’s a different story now.
One other question, have you recently run a beep test? If so, what level did you attain?
@sushiritto I think you mean a pacer test? Where we run back and forth and the pace speeds up? The last time I ran one was in 7th grade, when I beat all the 8th graders in my school and got in the high 140s. My track times are:
100m: 13
200m: 27
400m: Sub 60
800m: Sub 2:20
1 mile: 5:04
5k: 19:20 (kinda slow, only ran once, not very useful for soccer anyway)
An almost 5 minute mile is blisteringly fast! At least it is for a soccer player!
My son’s high school coach requires 2 miles in 12 minutes.