Full Send or No Send Soccer?

@cinnamon1212 No, the pacer test was in 7th grade. My mile time was recorded last summer.

@squ1rrel still very fast! (I saw that it wasn’t in 7th grade on rereading your post)

@squ1rrel You previously mentioned that you were a guest player for Seacoast Academy but the coach never followed up again. If you decide you want to pursue college soccer I’d suggest joining that team, if he’s still interested. That would effectively end your high school career though.

Okay, you can play on @cinnamon1212 's team. Now you have to convince a few college coaches that you are worth the risk.

Do you want to play soccer in college or do you want to use soccer to get into college. You have to decide. If you want to use it as a hook, you will greatly improve your chances by playing club.

@twoinanddone @GKUnion I’ve come to realize this, and I probably have to make the decision after next fall. My option to play Seacoast is always open, but I’m just not sure I have the mentality to do so. I will see next year. Having the hook is enticing…

We call it the “beep” test or it’s affectionately called the “bleep” test. The test measures VO2 max with the intensity increasing at each beep. My kid plays a different sport at the HS level and a minimum of Level 10 is required.

That’s pretty much the standard, but a pacer or beep test measures your VO2 max and I’m curious what the OP’s level is today. Although with a 5:00/min mile, the OP could probably run track at Harvard. Seriously, you may want to focus on track, not soccer. :smile:

I may have missed it, what grade are you? I ask about juggling and beep tests, because these are basic requirements as you progress up the soccer ladder and will help determine the level of play in which you can compete, if you desire ultimately to play college soccer.

For example, I’m located near Stanford, so one of their fitness tests players are required to pass is being able to perform a series of 10 sprints of 120 yards, with each to be completed within 18 seconds. Rest is consisted of a jog back to the starting line. Now, granted Stanford is D1 at the very highest level, but I was curious and wanted to know where you stood today.

@sushiritto 5:00 min mile seems pretty slow, I have friends in my grade who run below 5:00…although they don’t go to my school. There’s a kid at my school going to Dartmouth next year who runs a 3:57.

I’m a freshman in HS right now. My endurance and skill has always been better than most people, but I lack size and strength.

Are you male or female?

@sushiritto male, height is 5’ 5’’ - 5’ 6’’ and weight is <120

@cinnamon1212 is right. Ivy league is generally only taking top D1 level talent (especially on the girls side, Harvard/Princeton get national team pool players). (I’m less familiar with the boys side; but the “word” is top programs are only (99%) taking players from academy teams. And as I said, for top academic D3s showing you can handle club duties and excel at school is kind of what top NESCACs, MIT, CMU want to see. Ironically, many many more top girls play both high school and GDA, whereas for boys that’s not allowed. So the chance of a high school only boy getting recruited to top D3 or D1 is near zero. For D3, I suppose it’s possible to show up at a school and be so far ahead of the rest AND have stellar academics that the student is “free” to the coaches and doesn’t count against their allotment.

@squ1rrel What is your birth year? Some teams are better than others at different ages. Would you play up?

To put things in perspective, a quick check shows Seacoast has one 2019 commit (Holy Cross) but Global Premier Soccer has three (UNH, Providence, Winthrop). You may not need Seacoast if you can make a top Global Premier team. That way you could still play high school soccer.

Seacoast does have the lone Class of 2020 commit for NH though (UNH).

@GKUnion Birth year is 2004. 2004 happens to be the worst seacoast academy team. the 05’s are insane and undefeated in both the fall and spring seasons; the 03s are decent. My dad and I were thinking about whether or not I could play up for the 03s. That could be a possibility in the future, but all those kids have been playing soccer consecutively for years. I haven’t played club soccer since 6th grade; it’d be hard for me to adjust.

The question comes back to, the OP likes the idea of soccer as an admissions edge for elite schools, but soccer is not what he lives and breathes, at least now. The advice has circled around the idea that, recruiting at elite schools is almost always for elite athletes who can meet the academic parameters rather than for elite academics who are also good soccer players, though with MIT, Cal Tech, and a handful of others, the balance tips more to elite academics with excellent sport. For college men’s soccer programs, playing high school only (unless you are Femi, as above), will not suffice. Guys are running, lifting, training in the winter and summer, and playing fall and spring soccer. Once you get recruited, playing D1 soccer in season is probably 35-40 hours a week and playing D3 soccer, at least in the in top 50% of the teams, is probably 25-30 hours a week. Unless you live and breathe and sleep soccer, it is not rewarding use of time. OP has said he likes the idea of a hook, but doesn’t really want to commit the time to soccer.

You don’t live and breathe soccer, you just like the edge. That’s not how it works. Another hint is that you were tired on the JV game and couldn’t play at top level.
Don’t worry about soccer. Play HS soccer, be excellent, and focus on your academics. If college soccer is in the cards, it’ll happen. But right now your heart isn’t in it.
Excellent HS soccer is fine considering your goal is first and foremost topnotch CS programs.

TBH, completely off-topic, but if I were the OP’s dad (or mom), then I’d be a wee bit curious about track and what it could do for my son, especially at the current height and weight and lack of recent soccer skills training.

A 5:05 mile (not a 1,500 or 1,600) w/o any real track or strength training is pretty darn good for a HS freshman. And a track hook could get the OP to an excellent college as well. The men’s soccer hook is a really crowded field, not nearly as many teams as females, with much taller and heavier boys to compete against.

The best mile time in CA this year is 4:09 and that’s the best time in a HUGE state. The 16th best is 4:32.

^I agree.
OP, could you talk to the track coach?

@sushiritto has a point. I know a decent soccer player that ended up getting a scholarship to a great school because he stumbled upon the fact that he could really throw the javelin his sophomore year of high school.

By way of comparison, my older son is a sophomore at a large D1 school with a top 50 soccer team. He played high school soccer and high level club soccer (not DA). He’s 6 feet tall and weighs 180 lbs. He runs a sub 5:00 mile, and if you’re familiar with CrossFit, his Murph time is 30:45 with a 20 lbs weighted vest. Two years removed from fairly strong soccer, despite his size and athleticism, he would barely make the schools club team. It’s full of very strong soccer players that couldn’t/wouldn’t commit to D1 college soccer.

As @Midwestmomofboys said above, if you aren’t all in on soccer it’s a waste of your very valuable time.

I’d look at track and see where that takes you.

The track coach has been begging me to join after seeing my stats from gym class, but I’ve never really found much pleasure in running. All the track kids want me to quit soccer and do track because they don’t think soccer will get me anywhere…

Maybe I’ll take a look, but I just don’t think I can train with passion.

Who likes running anyway? Answer: No one. I’m kidding. I hate running, but I run most days. And it’s easy enough.

With some actual training with a track coach, you might be quite successful and maybe even parlay your running into a recruited athlete hook. How many 14-year olds can lace up their shoes and run a 5-minute mile w/zero training. Few. I’d check it out.

I believe that I’m the only one on this website, besides you, who knows (and has done a few) what a “Murph” is. :smiley:

Again, what are you trying to accomplish? Do you just want a hook into an elite school? Do you want a big D1 school (on another thread you mentioned UIUC)? do you want to play soccer or be on the track team?

You have some decisions to make.