Help for sophomore soccer player!

Midwestmomofboys
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 03:51:27 +0000

Parent of late-blooming D3 Men’s soccer player here (also, not on coast and no DA within 2-3 hour drive) – if the goal is good LAC and to keep playing, he will be able to do so, keep a wide “funnel” of options and keep talking with programs. On the other hand, if the view were something like “a roster spot at Amherst, Williams or Swat or nothing” then it will be trickier. Broadly, our experience was that D3 recruiting accelerated the college application and decision process by about 6 months so that, by spring of sophomore year, he was making preliminary inquiries/introductions and by summer/early fall of senior year, he was done, since most (there are always exceptions) will expect ED in order to hold a roster spot.

As a sophomore playing major tournaments, he can start to reach out to programs of interest, with an email introducing himself, his academic and soccer profile (you can do google or CC search to see what to put into the email and an accompanying soccer resume). It probably doesn’t hurt to fill out the recruiting questionnaires at schools because that is usually a way to get on the mailing list for recruiting events etc. If he has major tournaments coming up, there is usually a link for the list of college coaches in attendance. He can email them in advance of the tournament to introduce himself, identify his matches/field numbers/jersey number so that coaches can come watch some of the match. Our sense was that coaches know boys develop at wildly different times, and are often are looking at other tangible, and intangible, skills, such as technical skill, vision, acceleration, grit, etc. since they know that the 16 year old string bean might be the 6’ 190 guy by freshman year of college.

So I would definitely encourage you and your son to keep exploring schools and soccer programs. There is a d3 mens soccer board – google it – which can be a useful resource on the style of play at specific schools, as well as on coaches, recruiting etc. Hang in there! I felt like there were so many moving pieces, but I had a blast watching my kid mature through the recruiting process and enjoy getting to watch him to continue to compete at the game he loves.