“The way I look at it, we only have one shot to get this right and I’d hate to reflect back on the process in three years and be left with the impression we started too late.”
Exactly! This is the source of a lot of my stress! That said, this thread has calmed me down quite a bit. I do think that once the overtures (possibly more than once) are made the ball is really in the coaches’ court.
As for the stories of last minute scrambles, I know they happen. One of my older sons didn’t do club soccer but was a very serious goalkeeper. A coach saw him and reached out in Nov/Dec of my son’s senior year. Clearly his first (and second and third . . .) goalkeeper fell through. That school was one of my son’s reach schools, and at the top of his list. And yes, my son is playing for them today.
However I can take virtually nothing away from that experience as he didn’t go through the normal recruiting process.
I am looking forward to the day when I can help parents after me, there is such a learning curve!