S28 is both a natural athlete and an incredibly hard worker. He loves to play, and loves to practice both with his team and off the field. But he isn’t attached to a particular sport. He loves them all. He also has other interests.
This is the second spring that he’s been sidelined with overuse/growth injuries, and it’s making us question the wisdom of playing the same sport all year round.
He is wondering if it’s possible to play a varsity sport each season, do some summer camps for each, training outside of school, maybe guest play some tournaments and showcases, and get recruited without playing on a club team. The sport would be either soccer or lacrosse.
Has anyone seen that work? Is it just not realistic? He really likes the idea of playing in college.
I have not seen it work with men’s soccer, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. If you did that, I would guess you’d want to play in a lot of on-campus ID camps to get seen.
I think coaches want to see how someone plays against tough competition (anyone can look good against a weak opponent!) which is why they favor club soccer. Plus, soccer is such a subjective sport, being on a highly ranked team instantly gives coaches information about a player that they might not be willing to find out in other ways.
I haven’t seen it work either…but there’s a lot of info we don’t have, for example, what level of school/team he would be targeting. P4/5? Highly selective D1 schools? Elite D3? Is the intent to potentially use athletically recruiting to gain admission to a highly rejective school?
A few thoughts:
if he is suffering from overuse injuries, perhaps playing varsity in college doesn’t make sense. Just putting that out there because there aren’t many breaks during the college year, obviously this decision would be unique to each athlete and family.
He might consider playing a club team in college rather than varsity. For example, if we are talking P4/5 schools the club teams in men’s soccer and lacrosse tend to be very good, some are even better than D3 teams. Club teams could make sense because you say he has other interests besides sports. College academics plus playing a varsity sport is a tough road at any NCAA level…not much time for other interests.
If he just wants to play varsity in college and is open to many types of schools, there may be an opportunity (depending on his skill level) where he could walk on to one of the varsity teams. Obviously less likely the better the team, but if he wants to play, he probably can find a spot. But it could be at a high acceptance rate D1/2/3 school, for example.
The decisions he is facing are all part of the growing up process. How important is playing one specific sport to him at the varsity level, when considered with his academic and career goals, and his other interests? Typically something has to give. He doesn’t have to know the answer now, but should be keeping things in perspective. For now, it sounds like he should focus on rehabbing his body so he can get back to athletics, assuming that’s what he wants to do.
I don’t think it’s necessarily an issue, specially if he is willing to cast a wide net and maybe “play down” a little, consider all divisions etc. and making sure he is strong academically too.
He can make up for it by making lots of videos and marketing himself proactively (do you follow coach Renee?)
Regardless of it being doable or not, it sounds like that is the best decision for his body. If he flames out with injuries he certainly won’t be playing either.
His PT and physician both seem to make it out that overuse injuries aren’t uncommon during the growth spurt. So, perhaps there are lots of kids who end up on the sidelines on a regular basis.
At this point, I don’t think he’s ready to give up on the idea of NCAA. It’s quite possible that with some maturity that will change.
Part of the issue is he doesn’t really care which sport. He just loves to play. He’s playing a different sport this year than last year, in part because of injury but also because he likes challenge and picking up a new sport seemed like a challenge.
He likes the highly rejective schools, and we’ll qualify for need based aid which is generally better at those schools. But he also likes our state flagship, which I’d describe as moderately rejective and if he keeps his current grades and level of rigor he should be accepted without sports. But he’s young, who knows?
I concur with @cinnamon1212 that it is hard. Perhaps not impossible but tough.
DS (all-league high school player who stopped playing club) talked to a couple of coaches at his top choice schools (all D3) who said flat out that they would only recruit from club teams. He didn’t want to pursue recruitment at his next tier of schools (still D3) as he wanted to hold out for one of his top choices. Iow, he was willing to prioritize the school over being a college athlete.
After being admitted to some of those next tier schools, he DID reach out to coaches who asked for tape, and in a few cases, had him join a captain’s practice at revisit, and told him he’d have a roster spot if he attended. Which is all to say that at some schools, your son could play without having to do the whole recruitment, ED process. There’s a risk that he won’t get to play, but some schools are more open to walk-ons/non-recruits than others. This is a conversation worth having with coaches at schools he’s considering.
DS was encouraged to play his second sport (lax) at a couple of schools after being admitted. It seems some schools carry pretty big practice rosters.
This is all to say that your son may want to evaluate how hard it is to walk on, especially at schools where he doesn’t need to be recruited to be admitted.
Just saying some of the best crew/rowing recruits were soccer players that switched due to injuries. Not sure where you live and if crew is a sport in your area - but if he loves the competition and being on a team - I’ll throw out crew Historically, several Olympic rowers didn’t start until college and came from soccer and swimming backgrounds and it is not uncommon for a HS sophomore to start the sport and be a competitive college recruit.
The crew coach ended up grabbing my kid! But that’s much the same as being a walk-on – no recruitment or guarantees during the application process, but an opportunity to be on a team.
He really wants to play for his school. He played soccer this fall, and liked it, and his ideal would be to play soccer, something in the winter, and lacrosse in the spring.
They don’t have crew at his school, and I don’t think switching from one sport year round sport to another is the answer. I’ll suggest it though.
It’s good to know he might be able to walk on to crew.
To be clear, I said “recruited” because I thought the new settlement meant walk ons aren’t a thing anymore. But maybe that’s not true at D3? Or maybe I’m just totally confused?
First, it depends on what one means as a walk-on. At big athletic money programs (D1, but not all) a walk-on is anyone that did not receive an athletic scholarship. Most of these athletes are still recruited. But when most people here say walk on, we are talking about someone who applied, got in on their own, and then was able to join the team. Sometimes via try outs, other times through communication with the coach and even before the year starts.
In any case, IME it’s not so much that walk-ons are no longer a thing but as excellent athletes get squeezed out of top programs, they move on to the next tier and so on. So it becomes increasingly difficult to show up and “be good enough” For example, many P4 swim programs are imposing severe cuts, including on some of the very best swimmers in the country. At the same time a top D3 swim program has fielded 50+ transfer inquiries from D1 swimmers. Even a team with no roster limits can only be so big. Someone who might have been able to walk on last year might not have a spot next year because the team is truly at capacity.
Soccer is feeling the effects of the roster cuts. Top d3 teams are absolutely looking for d1 transfers, or players that in past years would have gone d1.
Just to emphasize a point here: if your son wants to be recruited at the NCAA level to a highly rejective school, he’s going to need to demonstrate a true commitment to that sport - unless he’s a true outlier (like the very best recruit that school might find in that sport/position), not competing at a club level when there are opportunities is a red flag. (Injuries are as well, though this can vary, and of course your student’s health is most important.)
You might find coaches who are ok with a player who plays club soccer in one season and lax in the other, and so can’t compete on their HS team. I can’t imagine finding coaches who would be comfortable with HS-only.
Coaches (even at D3 schools) understand that varsity competition is a huge time and mental commitment, plus want to know that you can play well on their elite team, and will strongly prefer students who have demonstrated that already (and they have lots of choices).
For better or worse, there are places for kids who just love to play sports: they’re called club and intramural.
I cannot answer your question, but would be concerned about overuse injuries.
Since your son is just a freshman, expect some change in his interests. (Has he discovered girls yet ?)
In my opinion,it would be best to just let him enjoy his freshman & sophomore years to see how he develops physically and the direction of his interests.
This should be a major concern for the OP. By the end of the NCAA fall soccer season almost every player’s body hurts…all over. Spring season could be even worse if practices transition off of the grass field to turf. That compounds the pain. The athletic trainers get VERY busy.
Like others, I haven’t seen this work much. But part of that might be because I’ve never known a recruitable athlete that didn’t want to prioritize their main sport by 10th grade or so.
However, I’ve known plenty of recruits who were able to manage a secondary sport as well as manage loading over the course of a year in the primary sport.
Have you talked to the coaches about this? I coached Track/XC for many years and had a lot of soccer recruits come out to run or jump in the spring. I communicated with the club coaches on weekly load and periodization. Some of them were great. Others I could tell were trying to squeeze out as much as they could at age 16. If you have multiple clubs available this might be a discussion point for you.
Another concern with soccer or lacrosse is that even if he makes the roster, he may never see any field time. The new roster sizes for lacrosse (and increased scholarships) mean that many teams will have HUGE numbers and with increased number of scholarships talent will be deeper. Only about 20 will ever see the field (on a regular basis). The skill levels between the top 10 on the team and numbers 20-48 is just too wide.
Even before the new roster increases there was a wide gap. I know a woman who was a top high school player and went to BC when the team was very good. She was great, they were great, good match right? In two years she saw 5 minutes in game play (when the team was very very far ahead). She knew it wasn’t going to get any better.
Lots of choices out there, so if he just wants to play he can find a school to do that. It won’t be Duke or Hopkins or Amherst but it is possible to find a school that he likes with an okay team that likes him. He might be able to find a school that doesn’t have a big athletic budget so can’t attract players with scholarships and the coach would be thrilled to have him.
I know a lot of recruited lax players who played other sports in high school. As you said some kids just like to play something - golf, tennis, soccer - to keep moving.
Historically, several Olympic rowers didn’t start until college and came from soccer and swimming backgrounds and it is not uncommon for a HS sophomore to start the sport and be a competitive college recruit.