My son went to the one in Philadelphia on Sunday. There will be one in south Florida and one in Houston coming up. Anyone go to the Philadelphia combine? I have a lot of thoughts, but I'd like to hear what others think before I comment. Almost 200 players were there, all HS age.
Okay, here goes: Pros: 1) If you registered early, it was $99 for 8:30 am - 5 pm of soccer, which also includes a one year subscription to TDS which is worth $50. 2) My kid did end up with a ranking from it apparently - he was not ranked by TDS before. 3) A bit of TDS coverage, not much, but some. 4) Competition was above average, and there were some academy players there. Philadelphia Union were involved, but were not actually scouting for their academy program as far as I could tell. Other academies included PDA, Baltimore Bays - not sure if FC Delco is academy, but they had quite a few players there. 5) There was actually a bit of civilization nearby, malls and fast food, so parents weren't in the middle of nowhere (say, as opposed to Ft. Dix soccer fields). Cons: 1) College coaches attending - it seems the same story everywhere, unless you go to a college camp with specific top schools listed, the "D1 coaches" you get are like the bottom 100 of the 250 D1 mens soccer programs. Nothing against them, but not the target program for most players there, certainly not the academy players attending. I guess even living near NYC, we have to travel far to get to a real college showcase that isn't academy-only. 2) Coverage - didn't seem as much as promised - A few pictures, no videos. Other I talked with thought they would be posting a lot of photos and videos, but it may just be that it is a week out and they are still processing anything they have. 3) Grueling day for the kids - my son has been to other single-day college camps, and they tend to be 9 am - 3 pm, not 8:30 am - 5 pm. Having a 8:15 am check-in time limits who will show up, and how tired out of town players are. 4) They grouped players by age only (2016 & 2015, 2014&2013), not ability, but then again, they rank players according to graduation year, so that makes sense. Overall: I think it was worth it for my son, now he has a ranking which is on par with many academy players, and he is not academy. He is a sophomore, and we would hesitate for him to attend another TDS combine, even if more convenient, but it seems like it was a good decision based on timing (getting ready for club soccer in our area) and getting ranked (he was listed previously because his club put all players up on TDS, but now he has a decent ranking), and the subscription does have benefits like posting videos and player data. I would think it would be a good idea for players targeting specific lower-tier D1 and D2 schools. I would also recommend getting a lot of players to show up from your kid's team, as it seemed to help some players' show. PS - they had girls as well, and had almost 200 players at the combine all together, and said they had "over 30" college coaches, but that was both girls and boys sides.
My son did not attend. But I was interested to hear some feed back. An event like this may have a better draw of college coaches if it were held out of season. Most D1 programs have a head coach, 2 assistants and a volunteer. During the season, they do not have enough resources to cover an event like this unless it is in their back yard.
Agree, the problem up here is the weather, and having it indoors or outdoors. Sept. 30th was the edge of guaranteed decent weather near Philly, and the weather that day was cool, high 50's in the morning, but eventually reaching high 60's. Perfect soccer weather, but we've had much colder and much warmer on that day as well. I would not be surprised if some coaches attended "under cover" as there were quite a few "a bit too young to have 15 - 18 year old children" adults walking around watching the games, without any distinguishing insignia. We are waiting to hear if the ranking is the extent of the evaluation, or if there will actually be a "real" evaluation. We were told the latter, and that the player can choose to put up the more detailed evaluation in their profile, or not if they didn't like it.
mine is only in 8th grade but i am curious for next year. what % of the players were girls? from the website, the attending coaches seemed to lean more towards the men's side? any input from parents of girls that attended? while i can understand some coaches wanting to stay "under cover", isn't it better advertising for the event if these coaches would, at the very least, list their Universities? my daughter is U14 but playing U15 and has hardly seen her team since July. i am hearing from the U15 parents whose teams have tried playing this fall about the conflicts between travel and HS ball. with that said, i am curious if something spring oriented would draw more players? of course more players would mean less exposure? what other combines are held in the NY/NJ/PA area?
They took down the Philadelphia information, and apparently *won't* be having a Florida combine (or maybe had it?), and the Houston one was changed to Dallas: http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/combines/colleges If you are in the NYC area, try this site: http://www.backofthenet.com/62rd/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=54&page=1 It focuses on NYC and Long Island, but we are in NJ and get good info for the NYC area in general. There are a lot of different forums, and I am sure there is one for your daughter's age group. As for numbers - I would say half boys and half girls at the Philadelphia combine, and same for numbers of coaches. More D1 girls coaches than boys coaches. You can get that U14 is the year when playing up becomes a problem. If your daughter is interested in playing in college (or better than that), she should be training on her own or with the HS team.
Any independent scouts there that you could tell? There are several organizations claiming to be non-affiliated collegiate scouting services. I've heard of the NCSA and the NSR. They sell you a contract to then advertise a player to scholarship programs, justifying their costs by claiming the scholarship they help you get will more than make up for the initial investment.
Not that I was aware of. We are looking for an agent to find my son international opportunities, but don't know where to begin. As far as we can tell, you have to have connections, either through family or your son's soccer club, to get anywhere.
So far, my understanding is that you do not forgo playing in college until you sign a pro contract. If an agent of some sort is used to find opportunities, it could be on an initial lump sum basis, with a clause for if the player turns pro. There are college players who signed youth amateur contracts with pro clubs, but they were part of the youth academy of the club, not the pro team. That is what we are initially looking for, the opportunity to get some European or South American training, and see what happens.
New locations posted for these. http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club...tds-combines:-los-angeles-and-beyond_aid28412
Note to TopDrawer - please don't use the "green" and "slightly less green" pinnies for these! Almost impossible for players to tell the two teams apart! About another combine, my son is going to a semi-pro/pro combine (not TopDrawer, a few USL Pro and European clubs banded together for a trial in the US; they've had other trials in the US and UK previous years), and they say that it follows NCAA rules in that it does not affect eligibility and that you should list your agent if you have one. Obviously if a player goes far enough to get a pro contract, college soccer would be off the table. Everything I read about pro trials, which the TopDrawer event is not even, is that you can attend with a tourist visa, have a scout or not, and not affect your eligibility for NCAA soccer unless you actually sign for the senior team. So far, I'm my kid's agent if anyone asks
TDS Chicago Combine has been announced. Preliminary lineup of colleges looks pretty strong so far. http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/high...combines-next-stop:-chicago-illinois_aid28517
I'm glad to hear some feedback, I have wondered how the combines were that TDS holds. Good information, thanks!
My son is thinking about going to the topdrawersoccer combine in Southern California in December 2015. Has anyone been to this event recently and have any feedback. www.topdrawersoccer.com/combines
Had a pretty lack-luster experience at the NorCal 2015 combine accompanying a player. I'm certainly not a coach/scout/player...just been watching youth soccer for ~10ish years... so don't weigh my opinion too much. Saw the boys play... girls seemed pretty similar: They divided ~50 boys up into four groups. Player:coach ratio probably 10:1. It appeared they just mixed everybody up randomly, and whatever group you were in to start the day was your team all day. Warm ups, a few drills, then short sided play for an hour or so before lunch, box lunch from Subway, 15ish minute talk about college recruiting, then another ~1.5-2hrs of scrimmaging, rotating groups so each group played against every other. As close to soccer played as an individual sport as I've seen. With the mixed age groups, the upperclass kids are trying to show off and impress, with the younger kids just trying to get in/stay in the game. For example, if you're a frosh/soph forward, prepare to spend the day watching jr/sr midfields just taking runs past you. The player we were with got maybe a total of 10 minutes of feedback/instruction during the day, total. I'm not sure what their sub scheme was, but some guys only played half the minutes. I didn't see anybody filming, or anybody doing evals other than the coaches for each group. I only saw one really taking any notes regularly during play. No specific feedback at the end of the day. Two weeks later they post ratings on a scale of 1-5 in 17 different areas, with a one sentence "Coach's overall comments" If you're just looking for another venue to audition/try out for... well... it's not clear who's actually watching... sure... go ahead. If you just want to see what the competition's like, sure... why not. But if you're expecting a camp/instruction/feedback... look elsewhere.
... by the way.... I was scanning TopDrawer's player rankings in the days leading up to the combine. I noticed that very, very few (if any) of the players they've ranked 3/4/5 stars have attended any TDS combines, and I see quite a few players with 4 out of 5 combine ratings that have no stars. So... if you're attending the combine with hopes of becoming a "four star recruit"... it seems like there's some other parallel rating/scouting system in place.