To be honest, my wife and I didn't do any homework; the opportunity fell into our son's lap at the end of his senior year. We looked into the school a bit and it SEEMED legit, but in the end we just go lucky. He got an associate's degree, all his credits transferred to the four-year state school he's at now, and he's on track to graduate, in four years, next May. The fact that he got to play for two years on a decent team, and his tuition was covered those two years, was a fantastic bonus. But I freely admit--we were lucky. We HOPED we were doing the right thing, but I can't say we're experts. The school, in the end, wasn't super-rigorous academically but most of the instructors were decent-to-good and at the administration level it was a good school--everybody we dealt with was professional and had integrity. And to their credit, they did expect their coaches to carry out their academic advising duties. Also--our son isn't perfect, but he does have a strong sense of responsibility and obligation as far as taking care of his end of the deal. We were willing to pay his housing and let him take a chance on an out-of-state private JuCo so he felt obligated to stay on top of things academically. I'm not so sure at his age I would have come through as well as he did. He had teammates who were being scouted by good DI teams who were unable to take the offer because they didn't perform academically in spite of the fairly easy path the school offered. Our son's career/vocational aspirations are not particularly high-end; my wife and I are grateful to his JuCo and we've even made donations to the alumni fund in his name, but if your kid has really high/elite aspirations, it's not the path she or he should take, IMHO. This is sound advice, and I'll just add--it CAN be a great opportunity for the right kid. But know what you're getting into.
Hi, I hope this topic is the right one. I have not enough rights to open a new topic. First of all, English is not my mother tongue, so I apologize for any grammatical mistakes or similar things. I'm from Germany and really interested in the american High School and College/University sports system and I have some questions, maybe somebody can help me. Would be nice. The German sport system is completely different, I will explain it, so you can maybe better understand my subsequent questions. A soccer season (regardless if youth or adult) in Germany starts in general at the end of july or early august with training session and some friendly games, the amount of friendly games is not limited. Than we have a fall season from end august to the end of november, with a two or three week break in October (typical vacation time, kids have no school then). The amount of games depends on your league, mostly between 9 and 15, in general there is one game against every oponent in your league. You have only games against teams from your league, the only exception is a cup competition. The first round through the quarter finals of the cup competition are in the fall season. From December to mid February we have a break, because of the weather conditions and the lack of artifical turf grounds. But many teams play a short futsal or indoor soccer season in the winter time. Then the prepartion for the spring seasons starts, with some friendly games. The regular games restart in early march and end in early or mid june. There is again a game against every oponent in your league. Also the cup semi-final and final are mostly in may or june. There is also a short break around easter. The players are members of mostly multy sport clubs, who have no connections to the schools. There are in general no real school teams or tournaments in germany. Because of that, the training sessions are always in the afternoons, normally two or three times a week, the youth teams of bundesliga clubs sometimes have four trainings sessions a week. Now my questions: -I read that a typical college soccer season runs from mid august to late october/early november, with playoff games afterwards. Am I right? -The teams play against every team in their conference once. They also have some non-conference games. Is the amount of non-conference (or the general amount of games) limited? How do they terminate the non-conference games? Do the coaches just talk about that (that's the way we terminate friendlies in germany)? Who pays the travel costs? -When do they start with the prepation for the season? Are friendlies a common thing before the start of the season? -How many training session are the standart? My information is four times a week. -What does the players do in spring? I read that some players play in semi-professional leagues like USL League Two or NPSL? Are there some players who play different sports? Is there something like a college fall season with just training and friendly games? -What does the coaches do in spring? At first I thought that they scout and recruite high school players, but from what I read the high school season is mostly around the same time as the college season? -How do they recruite players? Just via video material? Or do they visit certain games? Are their tryouts or camps? I hope for some answers, thanks!
Those are a lot of questions. What exactly would you like to know? Your American English is amazingly perfect btw. Just look at the Stanford University site (for example) and you can get an idea of the schedule. https://gostanford.com/sports/mens-soccer/schedule Teams train and play a few friendlies in the spring. Rosters are very big and not all players see playing time. A lot of players play in the semi-professional leagues in the summer months, but not all do and the others probably don't play other sports. Players get recruited in a number of ways. My player was "seen" at a tournament and asked to do an id camp 6 months later where they recruited her.
All of the below is for U15 and higher: High School soccer is either in the spring or the fall (depending on the state). In our state (Ky), the High School schedule will start in the middle of July. There's a HS "dead period" which I think applies equally across all states. During the dead period, there can be no team sponsored work outs. This applies for all sports, not just soccer. But, if the players organize something on their own, that's allowed. Immediately after the dead period, our HS team goes to a team camp about an hour away for 3-4 days. Once they return are tryouts. Going to the camp does NOT guarantee a spot on the team. There is a "Friendly" tournament (3 games per team, one each day) at the end of July. We have a couple of scrimmages in August and our first regular season game is August 11. We have 15 regular season games and host a tournament that will get us 3-4 more. Part of the regular season are "District" games. There are four teams in our district. The rankings after the regular season determine seeding for the District tournament (1v4, 2v3 with winners meeting in championship). Our District Tournament is October 5-10. The two finalists in that tournament go to the Regional Tournament (October 12-17). There are four Districts feeding into the Regional w/champions from one district playing runners up from another district. There are 16 regions in the state and the Regional winners go to the state tournament October 19-31 to crown a state champion. Toward the middle of October, beginning of November, club season will start with practices, and tournaments, showcases, scrimmages, and league games. You MIGHT get 7-8 games in before the end of the year. January and February are indoor training (our HS has optional futsal a couple of times a week) and there are also opportunities for indoor games (usually two eight game seasons between November and February. Our club season starts Feb 29. We'll be in two leagues and go to a showcase, so about 15 additional games to what we played in November & December. In the middle of May we'll start the State Open Cup. Prelims will be 2-3 game round robin one weekend, then a 4 team knockout round the following week (Memorial Day). If you win your State Cup, you qualify for Regionals which are the end of June. That's another three round robin games in your pool and pool winners go to a knockout round. Winners of the Regional Tournaments go to the National Tournament which will be in July. Club teams can also qualify for Regional & National tournaments by doing well enough in Regional and National Leagues. My son's club team is in three leagues this year. National League (0-6-1), Great Lakes Region (haven't played yet), and State Premier (1-0-0 at this point with more games to play). State Premier League placement means absolutely nothing. So there's an entire year. Club Teams at U14 and below will have a club season in the fall while the olders are playing HS. I'll tell you about college in another three years hopefully.
Thanks a lot for your answers! It answers a lot of my questions. Before I ask more questions (I hope that's okay), I'm a bit confused with the term ,,club'' or ,,club sports''. In my definition something like Bayern München or Borussia Dortmund are clubs (really big ones). So club sport in Germany has nothing to do with school or universities. But a few days ago, I read that universities/colleges in America have club sports, these are teams for non schoolarship sports at the particular uni/college, right? The opposite would be a varsity sport? Or schoolarship sport? What are clubs at the high school or middle school level? Are these teams independet from the schools?
From my experience most colleges/universities offer a FEW club sports. These club sports are most definitely non-scholarship students(IMO for students who really enjoyed a certain sport and could not/or did not want to participate at the varsity(scholarship)level. I assume the club sports you are speaking of at the middle school and high school level are what I refer to as "travel club sports". In the United States most all sports(basketball, tennis, soccer, baseball, track, xcountry)are offered thru the middle and high schools. This is where the discussion gets a little gray. If your child seems to excel more than the other children some parents will look for more competitive alternatives. These alternatives will include travel club soccer and baseball to name a few. These clubs can start as early as first grade(6years old) and cost $$$$. I went this route with my two of my kids(soccer) and neither played soccer for their middle or high school team. For myself, It worked out and both went on to earn soccer scholarships at the university level. It was a huge commitment of time and money. I hope this helped. There are a lot of folks on this forum who, I'm sure, will have a wealth of information on this topic..
PP summed it up pretty well. Kids get involved in organized sports at a relatively early age (as young as 4-5). This will usually be through their local Parks & Recreation department. There might be 1-2 practices through the week and 1-2 (maybe 3 depending on the sport) games through the week or on weekends. How they get assigned to a team varies, some sports/locations have tryouts & selections (but no cuts), some have random draws. Usually there will be a "everyone has to play 50%" rule or similar. These will generally be low cost and volunteer/parent coached. If the child shows an aptitude, the family may decide to try out for a "select" team. The team may be associated with the Parks & Rec department or may just be parent run. There is no guarantee anyone makes the team and no mandated playing time. If an organization has more than one age group *I* consider it a "club". None of the above has anything to do with school athletics. Obviously someone who has been playing for years has a better chance of making their school team than someone who has just started in the sport. Also know that high school sports can also be subdivided. "Varsity" is the top level in HS, and is generally Juniors (11th grade) and Seniors (12th grade), but underclassman (Sophomores 10th and Freshmen 9th) can play if a coach feels they are good enough or if he doesn't have enough upperclassmen. "Junior Varsity" would generally be 9th & 10th graders with occasional 11th grader depending on skill. A "Freshman" squad is just what it sounds like, made up of all Freshman (possibly an occasional 10th grader). You'd generally only see a Freshman squad at a large HS (you'd need enough players for three teams). Our middle school (around here 6th, 7th, and 8th) teams are similar to the HS teams. Depending on the sport, there could be a team for each grade (basketball and football have a 6th grade team, a 7th grade team, and an 8th grade team) or two levels (Softball and Baseball have an A team and a B team), or one level (there's just one soccer team). If there are multiple levels, there are rules on what kids can play where (a 6th grader can play on the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade teams, a seventh grader can only play on 7th & 8th, and an 8th grader can only play the 8th). 8th graders can play on the HS JV team, but at least in soccer, if there is an 11th grader on the field, an 8th grader can not be on the field. I hope this helps.
Yes, it helps a lot. Thanks. Then the ,,club'' system in youth sports, or at least soccer, is somewhat similar to our system in germany (and other europeans countries). What do coaches do in college/school ,,offseason'' time? There is a lot of time between two seasons. Do they coach these club teams (for money)? Is there something like a college spring season with friendly games or tournaments? Is this the time when college coaches scout/recruite new players? @Almost done, is there a reason why your kids didn't play in HS Teams? I hope it's okay to ask that.
Oh, continuing on... College has recognized sports teams (think Alabama football or Kentucky basketball) in many sports. They will play in a conference (whether it's home and home or just once a season will depend on the sport) and can win a conference championship (either via regular season meetings and/or tournament) and possibly play for a national title. They can also have "club" teams. This will generally be sports that they don't have "official" teams. I believe the club teams are all self supported, but may get a little bit of money from the college. They will play teams from other colleges/universities. Last but not least would be "intramural". These are generally open to everyone on campus, no tryouts, just form a team of friends or get assigned a team. I don't think athletes on the actual teams are allowed to participate, but I could be wrong. They just play other teams from the same campus.
During our HS soccer off season, the coach arranges for "open gym" (for futsal) when the weather is bad or "open field" (out door) when the weather is good. Anyone can come out and just play. It's mainly for the players who don't do club, but those who are on club often show (my DS included). This is usually twice a week from middle of Jan through the end of school (end of May). Totally optional. I can't help you with what college does during it's off season.
I think some asst. coaches at the college level do coach some club soccer on the side. I am not certain of this though. My kids are currently in their off season in college and are practicing 4 days a week. This consists of a variation of weights/7v7soccer/and futsal. Their spring schedule consists of about 3-5 games against other universities starting in late Feb-early March. My two kids played in a league with their club team called DA(Development Academy). If you play in the DA you are not allowed to play high school soccer. The DA rules could be another thread on this forum all together.