Anyone want to talk about their kids wanting to play in college? I'm talking about people going through the steps (maybe 8th grade on?). There are lots of sites on line (and videos) that say "here's what I did". I'd like to chat more in general. DS is wrapping up his sophomore year. Random thoughts going through my head (not all reasonable)... * What level can he play? * What do you mean you don't know what you want to study? * Should we send him to an out of state school? * Should we pay for a CaptainU, NCSA, etc? (more to possibly narrow down college choices) * We did a highlight video last week. Were we too soon? Too late? * What should we have put in the video? What should we have left out? etc, etc, etc.
My experience is on the girls' side, but here is my 2 cents. * What level can he play? - Go to showcases and see what coaches express interest. Then hit a few camps and go from there. You will be able to determine the level based on what coaches are interested * What do you mean you don't know what you want to study? - Can't answer that one LOL. My daughter knew what she wanted to do, but that doesn't mean she won't change her mind once she gets on campus * Should we send him to an out of state school? - OOS tuition is a barrier for sure, but don't let that deter you from looking OOS * Should we pay for a CaptainU, NCSA, etc? (more to possibly narrow down college choices) - My experience says no. Do your own marketing via email and videos, and watch campus tours on YouTube. Every school has lots of info out there, just google everything. * We did a highlight video last week. Were we too soon? Too late? - Never too early to get on a coaches short list * What should we have put in the video? What should we have left out? - Keep it short, put the best clips at the beginning, no music, HIGHLIGHT the player in the video so the coach knows who to watch. That is huge. Jersey numbers are hard to see on some videos so saying he was #15 or whatever isn't always enough for the coach to make out who they are supposed to be watching. Good luck, it is a nerve racking process.
The most frustrating part is the lack of feedback you get. Utilize your club coach as much as possible to get some ideas of who is interested and who isn't. The new rules make it harder than it used to be. June 15th will be a huge relief to be able to have coaches call or email. That is when you will know who is interested and who is casually looking.
My kids are younger but my co-worker's son is a senior in HS set to play at a D3 school next Fall and I lived through the ups and downs over the last year second hand. His kid is at a DA club, but not on the DA team, so they had to do all of the legwork themselves. A few notes off the top of my head: Most of his effort was focused on figuring out which schools he could play at that had the academic profile he was looking for. This really narrowed down the universe of schools for him. He was assisted by his guidance counselor and a private counselor he hired. Interestingly to me, the recruiting coordinator at his club was of no help. He spent all his time with the DA kids. He attended 1 multi-school ID camp the summer before senior year. Unfortunately, he was not interested in the schools that were interested in him. But he did get some notice. His best traction came from single school ID camps the winter of his junior year and the summer before senior year once he had a target list of schools that had the right athletic/academic/geographic profile. He had meaningful engagement with 2-3 programs. Timing or luck plays a bigger factor than he thought. He's an outside back and one of the schools where there was mutual interest had recruited heavily at that position the previous year. For his class they were looking for players "up the spine". One year earlier or later and it would've been a potential fit. His highlight tape was from junior year high school and club. Don't believe it was more than 5-7 minutes.