2021 Women’s D1 Soccer Talk!!!!

As we look toward the remainder of the Junior year for our DDs, it would be helpful to hear from recruited players and non-recruited players about how they are feeling about the process/verbal commitments made thus far? Confidence in commitments~is the “right school”? Good choices? Those still looking for recruitment how close are you all to reaching the verbal commitment stage? Those DDs not near the final stage of verbal commit, is it worth the remaining time with your club -DA or ECNL, (time, travel, money, commitment)? Please share!
 
As we look toward the remainder of the Junior year for our DDs, it would be helpful to hear from recruited players and non-recruited players about how they are feeling about the process/verbal commitments made thus far? Confidence in commitments~is the “right school”? Good choices? Those still looking for recruitment how close are you all to reaching the verbal commitment stage? Those DDs not near the final stage of verbal commit, is it worth the remaining time with your club -DA or ECNL, (time, travel, money, commitment)? Please share!
My DD was a 2019, and committed at the end of her soph yr. She wanted P5, big school, and she wanted to play, with the opportunity to start her first year. Once committed she continued playing ECNL, but did not attend Nationals her Sr yr because of her summer report date. She continued getting interest but kept her commitment. She started and played every game her fresh yr. However, she realized in the recruitment process schools that want you vs need you will have their players, even ones you know, sugar coat things to hook you. At the end of her freshman yr: she is disappointed with the leadership, says club practices were just as challenging, and is looking and hoping the grit of team and culture will improve with the incoming class. When she's at home she is still working on her own to improve and is frustrated. She loves the game, and doesn't want to transfer, but she wonders if she should have somehow someway spent more time investigating the team culture and staff if that was possible.
Hope this helps.
 
As we look toward the remainder of the Junior year for our DDs, it would be helpful to hear from recruited players and non-recruited players about how they are feeling about the process/verbal commitments made thus far? Confidence in commitments~is the “right school”? Good choices? Those still looking for recruitment how close are you all to reaching the verbal commitment stage? Those DDs not near the final stage of verbal commit, is it worth the remaining time with your club -DA or ECNL, (time, travel, money, commitment)? Please share!
My DD committed Oct of her Sophomore year. She's a 2021 grad year. A year into the committment, she feels even stronger about her choice than she did before. She understands it will be the Hunger games while she's there (P5 school), but that kind of environment appeals to her. The current sentiment with the club team is one of a little bit of indifference. Half her team still not committed, as some are 03's but 2022 grads, as well as 2021s still not committed. Playing time this Spring will be interesting to see, as we really don't know how coach will navigate it. The committed girls don't really have a lot to play for other than prep for colllege. Taking trips seems like a bit of a waste now, but DD has to be there to play and support her team. For non-committed girls, playing on a DA or ECNL team is absolutely worth it because of the built in exposure they will get. All the events will be heavily attended by coaches. That's my two cents...
 
I love this thread. Thank you for sharing your true stories with all of us. This is hard sometimes. I'm glad that the NCAA changed the rules. My dd is 2022. Working really hard to have gr8t grades right now. Also taking the time to do lot's of research. My dd will start visiting the campuses, coach and the culture of the schools she desires to study and play at during her Jr year. I'm sure if a big time program comes after her June 15th she might like the attention and take a peak at the deal. I would like to see my dd and other girls experience what it's like to visit a campus, be recruited and meet the team and take their time trying to make a big decision. I'm still shocked that so many 8th graders did verbal over the phone with a coach they never met. Good luck to everyone and I look forward to hearing more stories.
 
My dd was a 2019 grad. She committed during the Summer between her Junior and Senior years. She only moved to her last club and played DA starting her Junior year. Her smaller club did not give her much exposure. The feeling was she was late to the game and it seemed like a lot of schools were already done with their recruiting. This was really a blessing in disguise since she did end up with multiple offers and she was older and more mature when she made her decision. She certainly loves her school and her team. Personally, I think it is nuts that coaches make offers before kids are Juniors. I really think it is nuts that parents actually allow their kids to commit so early. Good thing though that she committed prior to tearing her acl. The 2nd half of fall season was great and I think she will have a great Spring season. I also just learned she will be playing with a UWS team this summer! So bottom line is that everyone should not be in such a rush!
 
My daughter will be graduating this spring and committed after her freshman year of HS. While I think the school and program remains the right one for her (lots of reasons why, only a couple are soccer-specific though the overall athletic dept figures importantly), I am a big supporter of the change in the rules. Sitting with her during meetings with coaches when she was just 14 was really odd - here's this very young kid and here are these very experienced soccer people and they are talking about money and playing time and college majors and everything else. She'd have really mature insights into some things (especially if it related to the pitch) but could not really speak with any insight about what she might expect in a college (the social life, the academic support, etc.)). Think about how many of us were ready to make such a big decision - the biggest to that point in their young lives and one of the biggest in any life - before even completing a year of HS? The new rule eliminates a feeling of pressure to commit - even if you have multiple offers or a lot of interest, especially as a GK, you feel pressure that THAT spot will be gone - before you have matured enough to have a real clue about college.

Your kids in the HS class of '21 fell under the first change in the rule, if my memory serves, and then about 6 weeks of the current rule so probably a number of your kids committed pretty early. I'm not going to sit here and say the kids should continue to explore options just because there's interest (I think that is risky for all but a very small # of kids) but I do think it is good to make repeated visits to the school of choice and to have real, deep, substantive conversations with your kid about the choice - those conversations will change as the child gets older, can talk with clubmates who are a year or two ahead, develops a better understanding of what a "college student athlete" means. You may uncover reasons why doing some quiet exploration actually does make sense or some opportunities to help reinforce why a good decision a year or two ago remains a good decision even as your child has changed (that was the case for us).
 
My daughter will be graduating this spring and committed after her freshman year of HS. While I think the school and program remains the right one for her (lots of reasons why, only a couple are soccer-specific though the overall athletic dept figures importantly), I am a big supporter of the change in the rules. Sitting with her during meetings with coaches when she was just 14 was really odd - here's this very young kid and here are these very experienced soccer people and they are talking about money and playing time and college majors and everything else. She'd have really mature insights into some things (especially if it related to the pitch) but could not really speak with any insight about what she might expect in a college (the social life, the academic support, etc.)). Think about how many of us were ready to make such a big decision - the biggest to that point in their young lives and one of the biggest in any life - before even completing a year of HS? The new rule eliminates a feeling of pressure to commit - even if you have multiple offers or a lot of interest, especially as a GK, you feel pressure that THAT spot will be gone - before you have matured enough to have a real clue about college.

Your kids in the HS class of '21 fell under the first change in the rule, if my memory serves, and then about 6 weeks of the current rule so probably a number of your kids committed pretty early. I'm not going to sit here and say the kids should continue to explore options just because there's interest (I think that is risky for all but a very small # of kids) but I do think it is good to make repeated visits to the school of choice and to have real, deep, substantive conversations with your kid about the choice - those conversations will change as the child gets older, can talk with clubmates who are a year or two ahead, develops a better understanding of what a "college student athlete" means. You may uncover reasons why doing some quiet exploration actually does make sense or some opportunities to help reinforce why a good decision a year or two ago remains a good decision even as your child has changed (that was the case for us).

I have never been able to figure out the point to an early commitment - it puts all the cards in the college coach's hands, even though there is no penalty to the player or his family for backing out before NLI day in the HS Senior year.
 
I have never been able to figure out the point to an early commitment - it puts all the cards in the college coach's hands, even though there is no penalty to the player or his family for backing out before NLI day in the HS Senior year.

I can only speak to my own kid's experience (as I said, I am glad that there are more restrictions now): she's a GK and there are limited GK positions at schools (i) she'd want to attend, (ii) that have the type of "college atmosphere" she was seeking, (iii) where she'd have a good chance of playing all 4 years (really difficult for a GK), (iv) at the level of conference she desired . . . I could go on. She had one school that said to her after we expressed a desire to wait from the spring to the fall b/4 she made a decision (she wanted to see the team "in season" - see a practice, see a game), "that makes sense and you know how badly we want you. But, there are a couple of really good keeper who have reached out to us and we are going to see them" (and there were other comments to suggest that they did not expect them to be "better" but that one might be willing to commit). That's very tough for a young athlete to hear and while my wife and I felt pretty good about her chances to find the "right" spot, we had never done this before so even we were a bit off kilter. We know more about the process now than we did and we'd handle it differently today. You may not understand "the point" of an early commitment or my kid's early commitment but I think each story is unique and a broad brush seems off.
 
I can only speak to my own kid's experience (as I said, I am glad that there are more restrictions now): she's a GK and there are limited GK positions at schools (i) she'd want to attend, (ii) that have the type of "college atmosphere" she was seeking, (iii) where she'd have a good chance of playing all 4 years (really difficult for a GK), (iv) at the level of conference she desired . . . I could go on. She had one school that said to her after we expressed a desire to wait from the spring to the fall b/4 she made a decision (she wanted to see the team "in season" - see a practice, see a game), "that makes sense and you know how badly we want you. But, there are a couple of really good keeper who have reached out to us and we are going to see them" (and there were other comments to suggest that they did not expect them to be "better" but that one might be willing to commit). That's very tough for a young athlete to hear and while my wife and I felt pretty good about her chances to find the "right" spot, we had never done this before so even we were a bit off kilter. We know more about the process now than we did and we'd handle it differently today. You may not understand "the point" of an early commitment or my kid's early commitment but I think each story is unique and a broad brush seems off.

As you pointed out, every kid's story is different. The early commit with which I am most familiar was a solid player with good grades whose parents had been college athletes themselves so they knew how the system worked and didn't need or want scholarship money. It cost the coach nothing for the "commitment" the summer after his HS sophomore year, after which the mother started working on recruiting my kid.
 
I can only speak to my own kid's experience (as I said, I am glad that there are more restrictions now): she's a GK and there are limited GK positions at schools (i) she'd want to attend, (ii) that have the type of "college atmosphere" she was seeking, (iii) where she'd have a good chance of playing all 4 years (really difficult for a GK), (iv) at the level of conference she desired . . . I could go on. She had one school that said to her after we expressed a desire to wait from the spring to the fall b/4 she made a decision (she wanted to see the team "in season" - see a practice, see a game), "that makes sense and you know how badly we want you. But, there are a couple of really good keeper who have reached out to us and we are going to see them" (and there were other comments to suggest that they did not expect them to be "better" but that one might be willing to commit). That's very tough for a young athlete to hear and while my wife and I felt pretty good about her chances to find the "right" spot, we had never done this before so even we were a bit off kilter. We know more about the process now than we did and we'd handle it differently today. You may not understand "the point" of an early commitment or my kid's early commitment but I think each story is unique and a broad brush seems off.
Agree with all you've said... 100%. It's also important to acknowledge that, though the process is the process (committing early or not), that process is owned by your DD and your family alone. When you're in it, it can very stressful expericence but also very exciting. Many emotions are at play, along with feelings of "am I making the right decision" when deciding at such an early age, but each and everyone's journey is unique and personal. Other than sharing these stories (which were extremely helpful to me when we were going through it), it's difficult to navigate the process beause you can't really talk to anyone about it on your DDs team and certainly DD is not talking about it with her teammates... not appropriate. Lots of moving parts on the journey, but it honestly it's so great. Many lessons learned by DD going through this and having to mature through it. In retrospect, I don't think we would've done anything different. Like I said in my initial comment, my DD is 100 times more pumped about her decision 18 months later.
 
We chose the no email or phone contact college coach old 8th grade way. I dont put anyone down for taking the early deal if its offered for dream school and all the stars lined up for your baller. What I didnt like was the fear mongering from some aggressive docs and club coaches, "Hurry hurry, step write up to claim your school. Hurry hurry hurry, all da scholarship money will be all gone for 2022 if you dont call coach now." It was like speed dating I think from some of what my friends told me about the process. Some coaches would say, "you're my #1 fwrd. I need an answer by Monday." 100% out of state offer at power 5 with a promise to play as a Freshman. Hard to walk away from full ride and playing time as a Fr and many went for it. I know 2 of 6 who have already said they will change mind at signing day. Two more years to go and I will let you know how what the other 4 will do. I know one will honor the verbal because both parents went to the school.
 
We chose the no email or phone contact college coach old 8th grade way. I dont put anyone down for taking the early deal if its offered for dream school and all the stars lined up for your baller. What I didnt like was the fear mongering from some aggressive docs and club coaches, "Hurry hurry, step write up to claim your school. Hurry hurry hurry, all da scholarship money will be all gone for 2022 if you dont call coach now." It was like speed dating I think from some of what my friends told me about the process. Some coaches would say, "you're my #1 fwrd. I need an answer by Monday." 100% out of state offer at power 5 with a promise to play as a Freshman. Hard to walk away from full ride and playing time as a Fr and many went for it. I know 2 of 6 who have already said they will change mind at signing day. Two more years to go and I will let you know how what the other 4 will do. I know one will honor the verbal because both parents went to the school.

Every early commit should be careful about promises of playing time. Obviously, a player receiving a full ride is EXPECTED to contribute right away (they don't and can't just hand those out willy-nilly) so, in that sense, money talks but the earlier the player commits, the greater the chance that that another recruit comes in or that a player progresses differently than hoped, etc. I mean, Macario did not commit to Stanford right away so someone may have lost some playing time when she changed her mind.
 
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