What is more important, impress the College keeper coach or impress the head coach?

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More important, impress the College keeper coach or impress the head coach? Hopefully some of you have kids that have already went through this.

Daughter was at a college camp, did great during her hour with the keeper coach. Small side scrimmages did well. But didn't really get to impress during full side game. Anyone with keeper experience during the recruiting process?
 
Head coach normally makes the decisions but they will take a lot of feedback from the assistants.

Keeper coach is down the chain of command so I'm sure they will consult but not sure they have nearly the same influence as assistant coaches. Dedicated Keeper coaches are sort of a luxury that you don't see beyond certain programs,. Assistant with a background is more typical.

Good luck, tough position to get recruited for and even tougher to get playing time since they all cary multiples like 3x and they don't sub or use like other players.
 
W/one exception, the HC was the person w/whom my daughter most interacted. Next most was the AC who was the key recruiter (GK coach in the one instance that was also the exception; that coach was the primary recruiter after the HC). The school where she's playing, she spoke with all 3 - HC, GK coach, AC who was chief recruiter - and prob the HC more than the other combined (worth noting: none is at the school today)
 
Head Coach needs a strong recommendation from *a* reputable keeper coach, not limited to but including the school's keeper coach. In our experience the keeper coaches are not generally long term hires and tend to be volunteers.
 
Head Coach needs a strong recommendation from *a* reputable keeper coach, not limited to but including the school's keeper coach. In our experience the keeper coaches are not generally long term hires and tend to be volunteers.

That's a really good clarification. In my kid's case, the GK coaches who were most involved were unique - paid coaches, long time coaches, associate HCs, etc. The volunteer coaches (more common than I realized at the time) did not have involvement. And I do know that her club coach and GK coach factored in as part of her "credibility" as a prospect
 
In our experience, it does vary from program to program. In general, more important to impress the HC.

But I’ll give you three different scenarios that happened with programs that my DD was recruited by. One, the biggest program that recruited her, a D1 P5, she was recruited by their keeper coach. He was a longtime permanent coach and clearly had a lot of autonomy in choosing keepers to sign, and the HC only needed to sign off on the keeper coach’s recommendation. Impressing the keeper coach was the most important thing. She got an offer with $ (but she didn’t love the school or location). Another program, a smaller D1, she was heavily recruited by the keeper coach, but the HC was distant, aloof, and I guess apparently not as impressed. She loved the location and school, but no offer was made, and they strung her along (bad, bad experience). Another school, D2, the assistant coach did most of the recruitment, and made the actual offer and she had very little contact with the HC, which was very unusual, compared with all the others. So, my takeaway was that it all depends on the individual coaches and programs.
 
In our experience, it does vary from program to program. In general, more important to impress the HC.

But I’ll give you three different scenarios that happened with programs that my DD was recruited by. One, the biggest program that recruited her, a D1 P5, she was recruited by their keeper coach. He was a longtime permanent coach and clearly had a lot of autonomy in choosing keepers to sign, and the HC only needed to sign off on the keeper coach’s recommendation. Impressing the keeper coach was the most important thing. She got an offer with $ (but she didn’t love the school or location). Another program, a smaller D1, she was heavily recruited by the keeper coach, but the HC was distant, aloof, and I guess apparently not as impressed. She loved the location and school, but no offer was made, and they strung her along (bad, bad experience). Another school, D2, the assistant coach did most of the recruitment, and made the actual offer and she had very little contact with the HC, which was very unusual, compared with all the others. So, my takeaway was that it all depends on the individual coaches and programs.

So for the evenutal choice how did that transpire?

While not a keeper mutiple conversation with the head coach(s) prior to commitment for our NCAA players.

One of thing my player was looking for was world class players / coaches you can learn from during college. Especially at the position(s) they will play
 
So for the evenutal choice how did that transpire?

While not a keeper mutiple conversation with the head coach(s) prior to commitment for our NCAA players.

One of thing my player was looking for was world class players / coaches you can learn from during college. Especially at the position(s) they will play
She ended up choosing the school where most of the communication came from the assistant coach, but the situation was that the assistant was temporarily filling in for the HC. What was interesting, and echoed in lots of the advice we got on here, was that she really bonded with the assistant who recruited her and was influenced by that relationship heavily in making her choice. Lots of people said don't go by the assistant coach relationship because assistants come and go. Well, the assistant left to pursue a pro soccer opportunity almost immediately after she signed on. Which made us extremely nervous. But then as it turned out, the HC and other assistant had exactly the same vibe/personality as the one who did most of the recruitment, so in the end it actually all worked out. She had almost no relationship with the HC until after she got to school. I definitely don't recommend that! But primarily, she made her decision on school location, major area of study, and soccer program/culture rather than the individual coaches themselves. Which is good because, even HC's can come and go in a blink of an eye. More anecdotes: Two programs that she was very interested in during her recruitment now have totally new staff top to bottom, and several of her old club teammates are now in the transfer portal after just one year because of new coaching regimes and poor fit. Add in unpredictable things like injuries, pandemics, personal health issues, and transfers arriving from other schools... when it comes to getting your player on the field at all, much less staying in the same program for 4 years with decent playing time and a positive experience, it's a total freaking crap shoot out there in the college soccer world. So far, my kid is happy with her decision, been a starter from day one in her first year, and is in a positive team environment, and doing well in school. Considering everything it took for her just to get here and all the recruitment horror stories of her former teammates, it honestly seems like a minor miracle.
 
We had really varied situations at all the schools DD was courting so I agree it is very dependent on how the HC at a school organizes his staff. For the school she committed to, it was AC initially and as things progressed, GC did his review, and then HC finally. My guess is alot of schools have a gated process like this. In this case, HC has plenty of GK coaching experience too, but not sure if that was a factor at all. HC made final decision and all $ conversations. Some of the D3 schools she looked at, HC was involved much earlier due to smaller staff, but AC and GK coaches were also involved. For us, none of would have happened without catching the eye of the AC first.
 
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