For the third consecutive year, BOTN Industries is pleased to be able to offer our college recruitment board as a service to the soccer community. Hundreds of interesting discussions, question and answer sessions, and general exchanges have taken place over the last two seasons guiding players, parents, coaches, and teams through the showcase and recruitment environments.

As in the past, please feel free to ask questions about the college process as it relates to academics, soccer, or both.

Readers who would like to read through our last two season's of material can see the following links.

College, Coaches, Recruitment : 2008-2009

College, Coaches, Recruitment : 2009-2010

With a new year of high school freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors about to take their scholastic fields and club showcase tours, BOTN Industries is pleased to take your questions and comments regarding the recruitment process here on our new 2010/2011 thread. Welcome and we look forward to your contributions.

BoardLord,
Thanks for the new thread. Can you help me resolve an issue I haven't been able to get clear in my head? My daughter has a late in the year birthday so she plays on age with her club. This means as a tenth grader she plays with many ninth graders. Is this a detriment when it comes time for college showcases? I understand that if she is interested in a particular school then she should contact them, but are they as likely to watch a younger age group? And I'm thinking that the younger age group sometimes plays in a venue away from the older girls, so could that affect her possible recruitment as well? In other words, are kids with late birthdays getting the shaft? Why don't clubs play by calendar year? Thanks in advance.

This is a very important question that comes from parents and players when the players are among the youngest in their particular High School school grades (August 1st to November 30th) yet one of the oldest on their club teams. This happens because the USYSA defines a soccer year as being from August through July while most school districts will divide school classes with a December deadline.

During our coaching and college recruitment experience, we have come across the situation in practice several times. The club team will be showcasing over three or four years with the players in the following scholastic classes (everyone playing on age) :

• U/15 : Sophomores/Freshmen
• U/16 : Juniors/Sophomores
• U/17 : Seniors/Juniors
• U/18 : Seniors

Therefore, an older player will do most of their showcasing as part of their U/16 season and finalizing a commitment during the early U/17 season. Younger players will gain some exposure at U/16 with most of the work happening at U/17 and final signings by U/18.

The key point is that the club team needs to schedule showcases to accomodate these two different recruiting cycles. However to answer your question, there is no inherent disadvantage to being the oldest in your club team age aside from being among the first players active in the recruitment phase of showcases. College coaches recognize that team years are split as per our listing above and will follow players based on their birth date and high school class moreso than based on the age group of the premier team.

Note that some parents have chosen to move their child to another showcasing team where their older player became a younger player only to find two potential downsides.

• First, your child is now trying to showcase and shine against players one year older.
• Second, a younger player joining a new team that is already in the showcasing swing might not get as much playing time as with his or her original team.

Changing teams late in the showcasing years, particularly when you are getting key playing opportunities in showcase events, might not yield the benefits you would expect by being a younger player in an age group.

When a showcase uses multiple venues, it can make it challenging to be on the main recruitment fields if a team is in a lower bracket (perhaps getting only one or two games at the main complex) or a younger age group. Despite this, showcase events generally work diligently to make sure that all of their showcasing age teams will get at least one game on the main complex.

College coaches will indeed follow players in which they have an interest. Therefore, you can be assured that your child will have visiting coaches attend when you are on the main fields and some coaches will follow your players to secondary sites.

The soccer calendar (August to July) is tied to the National Championships (end July) which are tied to the Regional Events (early July) which are tied to State Cup competitions (June) and so on. [If soccer and scholastic calendars were aligned, other sports that are aligned to scholastic years would be off. Note also that not all school districts nationally and locally have the same scholastic year!]

Are older players being shafted by this system? Not at all - in fact, one might argue that they have an advantage in that college coaches might be more interested in seeing a younger team where there are fewer commitments already made just at the point that your player is ready to showcase. Remember, there are two different cycles that we mentioned earlier for older and younger players and a solidly functioning team will make the balance work.

Thanks very much for your very important question.

In response to the above question, my daughter also was the same chronolgic age as everyone on her team, but was a year ahead in school because of the difference between soccer age and school age based on her birthdate.
She played on a fairly competitive team ( region 1 caliber) so the team was attending all of the higher end showcases and playing in higher tier brackets since U15. I did find that as a U15 team, there were fewer coaches just "showing up" randomly to watch games as compared to when they played at U16. Additionally, we did end up at some of the less "popular" venues (those at diferent locations than where the higheest bracket U16-U17 teams were playing at when we were at U15). So that did preclude the ability of some coaches to get to see her play when she was in her U16 year(sophomore) but everyone else on the team was U15.
The most important point that BOTN expresses and I agree with wholeheartedly is that when she is in her sophomore and junior years, you can not just rely on a coach making a coldcall and randomly showing up to watch your game as your recruiting MO. Unless your kid's team is a top 20 ranked team and carrying a few National players that the coaches want to see, don't count on 20-30 coaches just showing up at your game because they have no one else specifically to focus on. It does happen at the better tournaments, but most often the coaches that are there were probably contacted by someone on the other team and then had the chance to see your kid play as well. YOU must be much more proactive as a parent in making sure your athlete is contacting the schools, visiting the school to meet the coach so he/she feels you have interest in the school and possibly attending a summer camp and doing everything possible to make sure a coach shows up at your game to see your kid play. One high end D1 coach who was sitting at one of our games told me that he receives so many e mails he can't possibly see everone. He will focus on thoe who made a trip to see the school, put a face on thee mail and showed an interest in his school as opposed to just playing soccer. We were exceptionaly proactive in this process knowing everyone else on the team was a year behind and we were aggressive in sending e mails and visiting schools and had many of those schools appear at our games and eventually make offers to our daughter. As it turns out, we had a D1 school that we originally never had any contact with, who saw my daughter at a tournament when watching an opposing player and now she will be attending that school with a significant athletic scholarship. So you never know what will happen, but you can not COUNT on someone discovering your kid. There are never guarantees as to where they will end up, BUT If you don't do the work, you will probably be disapointed. That much I would guarantee.

Thanks for your advice. It is good to hear some real life experiences.

What is a good Columbus Day Tournament if your team didn't apply or dodn't get into WAGS?

FC Westchester Columbus Weekend Tournament

WAGS is the top Columbus Day tournament in the area. Kirkwood (Delaware) is the runner up. The one is Columbia Maryland also is also an alternative.

Their is a great tournament recap linked off the MSC soccer club website.

BOTN Industries has been asked on many occasions if there was knowledge of a web site that lists boys' recruitment details similar to what we have previously published from Google on girls' recruiting.

ESPN Rise provides a boys soccer web site with many details which you might find useful.

Class of 2010, Division I College Commitments

Class of 2010, Division II College Commitments

Class of 2010, Division III College Commitments

Class of 2011, Division I College Commitments

Class of 2011, Division II College Commitments

Class of 2012, Division I College Commitments