I have to say as I read along this very informative posting, I'm wondering if I'm falling behind with my own daughters' preparation for college? She is also a freshman (playing varsity however) with strong academics and playing on a terrific premier team and also aspires to play in college, but I don't think she would have a clue which college she would want to attend someday?

We're just assuming that will come in her junior year unless we're wispering into her ear which colleges to consider? Does anyone start their kids looking at colleges in 9th or 10th grades?

Anytime we play a tournament that has a major college near it we try to at least walk around the campus. Been doing it since 7th grade you never know what may stick in their heads. At least you may eliminate some unnecessary visits down the road. SUNY New Paltz (out) URI (out) Brown U (out) Johns Hopkins (out) Princeton (still in). Hey you never know.

Our thanks to both 'BL' and 'Anon' for these responses. Your answers and suggestions already fit well with our line of thinking and are great to hear! The points made about letting her combine the college search with her own inner growth really hits home as we're watching our little girl evolve more and more into her own young self with each passing day during her first high school year! The advice you both offer is a very helpful roadmap rolling on thru her teams many upcoming showcase tournaments (luckily they're mostly all 9th graders) and will be well utilized.

Thanks again for the feedback with such spot on specifics!

From BOTN Industries, you are more than welcomed. You are well advised to review all of our threads on the college message board as many of the early days preparation topics are covered.

As for most of the team being ninth graders, now is the time to start getting the parents to create player profiles using a standard template. In all likelihood, you will start tournament showcasing in the November timeframe (CASL/Raleigh, National Elite, MAPS/Winter Showcase, Disney/Orange and so forth) and it is best that you use the next two weeks to get some of your ground work completed including a couple of coaching contacts for your next tournament event.

Help!

My boy plays U16 soccer and plays on HS varsity as a starting player. His HS coach thinks we should play some showcase tournaments - because he thinks his talents and commitment to the game are above average.

His club team which he has been playing up in age for the past five years and loves his teamates is planning on a couple of showcase tournaments this year, however I am worried that playing showcase with this club team may not be a good fit - because of the coaching style.

The head coach is a parent coach and his son is also a top player. It seems that the coach is hell bent on getting his boy a scholarship and has been focusing his efforts this year to the point that he has changed the entire formation on the field including players positions to feed his boy the ball.

It also appears that he believes in "addition by subtraction" - that is to rotate and bench other top players giving them less playing time. These players including my boy still stand out when they do get on the field, but their playing time has been compromised.

It also seems that when a boy other than the boy he wants to showcase (namely his boy) score a goal, they get punished by being sent on defense or benched or become part of the rotation.

Is their a way to guest play on other teams in a showcase tournament? We really don't want to change club teams, however it looks like it is becoming necessary.

Before, we start, BOTN Industries apologies for the length of this response.

While it is important to secure a positive recommendation about both field play and leadership from your scholastic coach, the real recruitment action will indeed occur with your club team so let's focus on that element of your description.

First flag that is raised is that your son is a "U/16 player playing up". Does this mean that he is:

• a U/15 player playing with U/16s ... 0r ...
• a U/16 player playing with U/17s?

The reason to ask this question is very important.

U/17 teams will be senior and junior heavy; U/16 teams will be junior and sophomore laden. If you are just starting to showcase and your son is a sophomore, you still have a solid 24 months of showcases in your son's tenure. You need to be able to match his remaining length of pre-college showcasing with the team. If you are on a U/17 team which is senior laden, you can expect that showcasing will end by December of this year. Therefore, you need to let us know more about your son's age relative to the team.

Second, you are right to raise a concern over coaching style. Now, this is not just because of a parent coach playing favorites to his son, but rather that there seems to be no proactive decision making happening to have specific players in front of their own target college coaches. By just having the coach's son on the field all the time, chances are that the coach is just casting a very wide net on recruitment. This is typically a losing strategy for the young man involved.

If this is a U/17 team, there should already have been interest shown in this coach's son from specific target schools. Given that men's soccer scholarships are more restrictive than women's, you can be assured that money for seniors is already gone right now and most of the junior money has also been absorbed.

Changing the formation of the team is not as much a concern unless that change makes the players look lost on the field. For example, a team which goes from a 4-4-2 to a 3-4-3 can place exceptional pressure on the central back although the remainder of the team is fairly similar. However, going from a 3-4-3 to a 4-5-1 completely undermines many positions and roles on the field. That said, remember that college coaches look at players and not the team itself. To that end, players should be able to play in any formation, although we do understand your concern that turning a team inside-out for a showcase can undermine everyone's peak performance.

Showcases should more evenly distribute playing time and those players that have coaches actually attending a specific game should get preferential treatment. That said, a player should NOT be left in a game to the point where rubber legs start showing a player's weakness; hence, the emphasis on conditioning and more conditioning for the showcasing player.

Whether true or not, BOTN Industries cannot tell. However, even when others score, many college coaches have told BOTN that the most important attribute of a player's on-field game is how they are moving, contributing, opening up, and providing options to those who currently have the ball. Remember that scoring the goal is important and rewarding, but college coaches do NOT care about the score of a showcase game.

Guest playing "on-age" in other showcase events is absolutely an option and one highly recommended for you. That said, you should seriously consider the reason that you are remaining with this team. We have posted several previous articles on guest playing procedures; these are highlighted below for your reference.

Guest Playing Challenges During Showcase Years

The difficulty with showcase guesting is that you need to be very sure as to why the team is at the showcase in the first instance. All too often, coaches use showcases as another tournament to notch wins for the record books as opposed to playing individual players in positions where they need to be seen and, more importantly, when they need to be seen.

Each player, including guests, should be required to give the coaching staff a listing of schools which identify the top colleges on that player's academic and athletic target list.

Parents (as many as six, as few as three) should be positioned around the showcase field with profiles and a record of the coaches attending. Obtaining a listing pregame of the attending college coaches and cross referencing that with your master sheet on all the girls' college interest list will allow the "right players" to start a given match.

Signed players rarely should be starting a showcase game - hence, the earlier a player signed (usually, the better players in most cases), the less playing time that they see in favor of others. The focus should be to allow target players to get 30 minutes of straight playing time at least to demonstrate skills, game involvement, vision, and most importantly, fitness.

Now, showcasing becomes difficult if the team with which you are guesting does not have this ethic and sees your child as a replacement or an extra cast member rather than an active component of the showcase. You need to have an agreement with the coach as to why you are attending and to which games you have specific coaches coming to see your daughter. Positions and playing time are next and there is no reason to be at a showcase for 10-15 minutes of playing time per half. College coaches cannot tell anything in that time window.

Establishing a relationship with a better club where you can guest will take work on your part and a willingness perhaps to attend (and pay) for training sessions with your target guest team in order to be welcomed with the other players. You will need your son/daughter to be seen as capable by the other players on the team for which he/she guests. BOTN Industries has seen cases where guest players get "frozen" out of the play when a team just does not trust the guest player during a game play situation which hurts everyone.

Those are just a few of the risks/issues with guest playing at a showcase. Armed with this information, you will hopefully be able to be more aggressive in your questions and evaluation of guest situations.

Thank you for the complete response.

My boy is U15 playing U16. He is a sophmore along with two others while the other top players are Juniors. He has been relegated to 15-20 minutes per half. As you say, not a lot of time to be showcased, however not a lot playing time to drive 3-4 hours to each tournament either.

The formation changes has most likely been the cause of the team, losing games, but the showcase player is getting the goal or two a games.