SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Harry how about showing up.

Good question, and quite complicated, actually.
1. A club/academy that actively promotes "exposure" when it's recruiting kids, SHOULD act on the kids' behalf with college recruiters. Do they? You tell me.
2. A kid/prospect who DOESN'T do a lot of the heavy lifting and self-promotion -- no matter what the club SAYS it will do -- is kidding himself.
3. Parents/players should understand that, when asked about players, HONEST club coaches will tell the whole story, warts and all. Why? Because if they don't, and a kid busts in college, the college recruiter will NEVER trust the club coach again.
4. Really, folks, what do you think college camps are for? (A. Make money. B. Evaluate prospects. C. Sell the college environment and staff. D. All of the above.) THAT WOULD BE D!

In short, good coaches are identifying prospects from the moment kids start playing, then allow "natural selection" to sort out the pretenders. If coaches really don't know about you by the time you're a high school junior, it probably ain't gonna happen.

Backscreen you and Delt give some thoughts on this. The part of my original question that got reebok going was that "most should be committed by now" and reeboks stance on it was that most should not. Kind of touching on the exsposure thing.Other than maybe a ECNL Texas event that cesa may be going to in Feb and some high school soccer, the chance for exsposure to college coaches is pretty much done until the fall season starts up when the rising u18s will be high school sr's. By that time a large number of colleges will be done with their 2014 class and the options left for a player will be limited. Not just on the money side of it but schools players may of wanted to attend and play soccer at may not be an option at that time and they have to settle for something less than what they wanted if they intend to play soccer in college.

If you haven't seen this page, it is a pretty good list of commitments. You can sort it by club, class, and school.

https://sites.google.com/site/soccerrecruits/

FWIW, some very big programs hold grants open until late, for what they perceive as the best of the best. Spoke with a Louisville assistant who pretty much told me they somewhat discourage early commitments, and would rather wait to see EXACTLY what they're getting.

I understand the waiting to see exactly what they are getting but is u 17 to early to committe? When you say big programs that could be a select few. ( ND ,UNC ) and some others? Many of the big schools reload every year and im not sold on the fact that they are waiting around untill late 2013 to fill their 2014 class. On the other hand i guess the UNC's of the world that has so much talent can wait around but the large majority of schools cant.If you look at it from the other side, how long can players wait around before getting left out or not getting the money they may need to play at the school of their choice.Lets be honest. We hope our kids get to play at the school they want to attend and get as much money as possible to help pay for it. If we didnt care then we would leave them in a rec league. I just think the longer it takes or you wait the chances of that happening go down.

When i started this thread i rele wanted to know how the recruiting was going for the ecnl at cesa. Yes, partly to needle Harry a bit also.
I blame cesa for them being behind in the recruiting process. Since going to ecnl where it is guaranteed for the top teams to play in front of college coaches. Cesa is giving even less an effort when it comes to training and so on. It is starting to show. When my oldest went to Cesa you would see all the top team and many on the B team committe to play soccer in college. Now they cant get a whole top team into college to play soccer. That is with being in ecnl. Why?
I know this is going to cause an argument but i blame the cesa parents who's kids play on these top teams as much as i do anyone associated with cesa.Remember we were those parents at one time also. First off the parents need to demand better. The training and effort that cesa is giving as a whole is terrible.. If you are happy with what you are getting then you just dont know any better. I know most are not going to leave a ecnl team and go somewhere else.
It was always part of cesa's selling point that they go to disney, casl and so on with their top teams which then was premier. Now with ecnl it seems the premier and challege teams have been left behind. If the effort is not there for the ecnl teams then i know it is not for the cesa premier and challenge teams. It will be interesting to see if the migration of players turns around and heads back south to play on a state championship team or runner up so they can go to the disneys and casl's and in R3PLE.
The other thing is that alot (not all) cesa parents whose kids were on the top teams had an arrogance, over confidence or false sense of security that just because their kid plays for cesa on the top team that coaches are foaming out the mouth to come watch them play and recruite them. It does not work that way. I know someone will be mad about me saying that but remember i was one at one time also.

Deltadog i think some of the reason, other than cesa's lack of effort in why some teams are getting more committed at this time and others are not may partly be because of the type of soccer a team plays or is coached.. Could be that the type of soccer cesa is coaching right now with certain teams is not what some college coaches are looking for. That lack of good training and effort could be starting to show.
No matter what the reasons were that we left the one main reason was when after the seasons before the next tryouts i asked AF if there was going to be any change in how the girls were being trained and how over crowded the fields were and he said he did not see any changes being made.That was all i needed.

One thing i meant to say and left out. There is to many talented players on the u17s and other teams at cesa for cesa to not be working harder for the players and parents in the recruting process. They are paying alot of money to play there. You have to remember. That unless a parent has already gone thru the recruiting process with a older player they have no idea how the process works. Maybe a club or coach that goes the extra mile for a player may help.