Thanks all for the responses here.  All have been incredibly helpful!  Some very good advice.

My son has continued to receive some emails and these suggestions are really helping us get a broader sense on "what to look for" in the responses/communication (though I realize it's early still). 

Most are simply thanking him for his email, passing along ID camp info, and either asking for his game schedule or simply saying to stay in touch.  I'm guessing that most are not focused on sophomores (class of 2025) too much right now, but I could be wrong.  I'm curious at what point the process picks up (early junior year/mid-way through after the fall season, etc.)?

Thanks again!

Hi All,

Quick update.  My son has started reaching out to coaches and getting a decent amount of responses. 

While he has been sending his highlight video, most have responded thanking him and saying the best way for them to evaluate him is to come to one of their ID camps in person.  I know it's probably hard to evaluate a player purely on video...but on the flip side, it's also hard for us to assess how much of this is genuine interest vs. just "come to our camp" and we'll see.  I recognize the importance of being seen live, but being on the west coast and time/cost restrictions, it's probably not feasible for us to travel to so many camps...especially ones in the northeast.

So, I'm curious if you all have any advice on how to handle this/manage this with coaches?  Are there any questions he can ask (via email) that will help to better assess how much interest there truly is?  Is it appropriate to ask if they will also be on the West Coast at any point (a few have asked for his tournament/showcase schedules)?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

100% makes sense.  I appreciate you all sharing on the facility front!  Definitely something to be mindful of...and coming from SoCal, an important thing for sure.

Changing gears a bit here...I'm curious what are some of the top questions my son should be asking coaches during the recruiting process?  Of course, there are the obvious things about school, campus, academic/athletic balance, etc.  But anything not so obvious (e.g. does practice time ever conflict with class time, etc.)?

Would love any thoughts that will help to better prepare him for these discussions.  Thanks!

Quote from: d4_Pace on March 14, 2023, 12:44:32 PM
Tufts also have a very nice indoor playing surface  https://gotuftsjumbos.com/sports/2022/5/6/facilities-Carzo-Cage.aspx

For timeline I think most of the NESCAC programs end up having a large portion of their class by august-september of senior year. Although we usually ended up signing at least one or two more guys each year during the late fall/early winter period.

This one at Tufts looks nice too!  Looks like most programs have them in the NE.  I also saw Colby just built a new large athletics complex as well recently.

Good to know on the timing front.  My son is a sophomore now, so given this timing, it really seems like by next summer a lot of schools will be starting to finalize their classes.  Looking at it this way, doesn't seem so far out! 

Quote from: Kuiper on March 06, 2023, 12:54:37 AM

I don't know how many have indoor field houses with turf, rather than just composite material that can be used for futsa/tennis/volleyball/etc, but below are a few examples.  The quality of the turf likely varies widely, especially if it's used for all intramural sports during winter too, and the amount of space is obviously nothing comparable to the full-sized fields of a D1 football program:

Hamilton (https://athletics.hamilton.edu/facilities/indoor-practice-facility/7).  This looks to be one of the better ones in D3, both in terms of quality of the turf and the fact that it is actually lined for soccer (among other sports)

Middlebury (https://athletics.middlebury.edu/facilities/virtue-field-house/18)

Rochester (https://uofrathletics.com/facilities/field-house/22)

Thanks for sharing.  These all look pretty nice!  And some of them look to be built more recently.  I do wonder how many programs have these indoor field houses.  I can imagine it makes quite a difference with training during the later weeks of the season!

Thanks all for the continued advice!  It's very much appreciated.  The weather topic is definitely something to consider!

A few additional questions:

1) @Kuiper brought up a the topic of indoor turf fieldhouses.  I'm curious, how many D3 programs have these?  And do the teams in cold-weather climates regularly train in them?  BTW, this also brings up another topic on facilities...are there any schools that have "stand out" facilities or are they all more or less comparable?  Perhaps this best for another forum topic or there has already been a previous thread on this?

2) For the elite academic schools, does recruiting typically wrap up by the summer going into senior year (especially if there are pre-reads followed by ED)?  Or does it often stretch out later than this?

3) How do you know when a coach is truly interested vs. still evaluating?

4) Is there such a thing as an "official" recruiting visit in D3 or does that only exist in D1?

Learning so much from you all.  Thanks again!

Thanks all for the wonderful and insightful comments!  Truly appreciate it and it definitely helps us provide some good guidance as we get started on the process.

@Another Mom - we will definitely check out the book and I already took a look at the College Confidential board - great stuff.  Thanks for the suggestion!  And appreciate your insights on timing, outreach, and ID camps.  I'll shoot you a DM as well with some follow up questions - thanks for the offer!

@Yankeesoccerdad - appreciate your advice on reaching out to coaches first with video highlights and your comments on "picking and choosing" ID camps.  I think our initial inclination was to try to get to many places, but it's tough to from the west coast, so appreciate your voice of reason.  We were concerned that it was "essential" to get to ID camps for every school he's interested in, but based on the comments here, it doesn't sound like it.  You also answered our question on test scores as we were wondering how much this factors for recruited student-athletes now that many schools are test optional.  I'm curious if that even factors in any more in the high academic schools?  Or unless a recruit has test scores that match/exceed the average test score at the school, are they even considered?

@Kuiper - this is great to hear about east coast schools and their interest in west coast kids.  I never considered that, but it makes sense!  Great advice on the ID camps.  We're in SoCal, so perhaps we'll check out some of the local/California ID camps this spring.  And 100% agree with you and @jknezek on the conversations/follow-up - these are great life skills to learn at an early age.  Thanks for all the wonderful tips and suggestions.

@PaulNewman - appreciate the honest and direct advice.  Agree that he must find the school that is the best fit for him.  Starting with sending video to schools of interest makes a lot of sense.  And yes, I totally hear you on paying attention to the school vs. the conference.  I think our son is still in the stage of trying to determine what exactly he is looking for in a school...so it will be somewhat of exploratory process early on I think.  But your comment provides a good lens for trying to understand the "experience" when evaluating schools.

@Ejay - sorry to hear of all the injury challenges your son has had!  But it certainly sounds like he found a good fit from a school perspective, which I agree, as a parent, is really what you want at the end of the day.

@soccerpapa - thanks for all the great guidance.  For camps, did your son only go to ID camps when coaches expressed interest or did he preselect any based on his interest in the program?  I like the suggestion of talking to players on the team.  And at the end of the day - what you're saying makes total sense about the experience.

If there's any other advice or things you think of, I'd welcome it at any time.  Can't thank you all enough for the time you spent to provide your thoughts and suggestions!

Thanks @Todd Father for the kind words.  Truly appreciate them.

As far as requests.  Yes!  Post them here or send me a DM.

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OK great!  We'd love to see interviews with more coaches from the NESCAC (any schools), UAA (WashU, Brandeis, Case Western in particular), Liberty (Skidmore and Ithaca in particular), and Centennial (Swarthmore, Muhlenberg, Dickinson in particular) conferences.  And a west coast school or two like Chapman, Pomona-Pitzer, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, or UC Santa Cruz would be awesome as well.

I know that's a lot, so any of the above would be great.  Thanks again!

Just wanted to say a big thank you for all you are doing!  My son is just getting started with exploring the D3 recruiting process and your interviews have been extremely valuable.  And love the "Field of Dreams" series too!

BTW, do you take any interview requests?   There are a few coaches we would love to still see on the channel!

Thanks again and keep up the great work!

Hi All,

Our son is currently a sophomore and we're just starting to explore the D3 recruiting process.  His ideal targets are high academic schools (e.g. NESCAC, UAA, Liberty, Centennial conferences).

This is our first time going through the process, so we had a few questions that we were hoping to get some insight from others who have gone through it:

1) When is the ideal time to start reaching out to schools?  Will D3 schools pay much attention to sophomores (2025s) or are they mostly looking at their 2023s/2024s?

2) How wide of a net would you suggest casting on the initial reach out?  Is it better to start with a smaller list of schools and expand depending on interest/lack thereof?  Or is it better to start with a large number of schools (cast a wide net)?

3) How important are ID camps for schools in the above conferences?  Is it better to go to the individual school camps or some of the "multi-school" camps?  Any schools where you know that ID camps are "essential" (e.g. 80%+ of roster attended the school's ID camp)?  We live on the West Coast and a lot of his schools of interest are on the East, so trying to figure this out while still managing club, school, etc.

We welcome any other insights/recommendations you have as we get started on this process. 

Thanks very much!