College Soccer Guy explains why 8th and 9th grade is the right time to attend ID camps. He notes that 77% of Division I women players come from ECNL programs, so non-ECNL players need camp exposure and coach references. Ask coaches directly what level you can compete at to guide your next steps.
When should you be going to college soccer ID camps? At what age? Is 8th grade too early? Let's get into it. I'm the College Soccer Guy. I'm here to help you play college soccer. Let's do it. So I just spoke to a college coach, a Division I women's college coach, who last year their team was ranked top 25, and I was asking him, when should these students go to these college ID camps? And the answer was, and this is specifically for girls but also for boys, is as an 8th grade, 9th grader, when you go to an ID camp, you're really going for you. Do you like the environment? Do you like the coaches? Is college soccer something you want? Because when you go to a college soccer ID camp, you're going to find out if this is something you really love because you're going to play soccer all day long for 3 days, maybe even a week. Maybe it's just 1 day, but then you're going to find out whether or not you love soccer to the degree that is going to be required. So 8th grade, 9th grade, it's really for you. Now, for girls, there is an argument to go, you know, 8th grade, 9th grade. It's also for recruiting because the best girls are recruiting or getting recruited freshman, sophomore, junior year. So going to these camps is a tool for recruiting. But if you are say not playing ECNL on the girls' side and you're going to one of these camps of a D1 school, the chance of you being recruited by that school is very unlikely if you're not playing ECNL. The percentages are 77% of girls that play D1 are playing ECNL. Those are just the facts. Now, this coach was saying you should still come to our camp because if we like you but maybe you don't fit for us, we could still be a reference for you. You'll have a wonderful experience. You're going to learn what college is like. Now, I know as parents and kids, we're going to those ID camps not so that way we can have a good experience. We're going to get recruited. So when you decide which ones you want to go to, make sure when you leave the ID camp, you ask this question: what level do you believe I can play? And then based off of going to 1 or 2 Division 1 ID camps in 8th, 9th grade, they will say to you, yes, you have a lot of time to develop, but unless you do XYZ, you're gonna— should aim for these schools. And that is the coach's job. And sometimes the coaches won't give you a straight answer. You can't control that. But you should definitely ask the question. If you want more help playing college soccer, give me a call. Links in the bio. Talk soon.
