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First time we spoke and we had a Zoom call like this, we talked about like the percentages of playing college soccer that late on and specifically playing in the Pacific Northwest where we live. I told you, you know, was going to be very difficult. And here we are with, you know, one offer from a school that's really close, another one that's pretty close to slightly higher level. So I just want to say congrats. First of all, good job, everybody, because we put in the work. Now let's figure out and decide where we want to go. So with that in mind, I'm here to answer the questions. I have a couple things I want to talk about, but let's start with you guys.

Yeah, so I think we just wanted to get your, your viewpoint because from the outset we would have thought, oh, well, if you have a D2 offer and a D3 offer, you go for the D2, right? But now it seems like maybe this D3 program is better and we're just trying to kind of understand that. And so we just love to hear your thoughts on that.

Yeah, so I can tell you, POU, which is the Division III school, that coach I give my highest marks to. Like, of all the coaches in the country, he gets my 11 out of 10. The reason in particular is my brother was recruited by him, so I know his personality. We've had probably many students be recruited by them, but we've had 3 students commit in the last 2 years because I really like him and it's a school I encourage for kids. And they're very good. They'll go to the tournament every year almost. They go abroad even though they're a DIII school during the offseason. Sometimes and have an amazing culture. So that's one piece of it. The other school is still very good as well. And if you liked your son to the same, and that coach is great and they have a good reputation, the question I think it really comes down to, it's going to come down to the human beings. So which coach do we like more? And they're kind of equal right now. So that makes it a little bit challenging. Then it comes to the vibe of the players, some of which we got to meet, some of which we didn't. We didn't get to meet a ton of them. And then the biggest next thing is the campus and academics. And although academics come first, you know, if you're not enjoying soccer, you usually don't enjoy the school that much. So we prioritize academics because we're going to college, but really those are the, the 3 pieces. So the question to ask your son is, if we're— if coaches are tied and the teammates is kind of an unknown to the degree to make a decision on, you know, which campus did you like the most?

Um, yeah, I would say I probably preferred the PLU campus a little bit.

Okay. And you talked about the field that you had to travel a little bit farther and it's kind of annoying. Now, look, if we only had one offer, we'd be over the moon and be like, who cares? I have to drive 5 minutes to training with my teammates. Like, what's the big deal? So that's not one that I don't think that's a fair reason to go one or the other. Now talk about, let's talk about the academics. Have you decided what we've talked about it many times, but in terms of a major, have you decided what you might want to do?

Yeah, I got into both for business.

So business, both of them have really good programs. The next piece, you know, as a family, we look at their alumni, you know, what's that like? He's got to get a job afterwards. I can tell you, and you guys know this, for the better or for the worse, college doesn't get you a job anymore anyways. So what's going to get him a job is being in college can help you get a job, but he's gonna have to get an internship regardless. And whichever school he goes to is not a huge difference. So then the next totem pole is playing time. You know, where do we think we're going to play more? So, Alex, what's your take on that?

Probably more at St. Martin's, just because the PLU roster is like 12, or I think it's 12 more kids on the roster. Um, I mean, I know speaking to the kid on St. Martin's, he's already told me he believes that I'm better than a couple of the guys that already had. He said he saw that when I tried out with them.

So that's telling. We think we'd get more playing time, you know, on the Division II school. The only problem with— and it's an important question because we need to know— you never know what happens in preseason. Like, it could, it could go a million ways. So the best thing usually to pick is like, what are the players and who would you like more? In order to make this decision, if we need to ask some more questions, that's important. And I know like, PL, you haven't really given us a deadline and St. Martin's has. So if one of our questions to St. Martin's is Or maybe in this case it'd be the PO. You go, coach, you know, to be honest, I'm debating between two options. I'm going to make a decision in the next two weeks, which is true. I would like to speak to some of your players. Is there someone I could talk to? And if he says no, I don't want to talk to anybody, that's a red flag and that's not a place we should consider. So to me, we're not— we don't know the answer yet because we haven't taken in enough data. So we need to probably ask one more question, maybe two more questions. Yeah, so ask the peer review coach. Can you talk to him?

You know players in St. Martin's already? Yeah, you've spoken there and you've met with the whole team.

And he's spoken to, um, a friend of his has a friend, he knows kids who have went to both and have been happy at both. So it's like we're not hearing, you know, like we're not hearing any red flags for either of them.

Yeah, they're both very good schools. They're both great schools from a distance. Yeah, go ahead.

All right, it seems like PLU has a better reputation in our area, if that makes sense.

Yeah, we spoke to somebody about from a, like, from a non-soccer