A mother asks if her sophomore ECNL soccer player can still pursue Division I soccer after tearing her ACL. The coach says it's not over: most DI recruiting wraps up by junior year February, so she should tell interested coaches immediately, send recovery videos to show her grind, and consider a path through Division III or II first.
Hey coach, my daughter just got injured. She's a sophomore playing ECNL. Is it still possible for her to play college soccer? Absolutely, it's still possible for her to play college soccer since she's a sophomore, but can I ask what the injury is? Yeah, she just tore her ACL, so like we're pretty worried that we're going to miss the boat for college soccer because we saw in your videos that most girls are done recruiting, you know, February of their junior year for Division I. So when you have a serious injury like an ACL, you might miss the boat for Division I schools. That is the reality. We could talk about a gap year, but what really matters is leading up to this point, were you sending videos to coaches and talking to schools? Yeah, we were listening to your advice and actually since 8th grade we were going to ID camps and we were sending emails with video pretty consistently. So actually she has a lot of interest at this point 'cause she's a good player playing ECNL. So it's not like we have no interest, but the Division I schools are about to be able to talk to us, but we're injured now and we're gonna be injured for a year. So here's the good news. Because you started in 8th grade and you have interest from Division III schools and maybe some Division I schools have winked at you because they like you and they've broken the rules, I would tell you that Division I soccer might not be out of the picture. This time next year, it will be late, it'll be May if you're watching this video, and that will make it difficult for you to play Division I soccer. So what you need to do is this. Number one is you have to tell the coaches that you've torn your ACL, especially the schools that you want. You have to be realistic and go, the schools that have shown interest in you, those are the schools that you're gonna have to depend on to get recruited by. In the situation you're in. You could look into a gap year, but academically speaking, that's kind of tough just because you have your— you want to leave school with your friends and you want to start this program. So the schools that you have interest from, those are very likely, and you might have to look to transferring once you're at your Division III or Division II school that's been showing you interest to then the Division I school. Now, if you send physical therapy videos while you're injured to the Division I schools, it is possible that because you're keeping in touch with them over the next year about your recovery, that next summer they might say to you, look, we are pretty full, but we've liked you for a very long time. How are you feeling? Could we please see you after your injury? And because you've stayed in touch over the course of the year, it is still possible you could play Division I soccer. Oh wow, that's pretty amazing. Like, what do we send them? You know, she's not playing soccer, she's just going to physical therapy, and I see her in physical therapy, it looks like it hurts so much. I've torn my ACL too, and you can go on my Instagram story and see every single day. I documented it every day. I actually had to get a second surgery because the screws started coming out, so it took me 2 years to recover, and it was a pain in the butt. All of that is to tell you that those videos coaches love to see. It shows grind, it shows dedication, and you don't think your daughter, unfortunately, is gonna get injured again in her life? Unfortunately, probably. So coaches love to see the recovery, especially once they see the recovery, then watch her once or 2 times, especially given she's a sophomore and next year she'll be a junior, they may make her an offer and Division I soccer could still be in the cards. So just because she's injured does not mean the recruiting process stops. This is really helpful, thank you so much. How do I contact you? Like, I have a couple more questions. No worries, Mom. If you would please schedule a call with you and your daughter, we can schedule a call with the link in the bio and I will talk to you soon. Or comment the word call and I'll send you the link myself.
