ODP and College Scholarships
This a post I read on the NorCal chatboard. I thought is was a good post regarding ODP
and college schlarships.
*Starting around 14, send your daughter to college soccer camps in the summer, especially
to the ones she's interested in attending someday. Have her send letters to the head coach
BEFORE she attends so that he/she knows of her interest.
*Have her tryout for the club teams most likely to get into the top college showcase
tournaments...keep going for as high a level as possible
*Start a soccer resume (with current photo) with phone numbers and email addresses of all
her coaches and dates played, positions, and other helpful things like cross country
participation or special honors in track and field or other sports.
*Keep an academic resume starting in high school (honors, GPA, SAT scores, etc)
*Starting sophmore year in high school, SHE (not parents) should start writing letters to
the soccer coaches of colleges she is interested in attending. She should send them a
league and tournament schedule as well as her high school schedule. Personal phone calls
are also good. Also send a current soccer and academic resume and sometimes even a very
very short video of her in action on the soccer field with some kind of identifying sign
such as a yellow ribbon in her ponytail,jersy color and #, etc. (and not all closeups of
her scoring goals either because that proves little)
*Both of you need to read all about the NCAA recruiting rules so that she doesn't violate
any of them, making her ineligible. You can download them online or call their 1-800 and
get one free copy of the rules and other important things. Have her get an NCAA
Clearinghouse number by her junior year.
*Have her talk to her club and high school coaches so that everyone knows that she is
looking for a scholarship to play college soccer. It's called networking and it sometimes
works.
*Take her to college games and let her introduce herself to the coach AFTER the game. Hand
him her resume (with photo)and send a letter afterwards so he/she will remember her later.
(this is really helpful) Coaches love players who are eager to be on their team and are
willing to come and watch the team play. This is also a good time to evaluate the coaching
and see if there is screaming, or other verbal abuse of players. (yes, you might be
horrified) How much subbing is being done? What formations are used?
*The whole thing is about making a coach want to see your daughter play. ODP allows a
coach to see a lot of players at one site. The top ODP players (Regional and National)
will be able to handpick their college. State players will most likely also get a full
scholarship but maybe not where they wish to go. But coaches are definitely interested in
any player who could possibly be an asset to their team. After watching various college
teams play at the different levels, you should be able to accurately assess which colleges
she should be going for.
*Bottom line is that many of your daughters could play college soccer some day IF they
continue to play on a high level club team, IF they keep their grades up, IF they are
mentally tough and IF they really really want to play in college. It MUST be what SHE
wants, not her parents.
*They may or may not get a scholarship, they may or may not play on the team of their
first choosing but they could very likely play in college if they really wish to do so.
Most girls will lose interest when they find out how physically hard it is to play in
college. It's like a job.
*In Division I and II, scholarships usually mean more playing time because the coaches
will need to justify to the AD who gets the money. So if your daughter doesn't need the
money, she should try anyway to get a scholarship if she wants a lot of playing time. DI
requires a lot more speed and quickness than DII. Divison III does not offer scholarships.
***This is all for future use only. U13 is too young for any action yet. FYI, the girls
who went on to play in college on my daughter's club team WERE all standouts in some ways
by age 12 and younger. They were not necessarily big, tall or even very physical players
at this age. They were skilled in the fundamentals and had great field vision. Good
accurate passers and outstanding one on one defenders and attackers. They were the
playmakers. Out of these four, only one decided to go the ODP route to get a scholarship.
None of them had paid trainers. They all graduated from college within the last two years.