News for the Week of Jan. 28, 2013

Program Notes for the Week of 1/28/2013:

We are going to take a little break from our usual content this week to concentrate on some college recruiting information. Last week everyone should have been e-mailed the 2013 College Prep Guide and the area that requires the most immediate attention is the part that has to do with College soccer camps. I am going to reprint below that part of our College Prep guide for everyone's information.

The College soccer camp is a tremendous opportunity for your daughter to display her soccer skills in front of prospective coaches. These camps are a win-win situation for the athlete and the school. Because of severely limited recruiting budgets for women’s soccer, it is nearly impossible for coaches to see a large pool of candidates. This is a major reason why they run summer camps – to bring the recruits to them. Remember also, that they are limited in when they can contact a player and the number of contacts they can have with a player. Generally, college coaches cannot have contact with prospective players until the summer before their Senior year and then the contacts are of a limited number based on NCAA rules.

However, the player can have unlimited contact with coaches at any time starting in their Freshman year as long as they initiate the contact through such methods as filling out the specific sport questionnaire for each college, sending the coach results from their season, informing them of upcoming tournaments they will be playing in, making college visits and by attending summer camps. The advantage to the players is that they get to display their skills to coaches over an 8-12 hour period over the course of 3-5 days plus personal contact. This is much more beneficial than having a coach come to one or two 80 min. games against possibly suspect competition where you are being substituted for frequently. In addition, the girls are hopefully improving their skill set at these camps by playing against higher level competition and learning college level techniques. If you are expecting college coaches to wander into Memorial stadium to see your daughter, this is not realistic. You have to put yourself in front of the college coaches and be very persistent at it. You have to make college coaches want to recruit you, not wait on them to recruit you.

Like everything else in the recruitment process, you need to focus in on the schools where you believe you have a realistic opportunity to play and then attend their summer camp. Now, which colleges run these summer camps? The following is a list of the schools in Ohio or nearby which are hosting camps this summer for high school aged players:

The Ohio State Univ.        Div. 1
Univ. of Cincinnati            Div. 1
Univ. of Dayton                Div. 1
Youngstown State             Div. 1
Ohio Univ.                        Div. 1

Ursuline College                Div. 2
Cedarville Univ.                 Div. 2
Slippery Rock Univ.          Div. 2
Malone Univ.                     Div. 2

The College of Wooster     Div. 3
Hiram College                    Div. 3
Ohio Northern Univ.           Div. 3

In addition, all Big Ten schools have soccer camps along with major schools such as Notre Dame, Marquette, and Pitt. In fact, every major conference D-1 school has a camp and you can access information on any camp through the college’s website.

You need to start making your summer plans now as these camps fill up quickly. Also if you select a camp, be sure to fill out the school’s soccer questionnaire and express your interest in playing at “ABC” college so they are aware of you when you come to camp.

A new development that has sprung up recently at many colleges is something known as the “College ID camp”. These are one day clinics held at the particular college in which the girls receive a day of college level soccer training and the coaches have the opportunity to initiate the recruiting process. Girls that they “ID” would certainly be invited to attend their summer soccer camp and the coaches will keep certain girls on their “watch” list. These ID clinics are held in the Winter/Spring and some colleges have already held theirs. So, if you are interested in a particular college, check their website and be sure to get an early start on this. These “ID” camps are rapidly gaining in importance and are starting to replace the traditional summer camps, so give them some serious consideration.

The remainder of the College Prep Guide may be found in this blog under the 2013 College Prep Guide page.  We have sent this out to everyone in the program and also to the incoming Freshmen as it is never too early to understand what is needed to play college soccer and to start planning accordingly.  The four years in high school go by very quickly and many parents end up feeling as if they should have started on things earlier.


Shorty Sez:
We are going to continue presenting motivtional sayings coming from the Twitter site called Women Sports which may be found at:

https://twitter.com/Women_Sports

Once there, here are some selected examples of tweets over the past week. Hope that you find something that inspires you here:


Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it. - Mia Hamm (soccer)

The task ahead of you is never greater than the strength within you.

If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you.

The word impossible says–I'm possible. Follow your dreams! - Sydney Durso ( Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader)

Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out. - John Wooden (Legendary UCLA bball coach)    


Shoregal Website:
Don't forget to visit our Shoregal website at:

www.alshoregalsoccer.org

There you will find more in depth stats and stories than we can fit on our blog.