Let’s put aside the holdback conversation. It’s not changing.
As a parent who has been through this process recently with my two older boys (‘22 and ‘23), let me give you some advice. Do not think for a second that your son’s travel coach or team is going to look out for your son and get him recruited. Their responsibility ends when they get you to tourneys in front of coaches. Despite what they will tell you, the most they will do is answer calls about your boy. Even then, often they will push the top 5 players on the teams over your son.
This is time for you to take your sons future into your own hands and start selling him. Go on to schools team pages and fill out the Recruiting Questionnaire. Fill them out for every school you can think of. That is the first step.
Make sure you have his highlight film updated with his fall tourneys. Sit with your son and have him start emailing coaches to introduce himself. Include his highlight film, along with any positive press or write ups that he may have had.
As we get into the spring season, start compiling varsity highlights and update the highlight film with them. You want to keep it under 3:00 so just the best. If your son is playing in spring tourneys, let coaches know his schedule, number and field number.
Once the summer season gets rolling. You and your son should send emails to coaches weekly. Include highlights, press, schedules, and what he likes about the program.
This is the time folks. This is what you’ve put in the time for; sacrificed summer vacations for. You need to make his future your priority and do not leave it in the hands of anyone else. This will be stressful and exciting at the same time and I wish all of you the best of luck over the next 9 months! Our boys deserve it!
So I agree with most of this. You have to do most of the leg work. Do not sit around and wait for a coach to reach out. And be realistic, if your son is not a starter on an A team, don’t just seek out D1 schools. I can say that from experience. However, what I disagree with is my older sons club really stepped in when the conversations were getting serious and 100% helped to close the deal. I get all clubs are different and I won’t promote a club anonymously, but some clubs do make a huge difference.
