When I was coming into my freshman year of high school, the year prior I witnessed my older brother win a state soccer championship for Cardinal Gibbons. I then knew this would be a goal of mine before leaving high school.
In order to achieve this goal of mine I knew I had to achieve my childhood dream of committing to a school. I knew my dad would not let me play for the school until this was done because, sadly, unless you play for a good club team the chances of getting recruited in high school soccer are a lot more slim because college coaches tend to not watch the high schools play.
You may have a friend who plays high level club soccer, also known as academy soccer, and you may wonder why they don’t play for the school? They would help the team win so much!
It is because in the league MLS Next, or another high level league called ECNL, they do not allow players who play in this league play for your high school. For example, last year I had a teammate who was getting looked at by Clemson, Elon, Stanford, UNC-Greensboro, Pitt and more. But because he played high school while still playing for my club team at the same time without letting the coach know, he got kicked off the team and out of the league. He went against the rules that we agree to before the season starts.
It is most definitely a risk to play for your school, because not only do you have a risk of losing your eligibility to play in a high quality league, but you also may miss out on really good opportunities to play in front of a lot of high quality good colleges. Not just Division I but a lot of really good Division II and III schools as well.
On average, at a MLS Next or ECNL tournament for the U16 and U18 (which are juniors and seniors) there are at least 20-30 college scouts. Depending on how good your team is, that number can go up or down.
However, in high school soccer, there usually are not any college coaches at your games for any division level.
I asked a couple of my current and former club teammates what’s the reason they either currently are not playing for their high school team, or why did they never play high school.
From a former teammate of mine, he told me that a couple reasons he stopped playing high school was because the level was too low for his personal development. Another reason was they were not as motivated to play because it would feel like a waste of time because their high schools are not that good.
Lastly, they all said when you play academy most of your coaches downplay school and it makes you not want to play.
I chose to play because fortunately, through the grace of God, I had already accomplished my main goal of knowing where I will play next year.
Also, I really wanted to enjoy playing my last year of soccer before I go off to college, and really wanted to feel a part of one of the Gibbons soccer teams. I also really wanted to play one more time with old friends and teammates and play in front of friends who have never seen me play.
All and all it though we did not win a state championship, it was a great experience and I loved high school soccer and the excitement that comes with every game playing for your school.
