1. What is the resume of kids getting signed to the D1 schools in SC?
2. Where are the geographically from?
3. Did they play ODP?
4. What about D2 schools?
5. What are the NCAA statistics and how do these number compare?
The idea was how does my son's resume stack up against the kids getting on D1 and D2 teams.
Also to identify trends in this data.
I gathered this data in two directions. First, I looked at all the South Carolina schools. Now every kid in SC doesn't play in SC. Our state high school coaches association tries to post at the SC soccer athletes that get a spot on a college team. So the data is presented as SC Schools and SC Athletes.
Spring 2014 - D1
Spring 2014 - D2
First, more information is available from the D1 schools in terms on signings. They often provide a little bio that tells their soccer background. This allows more anecdotal information to be considered. The D2 schools don't usually do this. So the conclusions are based mostly from the numbers and what little information is available.
My observations on from this small set of data;
For D1
1. D1 schools are taking a lot of academy players. Also the club players they do choose are playing at the
highest levels of youth soccer (for US Youth Soccer that is Primer teams.... at a minimum Challenge).
2. Almost 1/4 of the players recruited in D1 are foreign.
3. The South Carolina schools are only signing about 1/4 of their players from their home state.
For D2
1. Almost 1/2 of the recruits are foreign.
2. I could find few, if any, academy players signing to D2 schools.
3. Again, the South Carolina schools are only signing about 1/4 of their players from their home state.
The pursuit of academy players is kind of interesting , in that my understanding of the Academy was a way around college soccer. US Soccer does not like college soccer because of the format and schedule. It was also there way to get their hooks into the MLS academies that were already existing.
Transfers is the other source of signings. Actually more than I expected.
And of course, foreign players. How do these players end up in the US? That is a good question. My opinion is that it occurs mostly 2 ways; through friends that are already playing here and through foreign companies that sole purpose is to position foreign players at US colleges.
So what are the NCAA numbers?
