What I Wish I Knew Before Playing Club Soccer

Club soccer is something many girls decide to pursue during their soccer careers. We can make some assumptions about club, but not everything is crystal clear. Parents can assume it will be more expensive, time-consuming, and there will be opportunities to travel. That’s one reason club is referred to as “travel soccer.” Girls just know club is the next step, without really understanding what trials and triumphs it will bring. 

Club soccer is time-consuming.

Club can sometimes include practices two to three times a week with one to two games on the weekends. That takes up a lot of time, especially when the travel time to and from is considered. Recreational soccer is usually just down the road, right? Club practices and games might be 30 minutes to two hours away, each way! When you don’t have a driving license, parents are stuck being your chauffeur. But once soccer girls get their license and have access to a car, get ready to make the trek yourself! 

You might be forced to choose a sport.

High school and club seasons sometimes change or become more demanding…so you might be faced with a tough decision. For example, in high school, I played both volleyball and soccer, but then volleyball was switched from winter to fall. I was forced with the decision to play club soccer in the fall or high school volleyball. I chose soccer and never played volleyball competitively again. This is one reason why many kids are multi-sport athletes then become one-sport athletes during their teens. 

The team you start with probably won’t be the team you end with.

Try-outs usually happen once a year, and players tend to move around at some point. If you end with the team you start with, you might not be challenging yourself. At first, you might love your club team, and it will be hard to imagine playing with anyone else. But as time goes on, maybe you’ll want to try out for a better team or follow friends to another team. The worst-case scenarios I’ve experienced are when teams dissolve. They fall apart, and players are forced to find a different team.

Some coaches will prepare you for college. 

During recruiting years, coaches will push you like never before. Sometimes the pressure causes anxiety, stress, and low self-esteem. It gets tough when players are hard on themselves, and the coaches are hard on them too. The pressure is real…so be ready for it. After my U16 season, my coach openly admitted to playing mind games with me to prepare me for college. Not everything your coach does will make sense or seem fair. 

You can do a lot of recruiting on your own.

I focused a lot of my energy on getting a soccer scholarship. My dad also put a lot of time into making a highlight video to give to recruiters. Oddly enough, the university I committed to and received a scholarship from never saw me play club in person. I “cold e-mailed” coaches at universities I was interested in. This means I e-mailed coaches I did not have previous contact with. Don’t be afraid to “cold e-mail” and develop your own strategies for recruitment. Don’t wait and see who finds you…find what you’re interested in and do something about it. 

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