It was the week before finals week and I wanted to check in with an old friend that I met at the soccer camp a couple of friends and I founded a few years ago. I met Sophie two years ago as my friend Arjun knew her and allowed her to work as a counselor at our soccer camp for children. She was a Freshman in high school and was on one of the top club teams in the country for her age group. Besides that, she was on the national team in the under eighteen age group as a fourteen year old. She was undoubtedly one of the most talented players I have met. I mentioned my project looking into the college recruiting process and she was willing to answer a few questions when I messaged her on Facebook.
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First, I asked Sophie," How has soccer impacted your college search process so far?" Although she was just a Junior, it had already made a massive impact. So, she said," Actually, it already decided where I am going to college. I committed to UCLA a couple months ago." I was astounded. I did not realize that colleges would commit players so early for collegiate soccer. Sophie continued," I always looked up to professional athletes and I knew Division 1 was the next step. I always trained hard and then I've been talking with coaches since my freshmen year and finally decided where to go." I was thoroughly impressed by her drive to continue playing at the highest level possible and could tell she would have the drive to get there. I asked," do girls usually commit to schools earlier? I haven't really heard many guys committing that early for soccer." She explained how the recruiting timeline for girls is at least usually a year earlier than guys, but neither of us could figure out why that was the case. So, it seems as though her timing with committing was more typical than I had originally thought, but clearly she was still one of the top recruits for her age group. We kept talking about what we want to get from our college soccer experiences we will have in the future, but then had to call it a night as it was late. We said good bye and I wished her luck in her future soccer career; I knew she would have a successful one.
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