@Dadbelly2023 posted:Ok. You win. Mostly because you used "elite" 3x in four sentences. Now I'm intimidated! Seriously though. My kids not an elite soccer player but he proves if you have athleticism and some baseline skills you can play at a reasonably high level. If he tried that in baseball he'd hit .150. Soccer recruiting is a lot different than baseball. Its possible to also play football or even soccer and still get recruited in baseball. If you dont play for a club team in soccer its almost impossible to play D1 soccer.
My son played football in middle school rather than soccer. He still played goalie or the town travel soccer team on the weekend.
Freshman year he decided he didn't want to risk injury playing football. He returned to school soccer. He said in those two years of not practicing during the season every day he lost the ball handling skills to compete at the varsity high school level in the field.
The thing is, at age twelve at the high school soccer camp coach declared he was the future goalie. Obviously, he had to get to high school and prove the coach right. But, he was on the radar early.
He was approached by local D1`s per recommendation of the goalie camp. They advised they would have to get past his passion for baseball. They didn't have a prayer.