For two Willow Glen teenagers, Ryan Villalpando and Janelle Zetterquist, the athletic scholarship process has turned into a learning experience for the entire family.

Ryan Villalpando, 16, a junior at Leland High School, plays soccer for his school and a club team, the Fremont Fury, which is sponsored by the San Jose Earthquakes as the top youth team in the area. Villalpando has been playing soccer since he was 4 years old. At age 10, he stopped playing baseball, basketball and ice hockey to focus on developing his soccer skills.

The first time he tried out for a competitive club team, he didn't make the squad, says his mother Julie Villalpando. Four years later, at age 14, he went to a regional tournament with the top 16 players from 16 states and was named an Adidas All-American player.

Ryan's short but stocky frame and mop of wiry curls scream with bursts of energy when he's on the field as a midfielder.

Ryan's played in college showcase tournaments—including the Dallas Cup, Surf Cup and Disney Cup—and has been chosen as one of 30 national under-19 players to represent the United States in matches in Guadalajara and Costa Rica.

But getting to this level required years of sacrifice on and off the field. And taking it to the next step, a college scholarship, started another learning process in the sport that has dominated his youth.

Ryan's playing at an elite level caught the eye of college recruiting scouts, says Julie. For the family, it also triggered an education process in NCAA recruiting rules, which the Villalpandos researched on the association's website. Julie says it also helped to talk to a friend whose son was offered a football scholarship to the University of San Diego.

For those playing at this elite level, recruiting information is mailed to the prospective athletes starting on Sept. 1 of their junior year, Julie says. On July 1 of the same year, students start receiving phone calls from the coaches at the scouting colleges. But students or their parents can call the school at any time to learn more about a school's program.

During the first two weeks in September, Ryan was inundated with mail from a cross section of colleges including Wake Forest University, Brown University, University of Notre Dame, UC-Davis, UCLA, St. John's University, University of Michigan, Duke University, Bucknell University, Hartwick College and Oakland University (Michigan).

The Villalpandos were taken by surprise by the volume of recruiting and college information that appeared in their mailbox.

"It all sounds good," she says. "I think we're all just kind of overwhelmed."

Julie says she is filling out the player-profile forms—soccer statistics and current grades—for every school. Ryan, who is just completing his first semester as a junior, only knows at this time that he wants to play soccer at a Division I school. But he isn't sure where that will be. And at this stage of the game he doesn't know what each school will offer financially.

Ed Villalpando says he's not thinking about his son's college selection yet.

"Basically, the biggest thing is don't believe all the hype until something actually happens," he says.

Ryan says possible scholarship offers are not a big part of his life right now.

"I'm just trying to get good grades and play soccer. I like the stuff I'm seeing, but I don't know," he says, after looking through the college packets.

But none of this has changed his drive and hard work in a sport that he's loved since he was a small boy.

"I think that's what's pushed him a little bit higher than other kids," Julie says. "Other kids out there have the ability, they just haven't pushed themselves. He just made a choice and that's what he really wants to do."

Ryan acknowledged his mother's comments, saying that although his team only practices three times a week, he puts in extra time dribbling the ball in the front yard every day, trying out new moves.

And before his parents bought him a net goal to shoot toward, he kicked the ball at the front door so often that his family ceased to notice until a neighbor asked what the noise was, Julie says. Everywhere he walks in the house, Ryan is moving the ball between his feet, she adds.

His mother even remembers one Saturday morning when 5-year-old Ryan got up to watch TV, but instead of cartoons he was watching soccer on the Spanish channel.

"I think deep down I knew then that he was fixated with it," she says.

But with a passion for the sport and colleges interested in him, Ryan has some great opportunities ahead, his father says.

Like the Villalpandos, Willow Glen resident Jody Zetterquist, whose 18-year-old daughter, Janelle, plays field hockey at Willow Glen High School, agrees athletic recruiting adds uncertainty to the college-application process.

Janelle played soccer, softball, and basketball growing up. In high school, she led her track team in winning its division her freshman year. But it wasn't until she tried field hockey that she settled on one sport.

"With field hockey I wanted to pursue it because it was new and unique and that drew my attention to it," Janelle says.

She credits her former field hockey coach in high school, Peggy Booth, who is currently the Willow Glen High School Athletic Director, and her Endangered Species Club coach, Tina Syer, with developing her as a player.

"I started at the bottom and slowly worked up," Janelle says.

By age 16, she was selected to play on the top national under-19 team at the Futures Field Hockey Tournament in Virginia Beach, Va.

Janelle says her junior year she had to start seriously thinking about colleges. She wrote letters to the three California colleges with Division I field hockey teams—Stanford, University of the Pacific and UC-Berkeley—to demonstrate her interest. Being on a club team and going to college-led tournaments also gave recruiters an opportunity to see her play.

"She could tell the difference between a generic letter and those who actually saw her play and wrote to her," Jody says.

Narrowing the colleges down from 20 to eight helped make the decision seem less overwhelming, Jody says. From eight schools, Janelle narrowed it down to the three in California, because she says she is more used to the outgoing, free attitude in California versus the more reserved people she met on the East Coast.

Janelle made official visits in October to her top choices, UC-Berkeley and University of the Pacific.

"I had a good time at UOP, but I'm sure about Berkeley," she says, sporting their collegiate clothes already.

She added that she won't know if she will receive any scholarship funds until she gets her admission acceptance and finds out if she's a top recruit.

"Since it's so new to us, we don't know what's OK to ask schools," Jody says. "It's good to touch base with others who know the ropes."

Jody says the hardest part of the process is reminding her daughter not to get her hopes up until she receives a formal offer.

"At the eleventh hour they could say, 'Instead of you, we're taking someone else,'" Jody says.

Jody tells Janelle to think of playing field hockey in college as "the cherry on the sundae" to getting her college education. And she adds her daughter needs to pick a school that she'd be happy attending if she got injured and was unable to play sports.

Janelle agrees, but says she wants field hockey to be a large part of her college experience.

Her drive to play hasn't yet been dampened. When darkness falls at night, she turns on the light in the backyard to keep practicing. Like Ryan, she also made use of what was available at home, hitting balls into a trash can her freshman year before her parents bought her a regulation-size goal, she says.

"Since I like sports so much, it's what I want to do," Janelle says.