College Recruiting Tips For Soccer

Athletic Recruits
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<p>Sounds like she has a good start. She should always include a link to a video of hi-lites as we have been told by several coaches that they don’t look at emails that don’t include a video. </p>

<p>As for the call, my son would always say that he was following up to his email. He would send out the emails and then call maybe 4-5 days later . Hi, this is _______. I sent you an email regarding your program and just wanted to touch base to see if I can answer any other questions. (From here, it depends how the coach responds). 1)Have not seen your e-mail: Well let me tell you a little about myself. I am a (position) with (Club) Our team recently won (tournament) and we will be playing at the (next tournament). I’m hoping you will have time to come watch me play. I am graduating soon and am very interested in your program. (It helps at this point to have looked at the team’s website and know a little about the program so she can chat). OR 2)yes, I have seen your e-mail…tell me little more about yourself: At this point it is a good idea to re-hash your profile as they may or may not really remember reading the e-mail.</p>

<p>Questions: 1) I notice you have __seniors graduating in 2014. Will you be recruiting to fill all of those spots? 2)How many do you carry on the team? 3)Are there any red shirts coming back to fill spots? 4)How many travel with the team? 5)How many players are you recruiting for my position? 6)What is your timeline for recruitment? 7)What can you suggest for my next step to recruitment? What do I need to do to gain your interest?</p>

<p>These are really just the first line of questions. If the coach is interested, it can get way more detailed, but a lot of times, the coach will lead at that point. Be prepared to tell a coach why you are interested in their team and in their school. Be sure to do some legwork on their website before calling- very important!!! What is their roster like, how many seniors, what style of play does the coach use, and also know something about the school.</p>

<p>It’s really important to follow-up e-mails with a call. It is that thing that will set her apart. A lot of coaches just won’t take the time to look at all the e-mails, but may look if she calls. Also, many times they won’t answer. Many will never call back so it is not always helpful to leave a message. It is really better to just keep trying back. Even after she has made that first contact, she should continue to call often and remind them about her. Sometimes I thought my son was being a pest, but the school where he ended up and which was his first choice was really not paying that much attention to him at first. He called and called and called, so by the time the coach actually met him he really knew who he was.</p>

<p>Also, one of the things my son had trouble with which I think is common, is that you have to promote yourself to these coaches. There is a fine line between outright bragging and just pointing out your strengths. He had a hard time as he really didn’t want to come off as being a bragger. He figured out how to work his accomplishments into conversations after a while without coming off as cocky. Once coaches knew who he was, they often took the time to look at his team and his stats so it wasn’t as necessary to push himself. </p>

<p>This is such a stressful process and we still don’t really know what we are doing. It just worked out in the best way for my son, but I’m not sure how. I know that there are many more recruitment opportunities for girls- more coaches at tournaments to view girl’s teams, more openings for girls than boys, less girls going for those spots, and more scholarships for girl’s soccer than for boy’s. Hopefully it will be a smooth process for your daughter. She is definitely starting out right- tell her to make herself make those first calls and it will get easier!</p>

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<p>Takeitallin - Thank you so much for your response. It is extremely helpful. Did your son phone every coach he was emailing? As D is only in 10th this year, list is quite long. She is looking at many schools over all 3 divisions.</p>

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<p>My son did not make calls until after the Sept.1 cut-off of his junior year. Prior to that, Coaches could not return calls, or initiate contact anyway. (There are some new NCAA rules in place and I’m not sure if this date is still the same). By that time, he had started narrowing down the schools he was interested in. It was hard for him to narrow down his list prior to that because he was not very “realistic” about various programs. He didn’t know what he was looking for yet, and was only looking at soccer programs, not at the overall school and how the academics meshed with what he wanted. By junior year, he had decided to first find academic programs that he liked and then look at their soccer programs. While he had originally only looked at Div. 1 from a soccer perspective, he found that the school he really loved was a Div. ll program and ended up aiming for that. So by junior year, he was much more mature and knew more what he was looking for. He narrowed down his list, but it was still quite large by junior year. Some schools fell off the list fairly quickly when it became apparent they were not interested. He called the remaining list on a fairly consistent basis (once a month maybe), unless he decided at some point that he was no longer interested in a particular school. The top 5 on his list were where he really concentrated, calling them probably every other week, or even every week for his top choice. This is where I worried that maybe he was being a pest, but in the end I really do think the Coach admired his persistence.</p>

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<p>takeitallin - thanks so much for all the info. It is all very helpful. This year she will focus on learning more about the colleges and their soccer programs. We will also try to visit as many as we can. I would still like her to make calls after ID clinics. (now I just have to convince her) Thanks again for all the advice.</p>

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<p>First of all:
What an Awesome site. This is exactly what I was looking for.
I looked through every post, very informative !</p>

<p>My D is a Freshman Goalie in High School.
We have been approached by a recuiting service(NSR).
It is certainly alot of money, worth it or not? Too early ??</p>

<p>Please give me your opinion / experiences with Recruiting Services</p>

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<p>I can speak from experience with a S that will play D-3 soccer at a fine academic institution that a recruiting service is not necessary. With conferences like NESCAC, Centennial and Liberty I would consider the money for a recruiting service to be a waste. Not sure of it’s validity for D-1 or D-2.</p>

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<p>Men’s and women’s soccer differ a lot as far as r the recruitment process, and goalies are a whole different thing. We have only dealt with our son so hopefully someone here will reply to provide the perspective for women’s soccer. We have noticed that recruitment starts sooner for girls so I’m not sure you are too early! </p>

<p>As far as services, they will all tell you that they have connections you don’t, that they have experience you don’t, etc. It is all true, but it is not anything you can not overcome. We opted not to use a service-it was just too expensive- and my son ended up at his top choice Div 2 school. A lot of it depends on the level of team your D plays with and how much exposure she is getting. Be very organized in your search- the key to recruitment us contact, contact, contact with potential coaches. There is a lot of info in this thread- Keeper Dad seems to have a wealth of knowledge- so read everything you can. Good luck!</p>

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<p>We also did not use a recruiting service for our sons (D1 soccer). A recruiting service is not necessary unless you do not have the time and patience to go through the process, which admittedly can be both time consuming and taxing on the nerves. My own view is that you know your kid better than any service, and therefore if you have the time and energy, you’ll be able to do a better job advising him or her than a service. As most on this board can tell you, it can also be a very interesting and fun experience if you and your athlete keep your sense of humor.</p>

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<p>The only services we have used have hosted pages with our son’s stats and videos. Both were about $50 per year. We looked into a few others, but they were all ridiculous. I am not sure who the recruiting services will really help, because superstars will be found through attending top tournaments, and other players will be found by getting the coach to watch them at lower-level tournaments.</p>

<p>I’d rather spend money on camps at my son’s top choices. He just got an email back from a coach that noted seeing him at two of their camps and how they were already able to start evaluating at their camps (and to keep his grades up of course). This time of year is tough for college soccer because if a coach has a few spots open still (for example, there could be an injury to a freshman or sophomore starter this past season), he has to concentrate on recruiting seniors. </p>

<p>One thing I suggest is to have your child take the PSAT as a sophomore or even a freshman. Getting some idea of their test scores will help with recruiting. My son is taking the SAT tomorrow, but took the PSAT last year as well as this year (he is a junior). His sophomore PSAT scores helped us focus a search, and they do check your test scores versus other studens in your grade who took the PSAT.</p>

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<p>Almost definitely not worth it. There’s free information online that will explain the process. Specifically for women’s soccer, take a look at the information on elitecollegesports.com. That site is for girls looking to play at high academic colleges, but it has useful info that applies to most anyone.</p>