College Soccer

<p>Can you play soccer in college without being scouted and recruited? I know there's intramurals and club and stuff but what about an ok NCAA division 3 team? How hard is it to "walk on" and get a spot on the team?</p>

<p>I have personal experience with this so I think I can be of help. You might also want to try the Athletic Recruiting Forum under “Specialty Admissions Topics.”</p>

<p>Although I was technically recruited, I had a very “laid-back” recruiting experience. However, from the start, I need to ask you about your soccer background. Do you play club soccer, or just high school? It’s possible to be recruited at, as you put it, “an ok division 3 team” if you just play high school, but that is, from my experience, extremely rare. College coaches want to see club soccer being played at a high level.</p>

<p>I chose to attend Carleton because of the academics - I decided pretty early on that I wasn’t interested in DI/DII soccer because I didn’t want soccer to become my life.
With DIII, a coach can’t help you in admissions unless a) you apply ED (more likely) or b) they <em>really really really</em> want you (still happens, but less likely). I was a student like the former: I didn’t want to commit ED because of financial reasons, so I applied and pursued the coaches where I was accepted. The catch is that at Carleton, my top choice, the JV program was eliminated, so you didn’t get an invite to preseason unless you were “recruited” to the team. Pretty early on, I had sent the coach my soccer information - contact info for my club and high school coaches - so she talked to them, which I think really helped, since she had only seen me play a few times.</p>

<p>I don’t know how unique my experience was, but if you’re looking to walk on directly, I’d say contact the coach NOW and have your club coach (or HS coach, if you don’t have one) contact the coach at your school (I’m assuming you’ll be a freshman? If you’re a junior, that’s a whole different animal…you should look into recruiting). See whether or not you can come to preseason, and whether or not the team holds open tryouts for anyone to come. If the program does recruit (which I’m assuming it does, since the vast majority of DIII schools today have fairly competitive recruiting programs), then expect it to be competitive - but if you’re a decent soccer player, then you’ll have a shot.</p>

<p>If you have any more questions about the recruiting process, PM me and I’d be happy to help. I haven’t actually started playing yet…but I know the process, haha.</p>

<p>^ are you playing for carleton or gopgop? You were recruited in soccer, so I imagine they could use your athleticism.</p>

<p>…I don’t know what gopgop is…I’m playing for Carleton this fall, if you were talking to me. </p>

<p>Unless you’re talking about the Ultimate Frisbee team GOP? Probably not…haha. But on the off chance that you actually are, then no, because I’m a girl :)</p>

<p>GOP sounds like an agency. gop sounds too dull. gopgop sounds fitting.</p>

<p>haha I see…it’s a boys team though and I’m a girl, but I’m flattered anyway.</p>

<p>To the OP…sorry to hijack your thread :)</p>

<p>I get a email every spring telling me that I can tryout for the Clemson soccer teams. I don’t know anyone though who has successfully walked on though.</p>

<p>It seems that it’s a lot easier for a sport like football since there’s a lot of roster space.</p>