<p>My friend (from Hong Kong) in a soccer school in England is trying to get a soccer scholarship. He was wondering how it can be done. Is it too late for the fall 2013 school year? Does anyone know how to contact coaches and get info etc? His skill is definitely on-par with D1 soccer players in the US btw.</p>
<p>Coaches contacts can be found on every college website</p>
<p>I think you will get more help/advice if you repost with the word “soccer” in the question. There is a lot of great advice and informed people on this forum- though a lot is sport -specific. My son’s sport is crew, and I know that his 2013 teammates have already been recruited. It could be different with soccer. Good luck to your friend.</p>
<p>It is pretty late in the game for D1 schools, although many D3 and some D2 schools are still recruiting. I am not saying D1 is impossible, but that your friend would have to be an amazing stand-out at this point.
- Register with NCAA
- Make a list of all schools of interest.
- Go to the athletic website of each school and make a list: all coaches and asst. coaches, how many seniors are graduating, statistics, etc. If the atletic site does not list the coaches’ e-mail addresses, they can usually be found on the athletic directory for the school.
- Have a highlight reel posted on youtube, or on a soccer recruiting site
- Coaches here usually don’t recruit out of high school, but out of club teams, etc. Does your friend play on a high level team somewhere?
- Start writing e-mails to coaches with a link to your highlight reel, academic information, etc. Make it personal-don’t be generic! Include that you know something about thte program, have watched footage, know about their play style. It helps to link to a profile site (berecruited.com, CaptainU.com, etc.) that the coach can refer to.
- Fill out recruiting questionnaire for each college- on their web-site.
- Call coaches and keep calling til they answer. Most likely they won’t return calls unless they know of the player. Be persistent-once you connect, keep them up to date with schedules, awards, etc. Remember that often the asst. coaches do the recruiting.
- Don’t be too picky if soccer is a priority. Send info to as many programs as you can. Coaches are making less and less trips to see players, as budgets are very tight right now. The more available to a coach the player is, the easier it is for the coach. </p>
<p>I think most D1 coaches have already made their recruiting trips overseas, so your friend most likely is too late at this point. INquire about the walk-on process. It is probably too late for scholarship money at this point (athletic at least). </p>
<p>Another option is to come to the US and play at a club level in college in hopes that the Varsity Coach might pick up players from the Club after the 1st year. Also could look at playing at a Community College to get drafted. If money is not an issue, some schools are still offering ID camps, but that may be difficult in that your friend is overseas.</p>