Hi, I have a S22 who is a terrific goalkeeper. Recently he’s started training with a coach who has worked with his country’s national team (team ranked similar to US) and his brother is assistant coach for the team. He has indicated that my son has the skills and wants him playing DA or with an elite team. Son would love to, but we live in a tiny town, too far for these type of clubs, and he’s not going to give up marching band right now, either. He does want to play college soccer, though.
What are our college options for playing without having club soccer on his resume? I assume D1 is out of the question, even if he had the skills. What should we do to get him seen? ID camps? Which ones? Video footage? Just need a little help and guidance as he starts his sophomore year. Oh, and high school coach will pretty much be a non-factor in the recruiting process. He’s a B student in advanced classes FWIW. Suggestions welcome.
I can’t be of tremendous help, as I have a field player S21 who is also at the start of the recruiting process. However if your son has talent, it will be recognized. Is he currently playing club soccer? (if yes, does the club go to tournaments etc?).
Is ODP an option for you? I know it isn’t as highly regarded any more but that’s another avenue. Or, down the road, a PG year at a prep school (see Marco Saborio Perez, a Costa Rican goalkeeper who played one year at Berkshire, is committed to UNC and is currently playing for the Revs).
How far away are the elite teams? I’m sympathetic as we live in a very rural area, but I do know kids that drive 2 hours each way to play with top teams (not saying that’s what you should do, just that some people do it).
As a general resource outlining the recruitment process I found “The Athletic Scholarship Playbook” to be extremely helpful. (I don’t love the title; it is a great resource even if you aren’t looking for a scholarship).
Finally, another thought I had was that you can hire a consultant to help with athletic recruiting. The ones I know are very connected with college coaches. I don’t think they are needed for kids playing on high level teams, but might be helpful in your circumstances.
Apologies for my scattered thoughts. Others can weigh in on the nuts and bolts, and timing. I know for anyone other than top D1 players the end of 9th grade is too early to really start the recruiting process. But it is smart to understand the lay of the land and have a plan going forward.
How tall is he now and how tall do you expect him to grow?
He is 15 and 6’. Late bloomer like his sister who is 17 and 6’2” ?. I expect 6’2” absolute minimum, could easily be 6’4”. For his height, he has crazy good reactions and agility.
He is not playing club soccer at all, high school only. We want to help him, but aren’t willing to drive 1.75 hours to the club teams. We have two other kids who need us around. Drumline is also a huge time commitment in the fall and he’s not willing to give that up. @cinnamon1212 I will check out the resources you suggested.
If your son is 6’3" and athletic (or at least athletic looking) he’ll get noticed in net. He doesn’t need to be that tall now, but perhaps when he’s driving himself (if you can fit a car for him in the budget) to practices, a DA club might work. So he could join a DA team on his timetable.
If he’s not that tall, it’ll take a little more effort to get recognized. My theory is that the pyramid gets so steep that most coaches can filter based on height for GKs first, and then try to figure out which ones can play at a differentiated level, because there are enough tall GKs in the supply.
And if he’s tall and good, then maybe he can play HS and local club and still garner attention. It’s dicier but if driving an hour to and from practices doesn’t make sense for him, then no sweat. I think the challenge is that you’d have to count on a coach willing to look beyond the obvious player pools (DA, ECNL etc) especially for top D3 and on up.
On the plus side, if he knows which schools he’s interested in, if he gets to the camps at those schools, he’ll get seen. That assumes he’s got a notion of what schools he likes.
DA is nice if you can get it… but its 4 days a week training almost year round, games on the weekends and NO high school ball. DA will get your son noticed but it doesn’t sound like that time/distance commitment will work.
Definitely make the ID camps of the schools you are considering, have him reach out to D3 coaches now. If playing high school, gather his HUDL film and cut video of his best plays. Open accounts at some of the recruiting sites (free accounts for now) and make sure to keep his grade way up there… the better his grades the more attention he will get. Lots of DA players never play in college because their grades/SAT scores dont make the cut.
Thanks for the tips, everyone! Sounds like we’ve got some options.
@SATXMom2, assuming you have a soccer player, and assuming you are in the San Antonio area, do you have any ID camps you’ve done and would recommend?
@murray93,
It is definitely possible. In athletic recruiting, anything is possible. You will, however, need a healthy dose of hard work and serendipity. It also requires keeping your options open – that will mean a wide range of possible colleges and universities and not having your son’s heart set on D1.
Start now making tapes. As a goalkeeper, this can be done with a skills tape, rather than a game tape (no more than 5 minutes). Start sending the tapes out early. Ask for feedback from coaches and see what the response is. I did have coaches say that seeing multiple tapes was helpful in gauging progress.
For keepers, many of the skills are purely athlete, while others (such as organizing a defense) are honed through more game time. As such, and for all keepers, recognize that being recruited does not necessarily translate into playing time for the team.
@murray93 yes on both accounts… and have a S22… I would focus on the ID camps of the colleges/universities you feel he is a fit for - what does he want to study? Feel free to PM and we can discuss.
You’ll want to do ID camps for schools he might want to attend. The important thing is getting him seen by the right people.
So recruiting for boys is very different than recruiting for girls… over 400 D1 girls programs and less than 100 D1 programs for boys. We have been told to avoid all the group camps - they are money-makers and not really for recruiting. Would focus on direct contacts with colleges you are considering. D1 can’t speak with him until September 1st of his junior year. But D3 can talk with you right now.
Make a list of the 30/40 school which have his intended major. Soccer rarely gives much in the way of athletic money having to spread 9.5 scholarships over 22-25 players.
Are you close to San Antonio?
Not that it makes much difference, but the rules changed and now D1 can call/email about recruiting starting June 15 after the student’s sophomore year. (I.e. yesterday, for those of us with kids graduating in '21!)
Yes it did… forgot what day it was…as mine is a rising Sophomore.
Sounds like the coach who is encouraging your son to play DA etc. would be able to help put together skills video. As others have said, GK video involves practice/skills demonstration rather than pure game play, so can be prepared in the off-season.
Start with college camps in your reasonable vicinity – no need to go 12 hours away (though I gather, in parts of Texas, it might be!) Look for D1 program camps that bring in coaches from a range of programs. GKs usually train together for part of the day and then are integrated into other training and matches. The idea is to get specific feedback from coaches about potential, training, next steps.
Another way to get some visibility would be guest play with a club team for specific tournaments. While you may not be able to travel distance for an entire club season, if a club has a specific need to fill, they might be willing to take a guest player to a tournament or two. We were in similar situation as our reasonable-commute club options were not going to get my kid seen by the programs he was interested in, so we identified some showcase tournaments, identified clubs playing in his age group, checked club rosters for size/position needs, and cold-emailed the coaches asking if they could use a guest player. Most did not respond, but he had a couple of bites and wound up guest playing, and then starting, for a competitive team at some showcases which got him before coaches he wanted to be seen by.
If you search this board for older threads from “Keeperdad” there is series of detailed posts on the recruiting path of a female GK. While the timing may have changed under new rules etc. and the female vs. male process can vary in some ways, the structure, goals, steps, remain current. Also, read the stickied threads on all-sport recruiting on this broad, lots of detailed advice in helping to understand athletic/merit money, timing, using recruiting for admissions boost etc.
would take some work but guest playing on a team that goes to showcase tournaments (if you can find a slot) would be very helpful. More common for field players, so not sure if the can work for GKs. But my kid went to a showcase and had a guest player once on the team.
@murray93 There’s a lot of good information here. My S22 is goalkeeper and getting an early start on the recruiting process. He’s your son’s age, roughly the same height and currently plays for a DA team. He’s supposed to reach 6’2" but I’m not convinced he hasn’t stopped growing already. Only time, and genetics, will tell.
To put things in perspective, he and I spent the afternoon emailing 36 college soccer programs. He’s headed to San Diego this week for the DA Showcase. Because of his age we won’t have actual confirmation that anyone is interested for at least a year so all this work could be for nothing. If he doesn’t keep growing…at least 20 of those programs we emailed would cross him off their list most likely. This process is going to be very fluid and I get the feeling it will be arduous.
Can I ask a question? Is there a chance he’ll decide he wants to go the marching band route in college? I get the impression that it’s hard to make a college soccer team if a player isn’t 100% committed to the task. Is he a better drummer than a goalkeeper? There are a lot of great schools with strong marching bands.
There are just over 200 D1 men’s soccer programs, about the same number of D2 programs and just over 400 D3 programs. Most teams carry 3-4 keepers. That means there are roughly 3,200 keeper spots across the 3 divisions.
You can’t coach height, coordination or elite reaction time so your son is starting on 2nd base. As @gointhruaphase noted above, though, there are important aspects of a keeper’s skill set that must be developed through repetition under game conditions. When is it better to crossover step vs. shuffling across the goal mouth? In what situations is it advantageous to punch the ball rather than parry it? Do you come hard off your line to counter a breakaway or hang back, stand tall and make yourself as big as possible? Do you ask a teammate to tie your shoe for you in the 89th minute of a game you’re winning 2-1…or do you just take forever to kick the ball up the field and back into play…? 
In all seriousness, college coaches want to know you can handle the speed of play you’ll face at the next level. Generally high school soccer doesn’t provide that type of practical experience. That’s where club soccer begins to become valuable for keepers specifically.
I agree that keepers should stay away from large camps that aren’t run by a specific school. The keepers train off to the side generally with 1 or 2 coaches. ALL of the other coaches you see advertised as “attending” will have their backs to the keepers for half of the camp while they watch the field players run through possession drills. All the coaches watch the scrimmages but keepers cycle through the nets so it’s hard to say which coaches will see you when you make that impressive save, or you may see no shots during your shift in net because your defense is spectacular and the other side’s offense is weak.
I’d recommend targeting a variety of schools he’d like to attend even if he didn’t make the soccer team. Research when those schools have their camps and have him attend a few. Stay and watch the camp so you can see how he looks in relation to the other keepers in attendance. I’d also recommend that you have the current goalkeeper coach you mentioned attend a couple of his high school matches to watch him play. Ask him which division he feels your son should target. That could help narrow things down.
If I can think of any other constructive advice I’ll pop back in and post it here. Good luck!
He can register as a guest player at college showcases - lots of teams borrow and being a GK is good. You go into the showcase website and register- you don’t know who you’ll be with but he will get picked up for a weekend. He may need a player card however - contact the tournament director for info on that. Good luck!