I was not a fan of recruiting sites, and there are so many better ways to spend your money. CaptainU sent us information from coaches who were “interested,” but on multiple occasions the interest was from coaches of the wrong gender team and from schools that we had never heard of. It’s fine to find a site that keeps video and information all in one place, but I found it more useful to give all that information directly to the coaches of interest, updating them as information changed. Every touch (i.e., coach communication) helps.
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We didn’t use any recruiting sites - not even the free stuff from NCSA. And like you, S had a list of 10-15 schools that he was interested in, so it was easy to just do the leg work ourselves., i.e. emails/phone calls, etc.
Each of those schools replied differently. Some called immediately after receiving his video, others simply put him in their database and sent the generic stuff which required more leg work on his part to break through the clutter which he eventually did.
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How do I determine which schools are soccer safeties and soccer reaches?
Look at current rosters and compare player backgrounds with yours. Are they similar? Do most kids come from leagues/teams that you play with/against - giving you an idea of skill level? Did the players earn accolades that would indicate they may be your peers? Where have players similar to you in the past 1-2 years gone on to play? Look at players rostered to your position. Are there many? Are they mostly upperclassman, thus indicating a need to recruit that position or are there a ton of underclassmen already at that position? One thing we noticed was that state schools are largely filled with in-state players. In speaking with those coaches, they were open to out-of-state players, but were more familiar with and comfortable recruiting in-state players who they’ve seen many times over the years.
Ideally, you’ll want a coach perspective of where they think you would be a match. Granted that could be difficult and is dependent on the knowledge and experience of your HS or Club Coach, but it’s certainly extremely helpful if you have that access/option. If not, camps can be sometimes be helpful, but those are few and far between now.
And to repeat what we’ve already said - have the conversation with the school. Send your video, call the coach, ask what they look for in a recruit. Most coaches we spoke to shared their feedback on what they saw in the videos and whether they thought a potential match existed.
And finally, it should be noted that you should really be looking at the school first and the soccer second. We found lots of soccer matches but the school didn’t fit - didn’t have desired major, was in a location he didn’t want to be, etc…
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Agree with what @eb23282 has said. Hopefully your club or high school coach can help you with appropriate targeting too. You can also google the NCAA standings of D3 programs, and figure if a school is in the top 10 or so the level of soccer will be pretty high. Some (most?) of those schools will have D1 level players on their teams. Amherst and Tufts come to mind.
However other schools will have weaker programs; don’t shoot the messenger but I think schools like Bard, Skidmore, Vassar fall into this category.
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Another invaluable resource are the league websites. The league websites almost always have league standings and stats for each sport. That can tell you a lot in terms of comparing programs. In addition, stats can tell you, for example if you are a keeper, the year of the starting keeper, whether the keeper shared starting duties to any degree with another keeper, GAA, etc. From that you may be able to discern need or the lack thereof.
Additionally, there are Division 3 soccer polls that rank programs. While the national polls may only mention the top 25 or so, regional polls go a bit further down. Past NCAA championship tournaments also will identify past strong programs, and chances are the strong ones will remain strong.
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@cinnamon1212 not shooting the messenger! But for those following this, Vassar Men’s Soccer has improved significantly over past 5 years or so, typically finishing in the top 4 of the Liberty League, an excellent conference.
As another D3 soccer parent, seconding all the advice above, including identifying soccer match/reach/safety schools by looking at rosters and game film. Watching game film at schools of choice – most will have full game videos, at least of home games, available on schedule part of website – is really helpful for a player to see how the team plays and whether, and where, they might fit and contribute. My own D3 kid went pretty deep into recruiting at one of his reach soccer programs because he studied the way the team played and could articulate his value to the program even before the coaches were able to see him play.
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Rankings and standings are all well and good, but until you know what caliber of player you are, they are meaningless in helping to detemine if you can play at a certain school. CNU was 7-8-1 two years ago and they’re usually good for a Top 15 ranking and no more than 2-3 losses per season. St. Lawerence is often a Top 20 team but hit a rough patch 2 of the last 3 years. But you know they’re still looking for top players.
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Agree with @eb23282 – a player needs to know what kind of program it is generally, not just look at a snapshot of one year, last year’s ranking or national tournament results. St Lawrence is a fantastic program with a long tradition of excellence and, even though there’s been some bumps the past few years, recruiting there is very very competitive. Ohio Wesleyan is another program with extremely competitive soccer, and of course, Messiah and, more recently, Calvin. The most competitive D3 Men’s soccer, year in and year out, is not exclusively, or even necessarily at the top 10 LACs.
Another source for learning about Men’s Soccer programs and conferences is to google d3 mens soccer boards for the site on mens (and women’s) D3 soccer, which has message boards under “resources.” In season, those boards are very active with a knowledgeable group of former players, parents and others and can be a good source for learning more about the “vibe” of particular programs and news on assorted coaches etc.
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Some random advice and responses:
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. What do you have to lose? Pick up the phone. Take your shot. If he won’t take the call, or blows you off, you are no worse off than you are currently. There is no downside and a lot of upside to making the calls.
My son did a few of these, but only at schools where the coach requested it. Otherwise he focused on emails, with a link to his video on youtube and an attached athletic resume that we kept updated. I think filling them out may get you on the mailing list for moneymaking camps, but without other contact that is all it really gets you. YMMV.
What video is needed varies by sport and sometimes position. I would follow the advice of @cinnamon1212 and others with soccer specific experience on what should be provided.
I would cc: every assistant on your emails to the head coach until you start getting replies back. Some programs the head coach contacted S19, others had an assistant do it. You don’t really know who is in charge of recruiting, and for that matter there may be a different coach responsible for recruiting different positions or from different geographical regions. You don’t want to fall through the cracks because you didn’t contact the right person. Once someone responds, I think it is ok to just communicate with that person.
All of this is important. S19 would do a template email, but there were 2 places that he would mention something specific about the coach or program, beyond just changing the name of the team or conference. No coach wants to sift through emails to “head coach”, they want to know you researched them and didn’t just carpet bomb 200 coaches with the same email. He might mention how many All Americans they had last year, or conference championships, or coach being an Olympian, it really varied. But all were very specific things that obviously only applied to that one coach and were not being repeated to anyone else.
I don’t know soccer specifically, but I don’t think recruiting sites generally give you anything you can’t do for yourself by reading old threads here and asking questions. There are a lot of parents on here with kids who have successfully been recruited on soccer teams at all levels in the last few years. Many are eager to help.
Hopefully you can get advice from a coach on this. S19 was fortunate to have club and HS coaches with recent college coaching experience. I thought when they told me who he should target when he was a HS soph they were smoking crack. He ended up wrestling at one of the 2 programs his HS coach suggested, and unbeknownst to me, his club coach (who is actually a college coach and was recruiting S himself) was telling people in his close circle where he thought S would end up, even though they weren’t really recruiting him yet. That is in fact exactly where he is right now. If a coach has been around long enough, they have a pretty good feel both of where your skill level and style will fit in.
We did this and it was very helpful. S had one school where he would have been a good match academically and athletically, and they had a coach that in particular would have been a great fit for him. But that team already was overfull at his weight with guys in the 2 classes above him. They weren’t going to waste a slot on a kid who probably would either be a backup until he was a senior, or who would replace someone already on scholarship. Their money at that weight (position) was already spent and they didn’t need anyone else there. So we moved on.
Good luck, there is a wealth of information on this thread and on older threads. Keep reading and asking quesitons!
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One thing I didn’t mention, and don’t think anyone else has…coaches do get a lot of emails, like dadof4 just said. So, your subject line has to grab them, and get them to open the email.
Obviously put in your class…so, Class of 22 prospect. Then your position. Then some great stat or stats…6.69 60, 250 bench press, X shuttle run, leading scorer for X club team, all–conference, ACT/SAT score…I’m sure you get my drift. Copy all the team’s coaches on the same email, until you figure out who is in charge of recruiting.
Good luck.
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100% correct.
You need a RE: line that gives year, position, and something to make the email look worth opening. For S19 it was a bit easier to figure that out since he is in an individual sport, so I listed his placement at the big national tournament college coaches follow. Maybe something like “all state”, “leading scorer on state placing team”, “starter on ODP team”? I don’t know what it needs to be, but you know your situation. Give your best headline.
And it may be your 3rd or 4th email that they actually read. Don’t spam them, but if you don’t get a response, I would keep emailing for a bit with new info. It’s a bit harder to come up with the new athletic info now, but maybe updated grades or something like that.
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There is some info on the best way to do this in the pinned post at the top I think. Definitely read through the general recruiting info and advice on the board.
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Quick question - When filling out recruiting questionnaires and composing email subject lines, is it more conventional to list unweighted or weighted GPA? Assuming they’re both pretty good.
My daughter always did unweighted and guessing it was indicated. No one ever wanted her weighted gpa - she also sent an email to the coach and said she only filled out the questionnaire if the coach asked her to do it - otherwise only email.
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@mczchl, I think the answer is “it depends.” Assuming that your kids has a good amount of As in mostly AP and honors classes, I think the answer is the weighted GPA. That GPA highlights the fact that your kid has taken a challenging course load, even if he/she did not get all As. If your kid has all As but in very few AP and honors classes, you should go with the unweighted GPA. That GPA would show a high achievement level in the classes taken. Make sure to use a “(W)” or “(UW)” following the number.
One way or the other, coaches (and especially admission committees) know that high schools calculate GPAs differently. Some adcoms actually recalculate applicant GPAs to reflect the different grading strategies of the different schools, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. All things being equal, I would use the weighted number as it shows the level of academic challenge.
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Thanks!