There is more to the college soccer recruiting process than simply performing well on the soccer field. The truth is that both women’s and men’s college soccer teams at the NCAA D1, D2, or D3 levels have a lot of prospective soccer players to select. Depending on the college and NCAA division, you can be competing with hundreds of recruits for only 4 – 10 roster spots per team. In fact, NCAA states that only 5.6% of high school soccer players make a college roster. This means that as a prospective student athlete, it can’t be stressed enough how important it is to be proactive and assertive in the college soccer recruiting process. Below are 7 simple ways that you can increase your chances of a successful outcome:

Step 1: Complete each Soccer Questionnaire

Almost every college soccer team in NCAA Division 1, 2 and 3 has a soccer questionnaire that is available for prospective students to fill out on their team website. A completed questionnaire allows potential recruits to put themselves in the college coach’s system of communication. Once you have identified the college soccer programs of your choice, go to their websites and fill out their soccer questionnaires immediately. 

Step 2. Attend College ID Camps

College soccer ID camps are a very popular way for coaches to identify potential recruits. With so much going on during the year, many college coaches will utilize a popular summer ID camp to energize their recruiting pool. Future 500 features 75 college coaches from a carefully selected mix of D1, D2, D3 colleges – organized using our maximum exposure matrix to provide potential recruits with the best college exposure opportunity on the market. In fact, in 2019 94.3% of the coaches that attended Future 500 identified multiple players as a result of camp. Learn more here.

Step 3:   Make your Highlight Video

This is extremely important and can be a great asset in the college soccer recruiting process. With so many prospective student athletes and so few college soccer coaches, it is almost impossible for coaches to make it out to see everyone play across the USA. A soccer highlight video will give the coach a chance to see you play early in the recruiting process and could put you on the short list for that team. Coaches will rarely make a trip out to see one individual player so in many cases a highlight video is the best way of getting your foot in the door. Note: Future 500 gives you the option of getting a high quality highlight reel created at camp.

Step 4. Give Coaches your showcase tournament schedule (every time).

Let coaches know what soccer tournaments and showcases you are playing in. Coaches have limited resources and need to prioritize what tournaments to go to and who they will be seeing. Factor yourself into the coach’s decisions by giving them your soccer schedule early on in the process. It will increase the likelihood of them seeing you play if they are already going to the tournament.

Step 5. Be Consistent and Responsive

If you are not diligent about responding in time and/or following up to the college coach, he/she may think you are no longer interested in his/her college. On the other hand, not getting an email back from the college coach in a timely fashion or not getting one back at all does not necessarily mean that he/she is not interested. College coaches sometimes get over a hundred emails a day, so make sure you follow up. Persistence makes you more visible and shows that you are interested in the college.

Step 6. YOU need to communicate…not your parents

As you get further along in the process of communicating with a college coach, it is important that you (not your parents) stay on top of it. This means responding to their emails in a timely manner and filling out whatever forms or paperwork they request. This is important because at the end of the day, coaches look for more than just talent on the field. They want responsible, mature adults that will represent their program well.  Additionally, most coaches want to see YOU personally communicating with the them.  

Step 7. Make academics just as important

Grades matter in the college soccer recruiting process. Period. At the end of the day you cannot forget that you are still a STUDENT-athlete. Although many players are enamored with the “full-ride” dream, the reality is academic scholarships are more prevalent and easier to attain than athletic scholarships. Having a high GPA makes you more attractive to college coaches because better students may require less scholarship or less admissions involvement from the college coach.