SoccerWire has launched a new content series featuring advice from anonymous college recruiting experts, including coaches with extensive experience at the highest levels of the college game. SoccerWire’s recruiting experts will provide answers to some of the most common and challenging questions that come up from players and parents on issues surrounding the recruiting process. (Read Post #1 Here)
Continue reading for a look at the 2nd edition of the new series. New recruiting questions can be submitted anytime to [email protected] or via direct message on social media on X, Facebook or Instagram.
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Question: I’m going into my senior year of high school and I haven’t received any offers, despite reaching out to several dozen coaches and attending ID camps and showcases. I still want to play Division I, but I would be willing to play at any level really. How can I make this happen?
There are two reasons a player doesn’t get recruited: She isn’t needed or she isn’t wanted.
Let’s say I swing by the convenience store on my way home from work and pick up a gallon of milk. A day later I go to the grocery store. You know what I’m not buying? That’s right – a gallon of milk. I already have a gallon of milk, so I’m not looking to pick up another one.
It can be the same with a college soccer program – even the one of your dreams. If you’re a right-sided wide player, and that team is already heavy with right-sided wide players, they don’t need you. They already have their gallon of milk.
Now, if you’re constantly running into a wall of apathy from college coaches, the problem might not be that they already have milk. It might be that your particular brand just isn’t good enough.
It sounds like you’ve run into a lot of dead ends, and the reality is that you may have overestimated your own value. Believe me, you’re not alone. Plenty of players make the same mistake every year. At this point, all you can really do is adjust your radar and start approaching different schools, and maybe different levels.
Here’s the good news. If the programs you’ve approached didn’t return the interest, then chances are you weren’t going to get on the field for them anyway, and playing college soccer is way better than watching it. And if you don’t think that the college soccer experience can be just as enjoyable and just as rewarding and mean just as much at the D2, D3 or NAIA levels, then you’re just plain wrong.
By now I hope someone has told you that the main objective for your college search should be to find a school that’s the right fit. That means academics, aesthetics, social life, climate, and yes, the chance to legitimately compete for playing time.
