Alright - Tell me what online college recruiting resources you are using.

Honestly the best route and what is most successful is reaching out personally to these schools that are of interest. Most schools have email addresses posted publicly. When a player expresses academic interest in the school towards a coach they will often times get a response. Player videos are helpful when sending these emails. Best of luck

 

We've had free profiles on NCSA and CaptainU for years. He's get some messages on CaptainU. Even though we haven't paid, we've been able to read the messages over the last year or so. All of the messages have been very generic (like signing up for an email list).

About a month ago, we paid for NCSA. Yes, I know he can reach out to coaches from any college/university on his own. We paid because they have a "find college" feature. DS didn't know where he wanted to go, what he wanted to study, or anything to help narrow the field. NCSA does make it easy to say "Show me D1's with men's soccer in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan" (for example).

We have had people say in the past that coaches will ignore emails generated from these websites. That may be true. But he has at least originated some conversations through NCSA. I'm not saying you should sign up, and I'm hoping I don't regret paying the money, just trying to be honest.

 

I had a website for the family (I use it to run a March Madness basketball pool). I created a subpage for my son. Has his stats, links to his YT videos (same hilights we put on CaptainU/NCSA), academic stuff, coach contacts, had his HS schedule with live links to the games (now replay links), and updated it with upcoming camps/showcases.

Then I created a business card with his contact info (email/cell phone), the link to the webpage, and a QR code coaches can scan to go right to the webpage. Printed 500 cards (it was literally $10). I think we've given out a dozen.

Not sure if any of this is doing any good, but can't hurt, right?

 

All of it was a waste. Spend some money and get a good video, then email coaches, lots of them. We emailed every coach at every tournament we went to, regardless of whether we wanted to go there. If you email 100 coaches, and 5 show up on the sideline with your kids name on their lips, the buzz grows. Keep the video on the shorter side, we had one that was 7 minutes, and the only thing coaches agreed on was that it was on the long side.

Remember, the coaches are happy to take advantage of you and your child, don't hesitate to do the same to them.

 

When you say that you emailed every coach at every tournament you went to, what does that mean? Do you mean any college coaches within a certain vicinity? Or are you just referring to college showcases and you emailed a list of coaches that will be there? We haven't done any college showcases yet, so I wanted to ask.

 

Showcase tournaments (and lots -- maybe most? -- of the other large tournaments you go to) will have college coaches in attendance, listing them on their website ahead of time so you know which schools are there.

Here's the list, for example, for a tournament in the Indy are next month my son's club team is headed to: https://events.gotsport.com/events/collegecoaches.aspx?EventID=83690

Mostly non-DI programs (DII, DIII or NAIA) in this case, which is the right level for all but maybe (emphasis on maybe) a couple of the kids on his team, I think.

 

We emailed every coach listed as attending the tournament, then every D1 and some D2 coaches within a 4 hour drive from the tournament. It was a lot of work, but it paid off.

 

Did your son wind up at a DI school? And, either way, once you knew who might be interested, how much time did he put into consistently following up -- emails with new highlights and the like? I'm curious what it took on the promotion side to get there.

 

For me it was my daughter, and yes she played D1 and had more offers than she could even really deal with. That being said, it was a lot of work. We only really followed up with the ones we wanted to attend, but there was still a lot of communications. You just need to remember, they are using you, use them back, do not feel bad leading them on. Be nice, but you are out for yourselves, not for their program. Once you settle, then you can be about the school, but until then, be a recruiting slut and hop into bed with everyone.

 

I'm laughing at this one. "Go State (or, you know, whoever)!"

And congrats to your daughter. I'm glad the work paid off.

 

This is an interesting tactic. We have primarily focused just on target schools, with one 'shoe-in' school to use for practice email/calls, etc. But I like your idea, try to get multiple coaches to show up at the same game to get more buzz/traction.

Thanks

 

You also might be surprised. We had West Virginia Weslyan show up at one game, had no interest, mostly due to how far and a lower level, BUT, they had a big donor, had recently redone their facilities, everything was really nice, new, and pretty. If we were in their area, we might have considered them. You never know what might happen and who may show up and how good they are.

 

How much of a scholarship?!

 

Let me start by saying there is no scholarship money. There are 14 scholarships for usually 30 players. If you are lucky, there are a few on academic money, so the other kids get more. In my experience, most kids are between 15-25% because the coaches also like to hold a little money in reserve in case Pele walks in the door.

We left the decision to her, she turned down some top schools because she wanted more money, we ended up on virtually 100%, and once she moved off campus, she actually ended the year as a net positive since rent and cooking is way cheaper than room and board. But she was a very rare case, we also benefitted from the coach being in his first year and she was his first recruit, so more money was going to flow.

I have always told people, if you want a scholarship, spend your money on tutors not soccer.

 

That number is lower on the men's side, and that's if the school fully funds it. Many programs have fewer to work with -- I talked to a coach a couple of years ago on the women's side who said he knew colleagues coaching men's soccer who had four and five full scholarships to divide across their rosters.

 

Kind of what I thought.bthx for sharing.

 

Fully funded D1 Men's programs have 9.9 scholarships to offer.

 

Yes. But, it’s pretty common for DI programs to have 3-5 fulls total.

Outside of the P5, it’s probably more common for men’s soccer programs to not be fully funded.

 

This is purely a guess, but I would assume coaches are more likely to use whatever they have on international players than US players, as well. It's hard to imagine all of the non-US players now on DI rosters make the trip without the promise of some scholarship money.

 

That's what I've heard as well. Much of the scholarship money for many of the top programs go to the international players. I assume that many of the big schools are able to find some "academic" money for US players, however, especially for those schools (like a Notre Dame or Georgetown) that have large endowments.

 

Honestly, it really depends. If the program has 3-5 scholarships and the scholarships are based off in-state tuition then it’s not likely internationals get that money. It just doesn’t go as far.

But, it’s also tough to see where some schools give in-state tuition across the various states or countries. Just using a random example, Kansas state schools can give in-state tuition to students from Paraguay. Sure it can help recruit those students, but maybe the money just doesn’t go as far for others.