I am a young college coach and am looking to upgrade my roster. Any suggestions for a recruiting service to use as well as your thoughts on these services? Much appreciated.
Just how young a coach are you? I think maybe folks are shocked that a college coach would ask the question. Upgrading your roster isn't something you do by using a commercial service everyone has access to.
I am referring to the recruiting services such as NCSA, Captain U, and Be Recruited. Just wondering if anyone is familiar with these services or have heard any good reviews?
A young and opinionated coach...read his posts about former Colorado Coach and his new job! You really must have snowed that college to hire you....you must have told them something about your recruiting strategy or philosophy during your interview!!! Those services are very good as follow-ups and a little exploration....get yourself out to events and stop recruiting from behind a desk.
If you are a young coach and asking this question I wish you luck because you may have a long road to hoe. It is my opinion based on conversations with club coaches and college coaches that the types of services you mention are typically not used. Get in touch with as many local club DOC's and coaches first and start building relationships. Then work your way around the club scene. Start getting out to college showcase events. You should be getting requests from players. You are going to have the do the work yourself rather than rely on a service to do it for you! Good luck.
Actually It can be quite useful for coaches at small schools. It won't replace being on the recruiting trail, but it can supplement very nicely. Most think in terms of bigger schools on here which explains the sarcastic answers you got. I presume you are at a smaller institution. NCSA is the best site I'm aware of at the moment. A lot of these people don't realize that a college showcase can be a huge waste of time for small schools. Prospects are looking for a bigger name, especially if your program is not well established at the lower levels. With NCSA you can save hundreds of dollars on wasted recruiting trips, search through hundreds of recruits, and filter so that you find students open to your type of school.
Thank you for an honest and non sarcastic answer. He is right, showcase tournaments can be a waste of time for smaller schools (just too small of a fish). I will make sure to look into NCSA. I meant no harm by the Colorado coaching comment. Just seems like a lot of coaches use the "family excuse" and then are back coaching college soccer a few years later. Same thing happens in other sports as well.
Family commitments sounds a lot better than something like "I got fed up with that **shole of an AD" or "I thought I would kill myself rather that talk to one more parent who thinks their kid is Marta" or any of a number of things you just can't say. Sometimes after a year or two you come back refreshed.
or a nice way for an AD to give the underperforming coach a diplomatic way out. I was a little skeptical when i first read this thread, but it does seem it was asked in a honest manner. So the sacarstic earlier posts are totally uncalled for. These recruiting services are around to serve a specific purpose, if they weren't or don't do an effective job then they will go out of business (unless they are propped up by the government). They can be useful to some. There are some international services that could be useful too. If you are interested I can private message. I am not here to promorte anyone, which is what I initially thought this was all about.
The trouble is that on some of the recruiting sites, players parents pay for the service of having their resumes shopped to coaches. Whether the service gets the player placed or not, they still get the money from the parents, and many coaches ignore the services as so much noise. It says more about a kid's financial resources than her skill level. More valuable is personal contact from a player, which at least shows interest in the school so a coach doesn't waste limited recruiting resources. Seeing a player in person and a coach's contacts from colleagues and former players are still more productive.