and I don't know where to start. I've looked and looked and can't find sites to do with either college or A-League teams having tryout camps or anything of the sort. They're all camps for little kids or something, and I can't find any coaches phone numbers, etc, at all. What do I do? Do I try and call the college and get a coaches phone number, and talk to him that way? Is it too late now to try and get on a team for the 2003-2004 season? Obviously the tougher the competition, the better, but I just want to play, so whatever I could get, I would take. College, A-League, even a PDL team while I went to college would be fantastic. I'm looking at West Texas A&M, since it's the closest school with a men's soccer program to my home, but I haven't been able to contact the coach.
See here for college info: http://www.socceramerica.com/magazine/collegeGuide.asp See here for USL tryout info: http://www.uslsoccer.com/misc/usltryouts.htm
Find Some Coaches Classic Tournaments I can't tell much about your circumstances. I assume your a senior in high school and do have grades good enough to get in schools. You may want to look at some college coaches classic tournaments. I kow that there was one in Austin Texas in February / March sponsored by one of the major clubs. The purpose was to invilte teams that still may have a goodly number of players that were not contacted by coaches. Often coaches will lose players to other schools and still have scholarship money or spaces to fill as they enter the spring. I also remember a large number of schools were from Texas and the surrounding states. I also remember a semi ton of coaches attending. I would contact your state soccer associations director of coaching. He should direct you as to the specifics of this or similiar tournaments. You can then contact some of the teams participating to see if they can use a guest player. Also, you can do a walk on tryout but I would be in contact with the coaches of the schools you are interested in. Good luck buddy!
I think so, or I wouldn't be stupid enough to actually want to do this. But I haven't had any 'real' competition. I play in a local rec league, and I do well, but I realize that's not even A-League standards. I do know that watching the college soccer matches on ESPN2 they broadcast this year, I was thinking I would do fine in it, but since my high school didn't have a team until this year (I graduated last year, I'm a freshman at a D-3 school with no soccer program this year) I never got to play high school ball.
Oh, and I meant to ask, are the D1 games that were shown on ESPN2 indictive of the normal quality of play in D1? Are they better or worse? What about compared to the A-League?
What sort of rec league do you play in? I assure you that though the college games on ESPN2 are not always pretty, they are a high level compared to any high school or rec leagues.
It's a hispanic league, so I never really know what they're saying. Some of them aren't very good, but some are very good. Anyways, I'll never know if I can do it if I don't try. And if I can get the money, I'm going to try. I just want to play.
A. Transfer to a college with a soccer program. B. Walk on (i.e., call or e-mail the coach, tell him you want to walk on, and find out how you do that). C. Obviously, the less competitive the program (Div. 1 v. Div. 3; good Div. 3 v. crappy Div. 3), the greater your chance of walking on successfully. D. Forget A-League or PDL; as a practical matter, they are not going to give the time of day to someone who plays in a rec league and has no college or high school experience.
If you really wanna do this, don't do it half-assed - stow away on a ship and move to Europe. Work in Germany or France in bar at night and hang around some of the lower level team practices by day. Get to know some of the guys on the team while you're hitting on European women all night the day before. Eventually they'll ask if you play and you say, "Sure. I guess. A little." Then you impress the hell out of them and the coach asks you to join the team. Now you're making money serving Ouzo and playing footy. Eventually you lead the team up and up through promotion and in five years you transfer to Borussia Dortmund for 17 Million Euros. Life has been sweet. (Just make sure you send me a few bucks for the suggestion...)
great suggestion i was just goint go add that if you have got all this money, just buy an mls team and play on it. it costs the same as a two story house in san jose.
I'm working on Wolfsburgh idea about WTAMU. I've tried emailing the coach but he hasn't responded, so if all else fails I'll drive up there and talk to him in person. And if that fails I'm stupid enough to try Roarks idea too.
On TV it always looks easier..playing rec legue will give you some playing experience, but as for getting on a D1 program with no high school is tough. Go to the schools website that you want to go to and find the soccer coaches email on the athletics page. Write him an email saying you will be attending that school and you're interested in trying out and ask him if there are any captains practices that you can join in on. I did all this for a D2 school and everything worked out. Honestly D1 soccer and D2 are the same level of play. I know some guys that played juniors in England and only played D2 and I have seen some pretty bad D1 players which proves NCAA soccer is a lot of politics. Watch out for that stuff.