So You Want To Play College Soccer?

Posted by kkirkland | Filed under Uncategorized

Many high school soccer and club soccer players in the United States have a hard time getting noticed by college recruiters. The chances of getting the attention of the scouts of your favorite college soccer team without proactively pursuing them is slim to none. As a soccer player with the goal to play at the collegiate level, there are a few things that you can do which will dramatically increase your odds of being recruited.

  1. Play for the better teams in your state. Take a look at the better managed clubs in your area. Who is consistently winning State Cup? What team has the stronger players? What team attends the big national and international tournaments in the summer? These are the teams you need to be on to increase your chances of turning the heads of recruiters. If you’re not on one of these teams, consider leaving your current team.
  2. Talk your coach into sending your team to a big tournament each year. Although the tiny local tournaments that each state has are fun and your team probably looks a lot better when playing against local teams, you will never get national exposure playing in these tournaments. If funds are needed first prior to getting your coach’s approval to play in a big tournament, START RAISING FUNDS! There are a million things you can do with your fellow teammates to raise plenty of money to pay for tournament expenses.
  3. Open your mouth. How will a college soccer coach ever know who you are without an introduction? Attend games of your favorite college soccer teams. Get some help…make a list of people you know that may know the coach. If no one comes to mind, make a list of people you know who may know people who know the coach (sounds dumb, I know, but it could very well make the difference!). An introduction will help get the ball rolling a lot faster than anything you could do on your own.
  4. Start early. I can’t stress this enough. It wasn’t until I was 18 years old playing in the final game of my club soccer career that I actually got noticed by college scouts. Finally my team had won State Cup, Western Regionals, and we made it to the National Semifinal match. Unfortunately, by then scholarship money was spent, rosters were filled, and the opportunity to play college soccer was only available if I could pay for it out of my own pocket. Begin this entire process as early as your freshman year in high school.
  5. Create a resume. A well composed athletic resume can act as a tool to help you get exposure from recruiters. Various online recruiting services allow you to create a virtual athletic resume that can be posted online and viewed by college soccer recruiters. Take the time to fill out a few of these, create highlight videos, and post any relevant content that you think a college scout would be interested in seeing.
Keep in mind that the competition is stiff! You will be going up against a large number of very skilled and qualified players. Anything you can do to get a leg up on the competition will be well worth the time you spend doing so. Rain or Shine Soccer is working on a dedicated recruiting service to assist soccer players worldwide in generating attention from college soccer scouts. In the meantime, until we are finished and ready to roll out our service, we highly recommend that you (1) begin working on the items outlined above, (2) email us a copy of your resume (info@rainorshinesports.com), and join our Mailing List to get updates on when Rain or Shine Soccer will be ready to begin helping you and your teammates get the attention of college scouts through our website.

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Permalink | October 23rd, 2008

One Response to “So You Want To Play College Soccer?”

  1. Do You Want To Play A Game Says:
    November 6th, 2008 at 4:37 am

    found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later ..

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