A lot of student-athletes aspire to continue their sports after high school, earning the honor of playing for their college. The recruiting process is a long, difficult, and confusing process.
My name is Megan Stoll. I am a senior here at West Carteret and I am part of the swim and soccer team. Though I swim, soccer is my sport. I have played soccer for about 14 years and I have had the opportunity to continue playing soccer in college. I wanted to share some things that helped me find the right school for me. Here are some tips and recommendations to make the recruiting process easier:
Determine how far you are willing to go away from home.
I knew I wanted to stay on the East Coast. I also knew that I did not want to be able to come home for a long weekend. I made my search radius between 4-9 hours away from home. I then considered in which direction I wanted to go. Did I want South? West? North? After a lot of consideration, I realized I did not want to go further south. I ended up looking at schools in western North Carolina as well schools in Virginia and Maryland.
Consider schools with the academics you are interested in.
It is important that you are not going to a school purely for athletics because the purpose for college is to get a degree. If you do not know exactly what you are interested in studying, narrow it down to some things that you might be interested in.
Think about location and size.
Do you want a big school, a medium sized school, or a small school?
Do you want to be in a big city, the suburbs, or a rural area?
Division is not as important as you think.
Do not rule out DII, DIII, or other level schools. Having a DI only mindset may limit your ability to find the right school for you. Division is only determined by money. There are DII schools that can beat DI schools. There are DIII schools that can beat DI schools. That does not mean don’t try for DI. If you want DI, go for DI, but always have backups.
Reach out to coaches.
These coaches have a lot of bases to cover. If you don’t reach out to them and market yourself to them, it is very very unlikely that they will find you.
The best way to contact coaches is to email them. But do some research into which coach you need to reach out to. Some schools have the assistant coach handle recruiting and emails until you progress further into the process.
In these emails introduce yourself, your high school and high school team, your GPA, your club team (or the equivalent of), any athletic accomplishments, your intended major.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. This is as much about you finding the right program as it is about them finding the right player.
Send video, times (for track, swim, other similar sports), other statistics., and your schedule (games, meets, tournaments, etc.)
This is really important. In your first email, or first couple emails, you should include either some stats, or video/film/highlights would be even better. This allows coaches to determine whether or not they want to see more.
If they choose to recruit you, they will try to see you in person. This allows them to see how you play in real time, not just your best moments. It also allows them to see your character and personality on and off the field, court, track, (out of the ) pool.
BE PERSONABLE
These coaches are just as interested in you as they are in your athletic ability. Your athletics may fit the team, but they might have a varying dynamic. It is important to be yourself because these coaches are people too, and they want to form a kind of relationship and connection with you.
I was recruiting during Covid, so it was very hard for me to get video (they would not let spectators close to the fields or games were cancelled and/or kept getting pushed back). I sent coaches a workout video, consisting of different things I did during quarantine to stay in shape. In this video I included a clip of me lip syncing to a song in the middle of my work out. It captured my personality, and it caught my coach’s attention. With another coach I was talking with, we discussed books pertaining to a subject we had in common.
Form a connection because they may end up being your coach for the next four years!
These coaches are smart, they are able to identify things that you do well, and things you need to work on. Asking for feedback allows them to share these thoughts with you.
Take this feedback, and work on it. If they say you should get faster, work on getting faster. So that if and when they see you again, you can prove that you listened to them and were eager to improve.
Always say thank you!
They are very busy people, so make sure to always thank them for their time! If they come to see you play/compete!
Don’t get discouraged.
This is a long, hard, and confusing process. You may not get the response you want from some coaches, and that will hurt, but it is okay. Keep trying other schools, because you may find the right school and program for you somewhere else.
I hope these tips help you in your recruiting process! Recruiting is different for every sport and there are several resources you can use to help you get your name out there. Recruiting websites can require you to pay for their services, so do not rely on them.