5 Things ECNL Players Must Avoid!

5 things you should never do if you're an ECNL player and you want to play Division 1 college soccer. Before I get into all 5 things, I just want you to know that if you don't already at this point know how to play ECNL or you don't already have a 1-minute highlight video, then this video may not be for you. You need those things first in order for us to get moving along. I also want to express that if you don't know what your video should look like or how to find an ECNL team, you can look up your ECNL teams in your local area and you can play ECNL NRL or MLS Next 2 and then work your way up. But it is important that you get to that point if you want to play Division 1 college soccer. Okay, let's get into the 5 things not to do. Number 1, if you think you don't need to go to ID camps because you're playing at such a high level, then what I want to tell you is you need to go to ID camps because you're playing at such a high level. For players playing in NAL or E64, even MLS Next 2, I might say to them, you know what, don't go to any ID camps yet because you're really not the level and they're not going to really notice you. If you're playing ECNL, that means you're really good. So you have to go to ID camps. It's the way for you to stand out. It's the way you get guaranteed being seen. So number 1 is please go to ID camps. Now, if you don't know which ID camps to go to, there's 3 ways for us to figure that out. The first one is I just tell you which ones to go to because you scheduled a call with me and I just tell you what to do. Number 2 is you send out emails and you figure out which one is genuine based off of the responses you receive. And number 3 is you should do some research and my videos express some of this too. But Finding mass ID camps. So which ones are good? If you're a top academic, Masters 60, Harvard Clinic Elite 200, Elite 300, these Future 500, those are all good for top academic. If you're a mid-tier, there's a company called ID2 Sports— ID Sports rather— that has some pretty good camps. And otherwise, look up individual camps. You know, if you want to go to your dream school, say it's Penn State, or say it's Penn, or let's say it's Georgetown, you and your ECNL and you're not sure if you're the level, go to the camp. You have to go to the camp because you're never going to get guaranteed seen unless you go. Now you may say it was a money grab and a waste of time, but that's the deal. You have to invest in order to play at the highest level, you need to take the opportunity to go to the camps. Now, if you go to the camp, please make sure you ask the following question: What level do you believe I should aim for? If you ask them for feedback on how to get better at soccer, that's not really what you want, because that's not really going to help you tell you if you're going to get recruited or not. Now, if you're a freshman or a sophomore, you might say, well, they're not supposed to tell me, but that's what the camps are for. You are paying to get feedback from them. Now, they may say to you, there's too many kids here, we can't give you all feedback, which case that's an annoying camp, but that does happen. So you have to follow up with an email. You have to say, look, you know, I came to your camp, I'm really grateful, can I ask what level I should aim for? That's the key component. it's a little different. The question you should ask instead is, if am I being recruited as part of your blank class with a class of blank? And depending on how many times you follow up, if they don't respond to that, you need to move on and then get the answer through your head that you're not that level and it's time to look elsewhere. I was not that level and I looked at other schools and I ended up playing Division I on a full-ride scholarship, and then we ended up beating those teams. So they're not always right, the coaches, but they have to make decisions that they're okay with, and either you're part of those plans or you're not. Number 2, you must make more than one video. I know a lot of you are like, well, I'm playing ECNL and Veo and Trace are great, I'm getting lots of footage and I'm sending my highlights over to the coach my highlights, my updated highlights. Coaches don't want updated highlights. Once they've seen that you can score goals or dribble, you show them another clip of the same thing, it doesn't move the needle at all. What you need to do is send them a full game, but they're not going to watch a full game because it takes too long. So instead, what you do is you send them what we call an every-touch video. So this is every moment you took in the game, and you play, you know, 5 seconds before you touch it, 5 seconds after. So maybe it's a 6 to 8 minute video, but it's the full game. Then you follow up with that multiple times. So you need to play well in multiple games. So don't just send every game you play and, you know, wait 2 or 3 weeks or months and go, oh, I played really well in these 5 games, let me put together post a video for that, something of course that we help you with. And now I can follow up with the coaches. Then what you do is you take those games that are, you know, 3 to 4 minutes long, then you cut them into 1-minute clips and you post that on social media, and then you tag the coach, or then you send via email the 1-minute version of that every-touch video. So now they've got your highlight video cut into 1-minute clips, then they've got your every-touch video cut to 1-minute clips. So now you're sending them 7, 8, 10 videos, you know, in the space of 6 months. Now they know who you are, and if they can email you and actually say to you, hey, I really like your video, please come to my camp, and it's genuine, or they can email you and say, we don't like you and we're not gonna, you know, we don't think you're the level, answer. But if you don't give them something to work with, you don't give them a lot of video, you'll never really get an answer that you want because they themselves don't know the answer, assuming they want to respond to you. Number 3, do not depend on your club coach to do this process for you. I know you're playing at a high club level, and I know you have a director of college coaching who can help you, but they typically do not do it to the level that I believe it should be done. They're not going to go through every email. They're not going to make sure you have an ask in every single email you send. They're not going to be as aggressive. They're not going to call every coach for you because, one, they may not believe that you're good enough, and two, their job is to make sure you stay here. So if the college coaches say, hey, we're gonna be at that tournament, we're gonna be at the MLS Next event, and now you want to leave X club, then your club director didn't do his job. He didn't keep you at the club. That's not my job. My job is not to keep you at your current club. My job is to make sure you play college soccer. So if you depend on your club director, it's not going to work. However, here's how you can use your club director after you've gotten significant genuine interest. When I say significant, I want— I like your video, can we get on a phone call, we're texting, transcript requests. Tell your director, because what they can do that I cannot do is call the college coaches on your behalf. I'm not allowed because of the NCAA rules, but they are allowed to. So, and, and then you want to have them do it. You want to say, hey coach, could you please leave a voice message. Now, do not expect them to get the coach on the call. These coaches are way too busy, and they don't really need to speak to them on the phone, to be honest. If they want to speak to your club coach on the phone, they'll call. What they really want is confirmation that you're a good human and you're going to do what you're asked, and you're going to do well in school, and you're not going to party and, you know, end up in jail, because then they get in big trouble. So if the coach can just leave a voicemail and say, hey, I just want you to know this player's already been in contact with you, you've already expressed interest in them, I just want to give you him, give you my vote of confidence in them, that they're a good person, they come from a great family, they have the budget for school, that just wanted you to know that, have a great day. Now your director of coaching or club coach doesn't have to stick his neck out and look like an idiot if it turns out they don't pick you because he was just talking about your humanness. And also you can follow up with an email and say, hey, my coach left you a voice note. I know you're very busy, but I just wanted you to know that. That's a huge deal that you can even write that because the coach knows what he said in the voice note. Great kid, though they've heard it a million times. It doesn't really matter what he says, it just matters that he does a voicemail. So now we can follow up and say, my coach left you a voicemail. I'm gonna be coming to your camp, I'm gonna be coming to your showcase, then you're much better off. Number 4: if you think that you are the top of the food chain as an ECNL player, you are incorrect. You are always behind internationals who are playing pro soccer. You are behind MLS Next players who are rejecting pro contracts to play college. You are behind MLS Next players who are going to playoffs. You're behind MLS Next players that are just playing MLS Next. And then there's you, ECNL player. So I want to say to you, you are the bottom of the food chain in some ways. The, the hard work you have to— you're the underdog. That was me too. I was the underdog. So you can't just strut in and be like, I'm just so great, I play, you know, you have to work harder. You have to go to more camps, you have to write more emails, you have to express to these coaches that you've watched their game online, that you have the academics. You have to have above a 3.5. If you have a 3.8 and above, you're looking at $30,000 to $40,000 in scholarship academically, not even soccer-wise. So you need to go above and beyond. And finally, number 5, remember that you are there to find a coach you love. You are not there to find a coach that will say yes to you. Your job in all of this process is to interview them. And I often ask my students, I say to them, Would you like 2 weeks to decide if you would like to join a team, which once you are made an offer, you only have 2 weeks to decide? Or would you like a year or 2 to decide which coach you would like? Because this is about you finding a coach you would love. Please comment down below where you are in the process. You can say, I've gone to camps and it's not working, or I've made some videos, I don't know how to send it out, and I will comment to all your comments and try and help you as best I can. Otherwise, book a call, description's below, and I'll talk to you soon.