In this conversational advisory session, a recruiter (Speaker A) and two advisors (Speakers C and D) guide Diego, a senior high‑school player competing in the Elite Clubs Regional League (ECRL), through the next steps of his college soccer recruiting process. Diego has already contacted a few coaches and received a campus visit invitation, but he lacks a highlight reel. The advisors stress the critical importance of creating a concise (even 1‑minute) video and sending it to coaches before attending ID camps. They discuss using pre‑written email templates that include contact information and a link to the video. Diego confirms he will attend two ID camps—Cal State Northridge and a Santa Cruz camp—and clarifies his positions (center defensive midfielder and center back). The conversation emphasizes practical, actionable steps: produce a highlight video promptly, personalize outreach emails, and leverage ID camps to stand out, especially given his defensive roles which require coaches to focus on specific moments in the footage.
Chapters
If you're playing ECRL, how is it that you can play college soccer? Let's find out. What's your name, boss?
My name is Diego.
Diego. And what level of club soccer do you play?
Uh, I play ECRL.
And so, so far in the recruiting process, you're going into your senior year, is it?
Yeah.
Tell us what you've done so far.
So right now I've just kind of like emailed coaches and they have followed up with like tournaments that I've been to, like Surf and other tournaments.
But good, pretty much a good way to So right now you already told me you're speaking to a couple schools, one of which has offered you a visit. So that's awesome. How is your highlight video coming along, or is it finished?
Uh, I actually don't have one, but we do have like videos and stuff.
And so what's stopping you from putting your video together?
I don't know, to be honest. I haven't—
okay, pause there. Did you have a highlight video in order to get recruited to play college soccer?
Yes, I had many. Several.
Several. So will you tell this gentleman that, uh, he needs to get his highlight video together, please?
Get your highlight reel together.
I will do it, will do, will do.
Okay, so then otherwise you've got your video coming along now, you do have college interest already, but obviously that's really important. When you're sending the emails to the coaches, what are you saying in the emails?
Um, I usually use like a, uh, what is it called when it's like written already?
Say it again.
Uh, it's like, it's like pre-written.
Okay, it's a template.
Yeah, yeah, template. And, um, then I usually like put like my identify like what they could like reach out to me on. And, and yeah, actually a highlight video would help now that I think about it, because it's just centered with that.
Exactly, perfect. That's good to hear. So this gentleman here is a good soccer player, so that's the good news. Next piece, obviously he's got to get his video together.
In your case in particular, because you're a good soccer player, is you do need to identify a couple ID camps, which I'm sure you have. Are you going to any this summer?
Uh, yeah.
Which ones?
I'm going to— it's Cal State Northridge, and then the other ones Up in— it's Santa Cruz, but it's like multiple schools.
Amazing.
So those are both good camps, but what you need to do is make the video ideally before, even if it's a minute long, just give them something.
Email them before the camp so when they go to the camp, they're going, hey, I saw that kid, he's somebody I want to look at, because there could be a lot of kids there. And if you're just trying to stand out— what position do you play?
Uh, center defensive mid and center back.
Even to that, further to my point, you're not going to go dribble that past every single person like a winger or a striker. So that means when they watch you, they actually have to go out of their way to go, I'm only going to watch him for the next 10 minutes. And to do so is where the highlight video comes in.
