A college-recruiting coach gives three steps for a freshman in MLS NEXT aiming for a top-25 Division I soccer program: know your team's competitive level, attend ID camps where visibility matters more than being the best on your club team, and build relationships through personalized emails and attending the college's games.
If I'm a freshman playing MLS NEXT, here are 3 things I would do to ensure that you play Division 1 soccer at a top 25 program. Number 1, you do have to understand what level of MLS NEXT team are you at. Are you playing for an academy that's affiliated with a pro team? Are you playing for like an MLS NEXT team like Barça Residency or Gosha? These are all different levels within MLS NEXT. Regardless, because you're a freshman, this is a great place to be. So don't worry about playing time too much and go to the ID camps. You're gonna be one of the best players there. All of a sudden now that's big fish, small pond. The coach will be like, who are you? What's your name? Even though you might not be the best on your team yet, or best, say, in the country, because you're going to the ID camps, the level can— it really varies. It's older kids tend to be better, the youth ones are really not as good. So you though will be a youth player who's better, so you'll be brought up to the older age group and you'll just stand out because you're there in person. It's not only about just being good, right? You're the same player even if you don't go to the camp, but if you don't go to the camp, they don't know who you are. So it's not really about who's better, it's about who is being seen. So go to the ID camps. After having gone to the ID camp, follow up with an email. You don't have to ask him if you're going to be on the team tomorrow, but now you've not only started the communication process, you put a face to a name. So if you only email Division 1 schools as an MLS NEXT freshman and you don't go to their camps, that doesn't do a lot for them. They don't know who you are, they don't remember your face, there's no relationship built. So you have to do both. Then once you've gone to the camp, you will follow up with many emails over the course of the next year and you should go to their fall game. You should tell them congratulations when they win. If you want more help, give us a call. Links in the bio.
