A coach tells sophomore soccer players to send highlight videos to 50-70 Division III schools, attend two or three ID camps including one at a dream school, and prioritize camps where coaches actually need their position. One well-matched camp beats multiple generic ones.
If you're an ECNL player as a sophomore, here are the 3 things I would suggest you do right away. Number 1, I assume your video is done at this point, and not only should you send it out, but you want to send it out to a lot of D3 schools. When I say a lot, I mean 50 to 70 D3 schools that you would of course consider or put in your net of considering, because they can talk to you any way they like, and the more they talk to you, the better chance that more coaches know who you are, that if you get injured, God forbid, the following year, that you can still get recruited, and that these coaches change jobs 30% of the time. So today you're emailing coaches at D3, by the time you're a junior there's a very good chance they will be a coach of another D3, another D2, or even another D1 program. Number 2, I want you to go to 2 to 3 ID camps as a sophomore. The ID camps I would recommend would be one Mass ID camp, probably local to you, where there's many schools attending, and you go to find out what level you should aim for. You should ask them, may I ask you what level I should aim for? Don't ask for feedback, don't ask if you're being recruited, that's the question. And ask a few different coaches, because soccer is subjective. I then want you to go into a dream school. Go to a Stanford, a UCLA, a UW. Statistically speaking, if you're watching this video, you're probably not going to play at one of those schools, but you might be the one that does. But also, those coaches, if they like you, will one, potentially pursue you. But even if they don't end up making you an offer, getting interest from a Washington or Stanford or UCLA is like getting interested from Chelsea, but then you end up going to play for Aston Villa. So you still play in the Premier League. You might just not be on the best team on the best wages, but you still get to play at the highest level. And number three, you should be receiving genuine interest to go to an ID camp of a D3 school where the coach says, I need your position. I like the way you play. Go to that one. That will be the best one you go to. If you can only go to one, Choose the genuine interest. It will always be better. If you want a list of camps that you should consider, type the word quiz and I'll send you a quiz to take which will ask you questions about which ID camp might be best for you.
