A college coach at the Surf Cup tournament explains how scouts evaluate players in seconds and why you need multiple offers. He lost a Cal Poly scholarship after this tournament, shares the fastest way to get noticed (be vocal), and names Sarah Lawrence, Wabash, and City SC as programs worth targeting.
Scouting potential college soccer players at the amazing Surf Cup. Once upon a time, I won Surf Cup many years ago, and I got recruited to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at this exact tournament. They made me an offer and later took it away from me my senior year and had to find a new team. This is why it's so important to have many offers, and it's really important that before tournaments like this, you're already communicating with coaches so you get more than one coach to come to your game to show interest in you. And to do that, you usually need ID camp, genuine interest, good video, etc. This is one of many college coaches here. That's the Sarah Lawrence— that is the Sarah Lawrence coach. Sarah Lawrence is a really good top academic D3 program, and their ID camp is fantastic if you have a chance to go, and they properly recruit through there. College coaches usually have a schedule, and they're going to a game they want to see. Having said that, right now I'm walking to that field, and of course I'm going to be watching players as I do that. College coaches pick out players within 3 to 5 seconds if they think they're really good based off technique, balance, their own intuition. But the best way to always stand out quickly is to talk. Whoever's the loudest is going to draw our attention the fastest. We have more college coaches. That's Wabash. More college coaches over there. So when you guys ask, you know, where should we— what team, club team should we play for? There are never ever this many college coaches at a league game. Almost never. Even MLS Next, ECNL, they don't come to league games. They don't have a budget to just go to one game at a time, so they come to these tournaments. So when you ask what club team to play for, these are the club teams. Find out if they're going to Las Vegas, if they're going to Richmond, if they're going to Surf Cup. This club in white is City SC. This is the coach/director. You don't get better people than him. So like, if you're in this area and you want to play at a high level, areas in San Diego, that's one of the best clubs. It's an amazing place with a great coach. They actually care about you as a person. And I know it's hard for you guys to find the right club Okay, tune in for part 2 where we're gonna actually watch some soccer. If you want more help, comment, call, and we can schedule call with you and your parents.
