A college soccer advisor outlines three steps for kids aiming to play in college: juggle 300 touches by age 12, attend middle-school camps hosted by colleges, and join club teams where coaches scout. Early camp performance builds relationships before formal recruiting starts.
If I was 11 years old, here are 3 things I would be doing in order to play college soccer. Number 1, you should be able to juggle to about 300 by the time you hit 12 years old. Being a good juggler does not make you a good soccer player, but not being able to juggle is usually a red flag that you're not touching the ball enough. And at some point, I'm going to then tell you, you should be going to middle school camps. They're not technically ID camps, but they are hosted by colleges. And if you go there and you're the best one by far because you can juggle really well, then the coaches will actually notice you. And because you're so young, they're not going to be able to worry about recruiting because they're so young. So actually, the coaches will talk to you much more freely because you're only 11 years old. But now you have an in, right? Now that coach knows who you are. Odds are that coach is going to try and work up their own career. So by the time you're 13, 14, 15 years old, you've known Coach John since you were 11 years old. And he'll be like, yeah, I remember this kid. He's been balling out or she's been balling out since she was 11. I would love to talk to her now that she's in high school. and now you're being recruited because you started at 11 years old. And then finally is the clubs are often affiliated with the college coaches. So 95% of college coaches work in the club world. So if you go to their camps in middle school and you're trying to switch teams or you're just trying to play at a higher club level, odds are the college coach is in charge of that. If you want more help playing college soccer and you're between the ages of 7 to 13 years old, give me a call, links in the bio. Or if you're older than that, you can also call me too because I am the college soccer guy.
