Five steps for 8th graders seeking college soccer scholarships: get your video reviewed to assess elite status, build an Instagram presence early, attend ID camps since coaches rarely watch games, text coaches directly if you have their number, and send handwritten letters to top schools. The handwritten letter works especially well for girls.
Here are 5 ways for you to get a scholarship to play college soccer if you're in 8th grade. Number 1, you need to know if you're an elite level player. So you need somebody to watch your video, which means you need to have a video, and you need somebody to tell you, hey look, for your age, you're quite good. If you're playing ECNL or MLS Next, that's usually a telltale sign that you are an elite level player. Number 2, you need to have your Instagram page sorted. One of the best ways for these coaches to keep track of you is not only through email, it's also through Instagram, and especially for Twitter for girls. So that way they can just follow you. But this is a long-term play. This does not work if you start this your junior year and you expect them to follow your Instagram. They need to see your Instagram once as an 8th grader, fall back into it again as a 9th grader, and then follow you a bunch from 10th grade to 11th grade. That's how Instagram works. Number 3, you have to realize they're not gonna come to your games very often. Even if you have a showcase, they're gonna have to prioritize some other years, but that doesn't mean you don't still ask them to come to your game because that's how you keep the communication going. but more importantly, you must go to them. You must go to individual ID camps, and if you're a top academic, we recommend that you go to 60 and Master's ID Camp. Number 4, if you see their cell phone number in their email, text them, even if you're in 8th grade. If you don't know exactly what to say, we can help you with that because it does vary per person. Number 5, write a handwritten letter. This doesn't happen very often. On the girls' side, this is actually much more popular and even more effective, but if you write a handwritten letter to your top schools, even if they don't respond, you can follow up going, "I wrote a handwritten letter," and it goes a long way, but you don't want to start a handwritten letter until you've already had some level of communication. You don't want that to be your very first level of communication. If you want more help, give me a call, links in the bio, and I will talk to you soon.
