A college soccer recruit worries he's too late to get recruited. The speaker earned a full ride to Valparaiso despite starting late, but warns that late recruitment means smaller scholarships, less playing time, and less time to find the right coach. Pick the wrong coach and you waste four years and money.
I get asked all the time, am I too late to start the process? And you're asking the question the wrong way. Are you too late to get scholarship? Are you too late to be a starter? Are you too late to make the team? That's how the question should be phrased. Because more than likely, you're not too late. There's almost a college soccer team out there from everybody, somewhere in the country, if you're willing to go. I went to Valparaiso, which is a no-name school in Indiana that cut their men's program and don't even have men's soccer anymore. But I had the best experience ever, despite being from Malibu. And it was a Division I school and I got a full ride. But I was open-minded. If you are too late, that would be considered your senior year would be too late for girls, like across the board, especially for Division I. But doesn't mean there's not somebody that gets injured tomorrow and needs you. So the better question to ask is, am I willing to start later and know there will be less money, it's possible that I won't play very many minutes, and I myself may not have the opportunity to interview the coach to the degree necessary to pick a good school? Don't think about, am I too late to get recruited? I want you to think about, am I too late to start getting to know the coach who's going to be my father or mother for 4 years? And if you are too late for that, then you may pick a coach you don't like, and you will be miserable and waste a lot of freaking money.
