High school juniors aiming for college soccer face three major obstacles: top academic schools finish recruiting by August and want applications by November 1, Division I programs now recruit junior college transfers, and elite club platforms like MLS NEXT 2 and ECNL dramatically improve Division I prospects. The speaker earned a full ride by attending 15 camps and creating 30 highlight videos.
3 things you should be worried about as a junior if you want to play college soccer, saving the best one for last. Number 1, if you want to go to a top academic school, you need to understand that most of the top academic schools— Chicago's, Tufts, NYU's— want to be done recruiting by August of your junior year to have you visit in the fall and doing ED-1 November 1st. That's when their top quote-unquote recruits will be done, and they will be basically all done by December. So if you don't already have interest from them, then you've probably missed the boat and you need to lower your expectations and go to a team below that, unless you are truly an exceptional player, in which case maybe something can be done. But otherwise, you need to understand that probably you've missed the boat. Number 2, Division I schools can now recruit junior college kids who can be freshmen if they go from junior college into a Division I university and they don't lose any eligibility, which means now as a high schooler, you're not competing with your fellow 17, 18-year-olds. You're now competing with 20-year-olds. The reason this is important is while college coaches still want young high school players at the Division I level because it creates a certain culture they like. This new rule will mean that they will look for transfers. So to make a difference, you're going to have to go to ID camps sooner, and you're gonna have to play at a higher level. If you have above a 3.5, I would not consider going to junior college so you could do the same thing, unless you knew specifically that junior college could theoretically help you go Division I. What I would recommend instead is you must consider Division II programs as well, and you must consider Division III programs. You may think the levels aren't good at those, but you are mistaking. They're very high levels, and the top D2s can beat many of the Division 1s. The top D3s can even beat some of the Division 1s. It is a very competitive world out there. 3, and saving quote unquote the best one for last, is if you're not playing MLS NEXT 2, ECNL, or ECNL RL within those what we call the top 4, then your chances of playing Division 1 soccer really go down by many percentage points. Now this does not mean you couldn't then still beat the odds. I played JV soccer as a junior in high school. Nobody thought I could play college soccer. I went on to get a Division I full-ride scholarship, but it was because I went to way more camps. I went to 15 camps. I made 30 videos. If you want to be different, you're going to have to do 3 times as much as the student next to you. If you want help playing college soccer, give me a call. Links in the bio. Bye.
