A soccer player waited months to contact college coaches and is now behind. Speaker A warns that starting recruitment late in the MLS Next system is the biggest reason talented players miss offers, and says coaches like Middlesbury's Tim Peng have already made their choices. Players should start reaching out in 8th or 9th grade.
If you're in MLS Next, this is the number one reason you will not play college soccer, and I'm going to show you an example student right now. So please don't make this mistake, otherwise you will be so sad. With a lot of what you're saying, but you know, you don't have the results, quote unquote, you want. Why do you think that is?
Um, either because I started super late— not super late, but I started late in the process, 100%. I know that there are kids who are a freshman or sophomore going camps. I started this year, um, like a couple, a couple months ago. But even then, even starting a couple months ago, I have drawn a lot of attention, which I've seen. Um, but it's just that all these coaches have already an idea of the player that they want.
And so he's saying, well, you know what, I'm really good. And he is really good. This kid plays for the national team. And he's like, well, I'm showing, I'm getting genuine interest, but every single coach is telling me that they already like somebody else. It is not about being the best one, it's about being the first one.
Um, you know, since I'm starting this process so late and I haven't been in contact with most of them for a while, uh, you know, definitely some of them I'm not at the top of their list because I just started contact with them, even though I'm a good player. Um, for example, I'll give you Middlesbury's coach, um, Tim Peng. Uh, I, I was— I talked to him, he felt like on Instagram and on email, and he said that, um, what— that he doesn't know for sure yet, uh, if he can offer me a spot because again he hasn't seen me play in person. And, you know, we have to wait for that, um, for the— because he had no more ID camps, so he has to see me in winter. But again, that's not a guarantee that he'll be able to because maybe a kid that he's looking at can commit, or just a bunch of things. So I definitely started the process late. So I did— I feel like that's the majority of the factor that's playing into why I haven't been able to get an offer from a school I want, particularly because I have—
like, for example, Dean College, that's one that So he goes on to talk about schools he is getting some interest from, but they're not schools that he wants to go to. So if you don't start this recruiting process in 8th, 9th, 10th grade, you will have this kid talk— you'll call me just like this kid and go, I'm really good and I should be getting interest, but it's late. And, you know, basically he's just making excuses as to why he's not getting recruited. At the end of the day, excuses don't matter. You're just not getting recruited. Now, I'm going to still try and help him, so I still think we can be successful with him actually, because he is really good and he just didn't do a lot of things right. Even when he did reach out to schools, so I'm gonna try and help him, but I don't want this to be you. If you're still worried that you're too early, comment the word early and we can figure out if you really are too early, or better yet, give me a call and we can talk about your situation. Talk soon.
