Zeh Taublieb gives high school sophomores three rules for college soccer recruiting: contact coaches now, including Division III programs; play for elite clubs like ECNL or MLS NEXT; and email every Division I and III school on your list, not just the famous ones. Vermont won the NCAA championship as proof that prestige doesn't predict success.
What are 3 things sophomores should never do? Number 1, if you think you cannot reach out to college coaches because you're a sophomore, then you're out of your bloody mind. Division III schools want to talk to you, especially the top academic schools, because they want to get you to do what's called ED-1. They want you to fall so in love with their school that when you go to do applications, that you're willing to apply to their school, and if you get in, you must go to their program. Number 2, you need to be playing on an MLS NEXT team 2, MLS NEXT ECNL or ECNL team, Elite Academy would also work, NAL could work as well. But if you're not playing on any of those levels, playing college soccer at a top academic D3 or top academic Division I becomes very difficult. Number 3, you must understand the difference between Division I and Division I major tiers. So if you go to a school like IUPUI, which is a great program, or you go to a school like Duke, those are very different levels. Do you want to play every minute at IUPUI or do you want to sit on the bench at Duke? What you need to understand is at this stage, unless you have an offer that I don't know about, you don't get to pick. You must email all the Division IIIs that are in your list, all the Division Is, good, bad, or middle. And remember, Vermont won the entire NCAA tournament and they weren't even considered a best quote unquote team. So you might think you know what's a high-level team, but you don't know, nobody knows until the season begins. So this is why you must email almost all of them. If you want more help playing cold stalker, give me a call. Links in the bio. Bye.
