A coach shares how he helped an ECNL player land a Division I soccer scholarship through three strategies: building a library of highlight videos and following up repeatedly with coaches, attending local college camps instead of major showcases, and using social media so coaches could find and contact the player directly.
How I got one of my students from ECNRL to play Division 1 college soccer. The first thing I want to say is if any of you out there are listening to this and I and my videos and content have helped you play college soccer, please send me a DM. I would love to know who you are and where you ended up going to school because of our videos, and I will make sure, if you'd like, to do a post about you. Otherwise, I'll keep you anonymous, but I'd love to know if my videos have helped you commit to play college soccer. The way we had the season our player played Division 1 was number 1, we made a lot of every-touch videos. We knew the player was Division 1 level. We could see it in his ability, but he was the diamond in the rough. He wasn't going to get seen. The coaches were not going to come to the showcases. So what we did was we made a lot of video and we had to follow up multiple times. It's very similar to a boxing match. You're not going to knock out a college coach the first time, which is kind of the equivalent of them finally responding to you. You got to punch them in the gut. You got to kick them in the leg, then you got to punch them in the face, then you got to follow up with an uppercut jab combo, and then they'll finally pay attention to you and go, oh, you've punched me like 15 times. Who are you? And then they'll go, let me see your video. Oh darn, you're very good at soccer. Now I want to recruit you. Number 2 is you must come to terms that you're not going to be at the showcases. That doesn't mean you're not going to get recruited, but you cannot assume you're going to get to just play Division 1 soccer when these same coaches are going to MLS NEXT Fest or flex or ECNL playoffs, you must understand, okay, you're playing ECNL, but the local schools probably are going to get to know who you are because you play for a good club team and you're one of the better kids in the area. So go to their camp. This student went to the camp often, and that is how the coaches saw him. Number 3 is social media. When you are an ECNL player and you're trying to be a Division 1 player, to your local schools, they want to find you on social media because because they know they can come watch you, they can come to your training sessions, they can talk to a club coach, and social media is much more closer than emails, which feels, you know, very far away from getting to know somebody. If you want more help playing Call of Soccer, comment the word "call" and we can schedule a call with you and your parents.
