A former MLS NEXT player gives freshman soccer players three recruitment tips: don't worry about club playing time, attend ID camps to get noticed by older age groups, and email Division I and II coaches every two months with updates to stay on their radar.
If I'm a freshman playing MLS NEXT, here are 3 things I would never do. First of all, don't worry about playing time at this age. Of course you want playing time to get better at soccer, but from a college coach's perspective, they don't really need you to be playing every minute. They need you to be playing minutes at showcases, which most of your teams will take turns during those tournaments so everybody gets to play. So don't worry about playing time. What you need to do is by your sophomore, junior year, you want to be playing a ton of minutes. So this is great. You've gotten yourself into the big system of MLS NEXT. Be happy. Number 2, Go to ID camps for the love of goodness sakes. It will change your life. You will be one of the better players there. The coaches will automatically put you with the older age group because you'll be one of the better players. And now you're on the radar. When you're an MLS Next player, that's called the big fish, small pond mentality. You're going to be the big fish, but at the lower level ID camps, which there tend to be lower level than say MLS Next teams, you will then stand out immediately. And then the college coaches will break the rules per se and communicate with you at that camp. Number 3 is email the Division 1 and Division 2 schools. Division 2 schools can respond to you. They can even invite you to train with the team. So if you're an elite level player, they will not hesitate. And with the Division 1 schools, since you've gone to their camp, they're going to remember your face. And then you're going to gently do what we call like a drip campaign if you're a marketing person, and you're going to send them emails every 2 months with, here's an update, here's an update. I'm going to come to your camp. I'm coming to your fall game. I'm going to be your showcase. And voilà, you're going to get recruited to play college soccer. If you want help playing Call of Sark, give us a call. Links in the bio. Talk soon. Bye.
