A recruiting coach evaluates a junior's Division I soccer prospects with a 3.7 GPA and ECNL experience. He notes that 40% of top D1 rosters are international players and 12% are transfers, shrinking spots for American recruits. His advice: start with Division II and III interest, build video highlights, and network directly with coaches.
I'm a junior, I have a 3.7 GPA, I play ECNL RL, and I play left mid or attacking center mid. Can I play Division 1 college soccer? As I described that to you, that's exactly what you're going to say to college coaches at some point in your email. You're going to describe your club level, your GPA, and your position. What I can tell you now is attacking center mids and wingers definitely of course can play college soccer. You are competing with many internationals because it's an attacking role, but there are most people who play college soccer are still American. At the highest levels of Division I, you are looking at about 40% who are internationals and another 10 to 12% that are transfers. So yes, you're about half of them are looking still for Americans. So there's still plenty of Americans to be recruited. But if you're playing ECNL/RL and you want to play Division I, it's pretty difficult. And just to tell you a brief story, there's a student I had a call with the other day, and the family, like, top school, is Ohio State. And I've watched the video and I know what level they're playing, and they don't play locally in Ohio, so they're not on the best ECNL RL team. They're not playing at Ohio State. Ohio State is recruiting 10 times better players, both statistically, meaning through their MLS Next connections and everything else. And so they're just not going to see this kid. Now, is this kid the level? Let's pretend Ohio State watched him every day. Would they then go, we like him? I don't think so. I don't think he's the level. I even edited his video. Because they work with us. And I said to the family, look, you're not playing at Ohio State, but if you want to go and it's your dream school, we're going to do everything we can. We're going to send emails, we're going to send video. Soccer's subjective. Why should I be the decision maker if you play at Ohio State? I'm not the coach of Ohio State. Maybe the Ohio State coach says they need you, and as long as you're willing to not play for 3 years, they'd like you on the team because you're going to be a good training player. There's players who go to college that are just training players, and good, you get to go to Ohio State. How amazing would that be? Here's another idea. What if that Ohio State coach says, we really like you, but we don't see you as a fit for us, but I love you and I like your personality. I'll recommend you to Ohio Wesleyan. I'll recommend you to NYU. I'll recommend you to MIT because you're really good. And these coaches will do that. At the end of the day, when they have a kid that they fall in love with, they want to help you. So if you want to play college soccer as an ECRL player with that GPA and that position, just know you can play Division I, but I would strongly recommend getting DIII and DII interest first. Before you just go for the big boy schools or the big girl schools. If you want more help, give me a call. Links in the bio. Bye.
