A sophomore in ECNL Regional League with a 3.7 GPA asks if Division I soccer is possible. The coach says it's rare but doable: attend 3-4 individual school camps, get coaches to advocate for you, and aim for scholarships between $20,000 and $60,000. Without college interest calls by June 15, Division I is unlikely.
Coach, I'm playing ECNL RL and I have a 3.7 GPA and I'm a sophomore. Can I play Division I college soccer? Let's break this down for a minute. So ECNL RL, technically speaking, it's very difficult to play Division I. We've had a student actually do that, so it is possible, but you're gonna have to go to 3 to 4 camps of an individual school if you're going to play Division I soccer, 2 to 3 camps of other schools depending on those divisions as well. Now with your GPA, you are looking at a scholarship of somewhere between $20,000 to $40,000 to $60,000, which is phenomenal, but that is transparent on if the coach is going to help you get into the school depending on what schools you're applying to. And finally, as a sophomore, because you're a sophomore, if you have a bunch of phone calls with Division IIIs, then I would tell you Division I is very realistic for you because that means you're very good, you happen to be playing Eastern RL due to circumstance, and other college coaches are interested in you. But if you have no college interest whatsoever and June 15th is around the corner for you, then I would tell you that Division I soccer is Not on track. Yeah, but I know a friend, he played Eastern RL and he made it Division I. Like, you don't know what you're talking about. I've seen it happen a million times. Look, I'm not saying it cannot be done. I just told you at the beginning of this that we have a student who was playing Eastern RL, is now playing at Utah Tech, at Division I school. It is possible, but you can't approach the system, the recruiting system, the same as everybody else. And if that friend of yours got recruited, good for them. Are you them? You're not them. Don't compare yourself to other people's recruiting styles or recruitment process because you are not the same. You must do what is needed, and I'm very honest with my students to go, if you want to have the best chance, this is what you need to do.
