Senior soccer players targeting Division I should first secure genuine interest from Division II or III programs while maintaining strong academics. Division I coaches only scout fall season games, not league matches, and ID camps are your last recruiting chance before the December-January commitment deadline. Without D2/D3 interest, coaches see you as a red flag.
If you are a senior playing MLS Next 2 or ECNL RL, please do these 3 things to make sure you can play Division 1 college soccer. Number 1 is if you are playing at these levels, you must first understand Division 1 soccer is going to be a reach for you. So the way to get to Division 1 is first you must have interest from Division 2 or Division 3. And between your mom and dad and I, we want you to get a really good education, so we want you to prioritize academics first no matter what. But I know you want to play at the highest level, I know you want to play Division 1, but you must get interest from Division 3s, Division 2s first Otherwise, when you do get the interest of a D1 school and they say, how's the recruiting process? And you say, you're the first school I've spoken to, or you're a Division 1 school I want, and you have no other interest, it's a red flag to them. Number 2, you must go to fall games. Number 3, you must go to ID camps. I know they suck, but this is your last chance. You don't get another chance in this. If you're not basically committed by December, January, then pretty much Division 1 soccer is not going to happen. In which case, there are still many other levels that you can play at that are very high and frickin' awesome. But if you wanna play Division I, that's gonna happen in the next 3 to 4 months. They're not gonna come to your league games. They're not even gonna come to your showcases at this point. You have to go to them. If you plan on applying to these schools, right, because you think you can get in academically on your own, you still have to go to their ID camps and you still have to let them know that you're planning to apply to their school because if you do get into their school and they were recruiting you at the same time, they might let you walk on in the spring. There's really no walk-ons anymore in the fall. Or they may actually genuinely recruit you because they're saying, If you get into my school on your own, I'm going to save a spot for you on my team. If you want more help playing Call of Duty, give me a call. Links in the bio, and I'll talk to you soon.
