A coach tells junior soccer players three recruiting mistakes: chasing Division I too late when top Division III schools stop recruiting by fall, not making 4-6 highlight videos or following up with coaches, and wasting time at mass ID camps instead of invitation-only ones. Division II and III camps actually watch players.
If you're a junior playing ECNL RL, do not make these 3 mistakes. Number 1, if you're only aiming for Division 1 schools playing ECNL RL as a junior this late on and you don't have a significant offer, then there's a very good chance you're going to miss the boat for college soccer. The top academic Division 3s will be done recruiting through August and November, so you basically have this summer to get recruited, and you're probably not on the top of the list if you've been ignoring them up to this point. Number 2, if you can't go to an ID camp because of vacation or school or studying, this is why video is so important. You have to have 4 to 6 videos, and coaches are not going to respond to you right away during this process. You're going to get— you have to punch them in the face over and over again to get them to finally respond. And that final one I was talking about regarding camps, so given you're a junior playing Easton RL, you must go to genuine invitation camps. Typically recommended would be Division III and Division II. You can go to Division I, of course, but don't go to like a mass ID camp with multiple schools unless they specifically have told you genuinely, we want you to come to this camp so we can watch you. If they could have talked to you beforehand, you'll have a much better chance, which is hence why I'm saying focus on the D3s and the D2s who are more likely to respond to you regarding genuine interest. If you would like a list of ID camps to go to in your state, comment the word, the initials of your state, for example, IN for Indiana, and then the word camp. Make sure it's one word, so INCAMP.
