A youth soccer coach explains why club tier matters less than exposure for Division I recruitment. He points to an ECNL RL player who got a D1 commitment, and says coaches care most about seeing you multiple times at showcases and ID camps, not your league's prestige.
Many of you may go, obviously, but what is the real difference? ECNL RL is kind of considered the B team regionally to National League ECNL, which is kind of the first tier. There are some ECNL teams that are way better than ECNL RL teams. The real question you need to ask yourself is, what events is your club going to? I just got off a call and this kid is playing ECNL RL and he explained, we're the first place team in our league and we're going to a showcase with a bunch of ECNL teams, can I play Division 1? I watched the video, I saw the kid, he's definitely Division 1. We just had a player commit to Utah Tech from ECNL RL. You have to go to showcases, you have to make video, you have to go to ID camps, you have to be seen many times over. The coaches don't care what club level you're at if you're really, really good. Now they can assume if you're playing for a high-level team, you're better and they want better players, but it really matters the exposure. So you have to talk to your club, what showcase events are you going to, and then you as yourself have to go to ID camp. If you want a list of all the camps that I recommend, comment camps and I'll send you an entire list of every single ID camp that I recommend.
