An 8th grader in ECNL soccer can get recruited to Division I by attending ID camps and emailing coaches beforehand, watching the target school's fall games, and staying visible through regular contact over four years. The speaker references Yamin Lamal as an example of a player who stood out at camps.
If I'm an 8th grade playing ECNL, here are the 3 things I would do if you want to play Division 1 soccer. Number 1, go to the ID camps. Now we want you to email the school before you're going to go, but maybe they'll pay attention to the email, maybe not because you're an 8th grader. But you're not just any 8th grader, you're a really good 8th grader, right? You're playing at one of the highest levels in the youth system in the United States. So when you go to the camp, you will be one of the better players there and they will put you with the older age group. And now you are what we call a small fish, big pond, meaning you're the— excuse me, big fish, small pond. You're the big fish in a smaller level pond, but because you're playing ECNL, you're going to have the chance to play with older kids and the coach will be like, we remember you more than the kids who are in juniors because you're the Yamin Lamal of the camp. Everybody loves the idea of potential. So if you're showing coaches that you have all this potential and you don't know where it's going to be, it allows the imagination to go wild and college coaches love it. Hence why we all love Yamin Lamal. There's lots of really good soccer players, but he's 17 for Christ's sake. That's what's so incredible about it. Number 2, go to games in the fall season. If you've been to, sent an email, you've gone to an ID camp, and then you show up at their fall game in 8th grade, you basically guarantee they're gonna remember who you are. So now from 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th, you're gonna send them emails, you're gonna invite them to showcases, and they're gonna come watch you and they're gonna know who you are, and there'll be very little stress involved. You can get injured, you cannot play minutes, because you've started so much earlier. If you want more help, give us a call. Links in the bio. Talk soon.
