Syracuse soccer recruits primarily from MLS NEXT academies, so players outside that pipeline should get offers elsewhere first. When reaching out, include gap-year status and height in your subject line, express willingness to attend camp, and ask if they're recruiting your position. Coaches need 2 to 5 major showcases or ID camps before considering a recruit seriously.
How to get an email from Syracuse, a top 5 Division I school. If you want to play college soccer, I'm the College Soccer Guy. Let's get into it. So one of my students got an email recently from Syracuse, which is obviously a big deal. This particular student is playing MLS NEXT, scored a bunch of goals in the MLS NEXT Fest event, and is flirting with this level. So I guess the obvious thing is you must be the level. But they get lots of emails from many teams, from many players, from many coaches going, my player so-and-so. And Syracuse is the type that are recruiting professional soccer players. You know, their players haven't been known to leave Syracuse and get drafted or even go to Europe. So you're talking about high-level players. So if you're not playing in an MLS Next affiliated academy or even an MLS Next team, emailing Syracuse at this point, unless you're Gatorade Player of the Year or one of the better ECNL players, is a waste of time. If you really— your dream school's Syracuse, focus on getting other college offers first. Then when you email Syracuse going, I have offers from so-and-so, that will be very powerful if you're not playing MLS Next, or even if you are playing MLS Next, but just not for the Best MLS Next team, because that's who they get to recruit. Now, this particular student, this was the email that they wrote. So initially, our email was— it said this: Dear coach, I understand you receive many emails a day. I'm working on coming to your camp. Now, why did we say that? The reason we said coming to your camp is coaches are much more willing to invest time in you, whether it be reading your emails or watching a video, if they know you're willing to come to their camp. One, it's money. So they're like, okay, this is worth my time because this person's willing to invest. You know, my team uses the money I paid for myself. College coaches don't make a ton of money. That's number one. Number two, is they're going, well, I'm going to get to see this player in person, so it's worth me reading this email. May I confirm you are looking for a striker for the class of 2024? So we don't want to go to this camp unless they're looking for our position, obviously. So that was our ask, and that's a really good question. And we talk a lot about the difference between asking a good question and asking a question that gets a response, and that is both, which we love. I play for Chicago FC United MLS Next. I'm part of the 2024 class and will be looking to attend a program in the spring because this person was on a gap year, so we had to explain that. Then the coach said this: Zach, think— and Here was his subject line so you can see it as well. And we have here gap year, which is the point. MLS Next, he's 6'1", so we wanted to put that in there. His GPA is not a strong point, so we left it out. Zach, thank you for reaching out. We're looking for 3— and if you know if there's a typo, it's genuine— 3 or 2, I think is what he means— attacking players in this year's class. Good luck, and we'd love to work with you if your schedule permits. So this means he probably watched the video, maybe talked to somebody else about him, saw his resume through his subject line, and was like, hey, this player's legit, let's stay in touch. So now it's up to this player's job to be at the showcases, to send follow-up emails, to show this coach in person what he can do. With Syracuse, you're gonna have to be seen in person 2 to 5 times at very big events, not ID camps. ID camps would count as one of those. You have to be seen 5 more times theoretically. Now, do I know Syracuse's exact recruiting model? If the Syracuse coach watches my video and corrects me, please do so we can educate everybody. But traditionally speaking, they need to see you many times in person. That way you'll have the best chance of getting recruited. And these coaches again are talking to pro-level agents because that's how great Syracuse is. If you want more help playing college soccer, give
