A player from Chicago Fire MLS NEXT Academy with a 5.1 GPA learns how to land a college soccer visit. The coaches say a recruiting packet with a QR code and confident follow-up like "I will be there next Tuesday" gets coaches to watch your videos. Send 4 to 6 highlights and state your visit date as fact, not a question.
How do you get an official visit from a school?
This kid— so this gentleman went up to this coach, this is the UC Santa Cruz coach, and you gave him a piece of paper. What did that say?
Uh, that's my recruiting resume. I have a lot of things about my game and links to my videos and stuff.
Awesome. Where are you playing today?
Uh, where—
sorry, where are you playing today with my club? Yes, what club?
Chicago Fire, uh, the MLS NEXT Academy division.
Awesome. So did you tell him that you are looking at other schools? Did you say, hey, you're the only one for me?
I did not.
I did not.
We didn't talk about other schools because I left him if he didn't want to bring that up. But I did talk about that I was going to be touring a school next week.
Awesome. I heard that. And did I hear him say, by the way, very confidently, he said, hey, I will be there. Is that the tone you took from that?
That is hopefully the tone I took from that.
That's the tone. Guys, it's not always just about what they say. It's how they say it. I saw him. I was watching from the side. He goes, oh, I will be there next Tuesday. That's different than like, Yeah, like maybe I'll see you Tuesday. What player would you compare yourself to professionally?
If there's one you try to play like, I'd have to go with Ben White. Ben White, ooh, cuz he's a, he's a fullback, but he's got a lot of license to go up and down the field. He's trusted defensively, but he'll get up there and contribute to the— love that.
And look at this guy, literally shivering today. What a legend. And your GPA, final question, weighted is 5.1. 5.1, this is what we like to see. Awesome. See you, dude. Have a good one. Of course, I'm just knucksing. You can knucks me real quick and see you.
So having a pamphlet is really helpful. We create a pamphlet for all of our students. You put your QR code on there, you put your name. If you're sending it to a coach individually, you could write a little cover letter. You could do it with your pen and paper or you could type it out 'cause it makes it very personal. You should have those for showcases and for ID camps. You can hand it to the coach. It's really like a business card. It's not gonna get you recruited, but it makes you stand out a couple percentages. And now the coach has a physical piece of paper and he may pull it out of his backpack going, "Oh yeah, I remember that kid. Oh yeah, I remember his video." Oh, but the biggest thing in this case was that kid without an invitation told the coach, "I will be visiting your campus." That was the magic, 'cause then the coach said, "I better watch him today. I better watch his videos. He's coming to campus, which means he loves my school, and now I really wanna meet him." So that kid, assuming he's the level and they need his position, will get recruited by UC Santa Cruz. He did it. Great job, man. If you guys wanna know how to get official visits, one thing you have to understand is you must send typically 4 to 6 videos. So I want you to comment the word "review" and I can review your video to make sure you're ready to go for your official visit.
