The Youth College Soccer Guy shares three ways to reach MLS NEXT and ECNL clubs: email highlight videos to every regional team, attend tryouts repeatedly and stay polite, and go to middle-school camps where college coaches give direct feedback. He got a full Division I scholarship after winning MVP three times at a UCSB camp starting at age 12.
3 ways for you to play MLS NEXT or ECNL if you want to one day play, if you want to one day play college soccer. I'm the Youth College Soccer Guy and I help you play MLS NEXT or ECNL. Number 1, I want you to email every single ECNL and MLS NEXT team in your region with a 1-minute highlight video. I don't care how old you are, that has to happen even if it's pre-ECNL or if it's the team that's not quite MLS NEXT yet but they have an MLS NEXT team one day. Make sure you make a 1-minute video and you go to try out for their team. Go to the tryouts many times. You're not likely going to make it your first time, so you're going to have to go to the tryout many times. So be very polite to the coach, and all emails should come from the athlete. Number 2, make sure you consider going to middle school camps. Don't go to like an IMG camp for fun or a Barca Academy for fun unless you plan on trying out for those teams and you want to eventually move to IMG or Barca Academy. Instead, go to a middle school camp where the college coaches are there. College coaches can recommend you to different clubs if they think you're a really good player and they want you to be on a better club so they can see you. You also get to ask the coach which is questions about what it's like to be a college soccer player one day. And most of all, your athlete will get to decide, holy bejeebers, I love this environment, I want to be a college soccer player one day. One of the very first camps I ever went to was a UCSB camp at 12 years old, and I told my parents, like, if I don't get to play pro soccer, because of course that's our dreams initially, I want to go to UCSB. I— they knew who I was. I went to their camp 3 times as a high schooler, and they told me I was the MVP of camp all 3 times, and I never got picked. I was never recruited. But at least I knew that's what I wanted, and that's eventually how a full ride to play Division 1 college soccer at a different school. If you want more help, give me a call. Links in the bio. Talk soon. Bye.
