Do College Coaches Stop Recruiting in the Fall?

Do college coaches stop recruiting for the fall season? And so you don't really need to send any emails and there's not really that many ID camps. So surely college coaches are done recruiting. So at the end of this video, I'm going to tell you kind of the most important story that I have of a player of mine who, of course, got recruited during the season. I want to explain their story. But before I do that, there's really 3 things I want you to know. The first one being that 80% of the recruiting process is actually done during the fall season. So I say recruiting, the offers being made. Happen during this time of year. And the reason for this is you guys are applying to schools. If you're doing ED-1, which is typically, you know, November 1st or November 15th for ED-2, your coaches already want you to know that you're going to get in because they already would have done what's called a pre-read. For a brief description, a pre-read is where a college coach would have taken your transcript and sent it into academics and said to academics, will this student get into school assuming they get my help as a soccer coach? And how much money will they receive academically? Then the academic department goes back to the coach and says, this student is definitely able to get in. And if you, you don't need to help them, so they'll just get it on their own. Or, coach, you would have to use one of your strikes on them. And also, you know, this is the academic aid that they're looking at. And the coach could go back to them and say, I really want this one. Is there any more academic aid you could give them? And they'll go back and forth. Anyways, the point is that that all will happen before the fall season, before you apply to schools. So in the case of most students, they will go do an official visit during the fall. The coach will get to Show them the experience that you will receive as a college athlete because it's during the fall season, which is the most important part of the year, something you need to experience before you're willing to say commit to a school. And that's when the offers will come. Number 2 that I want you to know is you need to get to know the players and the coaches. And there's really no way to do that in ID camp. There's no way to do that at a showcase. You have to go on an official visit. You must sleep over at least one night, maybe two at a max, where you get to experience being a college athlete at the school, where you would spend a night with the players, you would meet the coach, you would eat with them, you'd go to the locker room with them. And to get this, what we call an official visit, or a visit where you sleep over with the team, this happens during the fall season because coaches don't really want you to sleep over during the spring. They're just doing fitness all year and it's not very fun looking and it's just not the epitome of the year. The epitome of the year is during the fall season. And number 3 is if you decide during that visit you don't like the experience. Like, I went on 5 official visits. I didn't just get one interest and then say yes. I went to Hofstra University for one of them and I remember so vividly It was the night before the game and the players were drinking and there was a roommate who we like locked out, passed out. We drew on his face and it was very fun. And I remember thinking as a 17-year-old high school kid, like, this is crazy. But that wasn't the environment I wanted. I wanted like super serious. I did not want there to be silly. And my roommate actually scored the game winner despite, you know, staying up too late that night. And it was still really fun and cool. But that was not the experience I wanted from my experience. Then I went on another visit at UC Irvine. I wanted to go to that school. I wanted them to say yes, and they did not say yes to me after the official visit. And then I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and I really liked the coach, and they did make me an offer, which they later rescinded. And then I went to Valparaiso, which the coach and I basically loved each other. I loved the players, and I was offered a full ride. So I went on many visits before I got to the school I wanted. And I knew when I picked Valpo, because I'm from Malibu, California, and Malibu was not my dream school, I needed to be sure I would love this program. And the way I was able to know I loved it was because of my official visit. So when it comes to the fall season, most everything happens during the fall. But the hard thing is it doesn't happen during the fall, meaning you have to do all this work before the fall. So 6 to 8 months prior, emails, camps, showcases. Then the coaches will say to you, hey, we want you to come on a visit during the fall. We'd love to have you here, et cetera, et cetera. So that way you can be part of our organization because we want you here. And that's like a key component to this entire process. And then finally, if while, you know, we're working, you're working through this and you go to the falls, of official visits and you go, I need to watch their style of play. You know, what if they play terrible soccer, which some colleges really do? You might say, you know what, it's terrible, but the coaches expressed to me that the ball will be kept on the ground when I'm on the field because that's my style. Or you might go, wow, I'm really going to touch the ball like all the time. They play great soccer, the coach is a great person, this is the place I want to be. So the fall season is really— most of the recruiting process is actually done during this time. In terms of official visits and offers. What I want to also add is this is kind of like Jenga. So you know that big Jenga game, you take something out and then everything falls? You know, during the spring and the summer, you're taking pieces, but it's just wiggling. Like, no decisions are being made, nothing's happening. You're making it happen, right? That's why you have to take out the pieces. But the fall, when you take out that piece during September, October, November, December, now things are happening. Now it's crazy. Now things are, are really busy, and you're like excited, and When you take a piece out, the pieces of the Jenga thing fall. That's like decisions we make. Here's an offer. Oh, I want you to come on a visit. You know, the fall is when things happen and you want that to happen during your junior year. If you can get that happening during your junior year, you're probably going to play Division I soccer. If it's happening more towards your senior year, then it could be a wide range of Division I, Division II, Division III. But the fall season is really where the majority of actually the recruiting process is being done. If you are watching this video and you're like, I'm not getting any interest and you're not sure why, comment below and tell me what you think is wrong. You can just say, look, I don't I don't know if I have enough video, or I don't know if I'm playing at a high enough club level, and I will try and respond to you in the comments. If you want more help, book a call, and I'm happy to talk to you and your parents. Okay, talk soon.