Do these 5 things if you are a sophomore and want to play D1

What should you be doing if you are a sophomore, aka 15 years old, and you want to play college soccer? There are 5 things you really need to do, particularly as a sophomore, if you want to play college soccer. There's— of those 5 things, there's actually a bonus thing that I'm explaining at the end of the video, because once you understand the 5 things, then it'll make more sense to you. So the first one being, as a sophomore, I really would like to know what club level you're at. For the sake of this video, I'm gonna take an example of a sophomore I just spoke to. So they're playing MLS Next, they're a very good soccer player, they wanna play Division I, they're capable of playing Division I, and they have a pretty great budget, meaning they can afford most schools, and with their grades, they're gonna get a scholarship between $60K and $80K. So with this particular player, one of the things that stood out initially was their video was not good, meaning they were a good soccer player, but the way they put their video together It was not okay. There was no self-interview. The intro page wasn't professional. And college coaches really judge you on this. Now, it may seem small to you, but if you don't have a good video, the coaches are like, well, how supportive are the parents? If the kid made the video, then the parents aren't willing to invest money and they're going to have to pay for something at school. So I'm not going to watch this kid. Versus a professional video, the coaches go, okay, mom and dad clearly helped with this. Mom and dad clearly paid for this. Mom and dad clearly want them to play college soccer and are going to bring them to a camp or willing to fly them on a visit. Because remember, this is college soccer. There's not football or basketball. There's not unlimited amount of money. You are going to have to invest your own money into the potential of playing college soccer. So now I know that their video is not great, but the soccer part of the video which I got to see was pretty damn good. Like, I think they're a Division 1 soccer player. So given they're Division 1, now we have to create their plan. Now they have no phone calls from Division 3 schools, which is a huge red flag. 10th graders should have phone calls out the wazoo from Division 3 schools if they're truly Division 1 level. So given this is a Division 1 level player playing at IMG, they should have the top academic D3s all over them because those schools are done recruiting in your junior year. You don't get senior year. Division 1 schools are done recruiting by December of your senior year. Typically, if it's after that, there's no more money left, it's really uncomfortable, and they're probably looking at internationals or transfers. So given that, you want the Division 3 schools all over you. The other reason is leading up to June 15th, you want the schools to be be all over you so that way when you get a call on June 15th and you say, and they ask you, how's the process going for you? And they expect it to be going well because they're calling you on June 15th. You don't say, well, you're the first person I spoke to, and then they start doubting. Maybe I saw you at a showcase, but you had one lucky game and you're really not that good. Or maybe there's another reason other coaches don't like you. Maybe there's something wrong with your personality. You want to be able to go, no, I've already spoken to Appleby at Johns Hopkins or Singleton at Washington and Lee, you know, or the coaches at Carnegie Mellon, whoever it is, you want to be talking to those schools. So, the boys and the girls side. So having said that, sophomore year is all about Division III schools being very active. Now I would have gone to 2 to 3 Division I ID camps during your sophomore year. I would have gone to 2 to 3 genuine invitations to Division III schools, and I would have gone to 1 to 2 mass ID camps depending on your grades. In this student's case, they have a 4.0, so they're going to Masters, they're going to 60, they're going to top academic, as a sophomore. Remember, once you're a junior, you're no longer young anymore. Now you're just in the middle of it. And what makes Yamin Lamal, if you guys have ever heard of him, he's 17 years old playing for Barcelona as one of the best players ever. What makes him so special is that he's so good, but he's so young. You only get to be young once. Once you're not young anymore, your potential, the sky, the blue sky per se disappears, and you're really not anything special. You're just another player. Being really good really young is the secret. That's why the majority of my students are, are in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. We do have a couple 10th graders, and on the rare occasion I'll work with juniors, but I don't really work with other people other than that because the importance of starting so early if you want to go to a top academic and you want to go get a scholarship. So in saying that, uh, number 3 is now you've gone to your camps, you've got your video sorted, now it's all about how you respond to the emails. 80% of the time emails leave their cell phone number. You need to text them. 80% of the time the coaches will leave their social media. You need to follow them and you need to DM them. It's a constant follow-up process when we're doing this with our students because one email is never enough. You're gonna need 4 or 5 follow-ups just to prove to the coaches that you're really keen. Then number 5 is showcases. So showcases are really when things get exciting. So you've emailed them, you've gone to their camp, you've said, I'm gonna be at the showcase, and they respond to you with, we will be there to watch you, or we already like you, we just wanna confirm with you one more time. So when you then go to showcases for MLS next, etc. And the bonus that I want to show you at the end will now make sense to you is the showcases are key when it comes to playing college soccer. You need to be seen 4 to 6 times at a showcase and 1 to 2 times at a D camp. So that's a total of 8 times in person. That cannot happen if you start junior or senior year. That's just insane. There's not that many showcases and there's not that many ID camps unless you're willing to go to 10 ID camps of the same school, which would make it very difficult to go to other schools. So you need to start obviously as a sophomore, but you need to know that they have to see you in person to play Division 1 soccer specifically 4 to 6 times. Division 3 is about 2 to 3, and Division 2 is a little different because you can go on trial with the team. So if they like you after a trial, that could be enough. The bonus kind of thing that I wanted to talk to you about is if you go to my Instagram and you type in the word ECNL or MLS Next, you will be sent showcases that are with those two leagues. So you know where the showcases are for those levels, both for the girls and for the boys. If you want more help playing called soccer, give me a call. Links in the bio. I'll talk to you soon.