This guide covers what players, parents, coaches and technical directors need to know about playing varsity soccer in university at the NCAA or U Sports level.

Timelines

Note: These timelines are rough estimates. The sooner you start the better but also, it’s never too late.

Grade 9 (Freshman Year)

  • Have a talk with your parents about your soccer goals
  • Join a competitive soccer club

Grade 10 (Sophomore year)

  • NCAA D1: June 15th of your grade 10 year, coaches can start official communications
  • Contact coaches:

    •  
  • Attend showcase tournaments and camps hosted by college coaches
    • Some camps are fundraising opportunities for the program so make sure you do your research
    • Call the college coach and get to know their recruiting needs for your year and position

Grade 11

  • August 1 entering grade 11 -> officials and unofficial campus visits
  • Take your SAT or ACT
  • Contact your target college coaches and invite them to watch you compete
    • Email the college coach your full schedule at the beginning of the season and make sure to follow-up about 2 weeks before each event
  • Send your college coaches updates about your athletic, academic, and community service achievements

Grade 12

  • Continue communicating with coaches
  • Continue steps from grade 11 (junior year)
  • November -> Schools send official offers!

Grade 13 (Gap Year)

  • Some students who didn’t get recruited in high school might decide to stay an additional year to give themselves more time to recruit

Everyone Has their own Time: Sosa, Dredon, Quinn and Claire’s Story

Some of our mentors like Sosa Emovon started early and were recruited by the University of Michigan in Grade 10 (Sophomore year).

However, other mentors started a bit later and still got into a good school. Claire Moynihard got her offer to University of Arkansas on a gap year after her senior year. While Dredon Kelly, transferred to an NCAA D1 school after he was already in university in Canada. Quinn Stahmer was not heavily recruited out of high school, he decided to do another year of high school (grade 13) but then received a D1 recruitment offer in August entering his grade 12 year.

Source: The College Soccer Recruiting Timeline - Trace, All recruits should know these dates on the NCAA Soccer Recruiting Calendar - SoccerWire, Recruiting Rules and Calendars

Players and Parents Should be on the Same Page

  • Your parents will usually be your biggest supporter so make sure you’re on the same page
  • Your parents will spend most of the money, do most of the driving and are usually your legal guardians so make sure you are both on the same page
  • Fun exercise to test if you’re on the same page with your parents: Write down your soccer goals (play pro, play NCAA, play U Sports etc.) and your dream school or team,  ask your parents to write down the same without seeing what you wrote, see if your answers are the same
  • Recommend reading Building Trust with Parents

Picking a Club

  • If you want to play at the university level, you should aim to play at the most competitive level of youth soccer in your province or state
  • Even if you have good film, coaches often want to make sure that you’re playing against good competition
  • For example, OPDL in Ontario, BCSPL in BC, MLS Academy
  • If you can play for an MLS academy team, that is even better

Things to Look for in a Club

Action items for coaches and technical directors: 

On your website and social media pages you should have two things:

  • A dedicated alumni page showcasing your former players and where they went
  • A resources page showing what you do to support players (links to NCAA and U Sports sources, showcases your club plays in etc.)

What do the clubs consider as success?

  • See what resources the clubs provide for students interested in university pathways

Rena’s Story

Rena Nakajima played for a local club in X. When she reached out to coaches, they told her that the league her club played at wasn’t competitive enough. In her final year of high school, she joined Fusion FC which competed in the BCSPL, the highest level of youth soccer in BC.

Recruitment

Contacting Coaches

  • Draft introductory emails about yourself, why you want to join the team and your contribution
  • Upload skills videos on YouTube or social media accounts devoted to soccer and link it to the email for coaches to see
  • Publish your athletic recruit profile and video on third-party platforms (e.g. Rivals.com, 24/7 Sports, NCSA) for coaches to see
  • See appendix for a sample email you can send

Game Film

We strongly recommend that anyone playing competitive sports should be recording their games. In our opinion, recording games is one of the most important things every player and coach should be doing. I wish I recorded more of my games when I played. If you are a player, or parent reading this, take a break from reading this and ask your coach how you can start recording your games.

Beyond just for recruiting, it helps players and coaches improve their game and get feedback from others.

You also don’t have to spend time editing. You can just record the video, share with the players a link to the MP4 and they can edit their own highlights. 

There’s lots of companies that offer specialized video editing services. While those can be helpful, the most important thing is making sure you record good quality film and that you play well.

As long as you are willing to spend some time, you can use free editing tools like iMovie (Mac only) and ClipChamp.

Attending Showcase Tournaments and Camps

  • Showcase tournaments and recruiting camps can be helpful
  • Note: that many coaches also use these camps to raise funds for their program
  • The best camps to attend are those where you’ve been personally invited

Recruiting Services

There are lots of recruiting services that offer to help you increase your chances of getting recruited. Some of them are worth it, some of them take your money and provide you little value in return. It’s important you do your research and get the opinions of other people before you buy.

Academics

Scholarships

  • The average team has 30 players 
  • Typically only about 3 players will get a full-ride scholarships, the other 6.9 is shared amongst the players
  • Often stacked with academic scholarships
  • Scholarships are only guaranteed for one year
  • Ivy League schools don’t offer athletic scholarships
LeagueTuitionScholarships
NCAA$25,000

9.9 Full Tuition Scholarships (fully funded schools)

6.9 (partially funded schools)

OUA$7,000$4,500
Canada West$7,000Unlimited

Picking a School

Transitioning to University Soccer

  • playing time
  • Balancing school and sport

Transferring Schools

When you choose to join a program, most students think they will spend the next 4 years at that school. However, it’s common for players to transfer due to a variety of reasons.

  • Playing time. When joining a school, you want to be clear with the coach on what playing time expectations are

Life after University Soccer

  • Going Pro
    • Lots of examples of university players going pro
  • Grad School
    • Gives you another year of eligibility
  • Retiring
    • Sometimes the best thing is to bow out gracefully and start investing in the next phase of your life
  • Coaching
    • Easy for former players to get into coaching via the team you played for

Resources

Appendix

Sample Email

This is an email from Quinn Stahmer

Hi Coach ______,

My name is Quinn Stahmer. I am a goalkeeper from Toronto, Canada graduating in 2020. I play for Vaughan Azzurri SC. My head coach is Patrice Gheisar - (416) xxx-xxxx and my goalkeeper coach is Paolo Ceccarelli - (416) xxx-xxxx.

I am currently playing for Vaughan U21 in the Ontario Provincial Elite Soccer League (OSL).   

I am emailing you because I am extremely interested in the University of Alabama Birmingham! UAB is an incredible school and fits me perfectly in terms of academic success and athletic success. UAB really interests me because of the fantastic psychology program and how UAB plays their soccer. Possessively and with intent to go forward with every touch on the ball, as a goalkeeper, I am very comfortable on the ball at my feet, so this style of play is exactly what I am used to in my team.

 UAB is a really great school and I would love to learn more about the program you have going on here! I have attached a video showcasing some game highlights from my previous season for your reference!

https://youtu.be/iiJgB4HgkG8 (Adidas 500 Game Highlights)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aamqx7VI8VQ&feature=youtu.be (Crosses & Distribution)

My Profile: http://recruit-match.ncsasports.org/clientrms/profile/recruiting_profile/4764008

Are you currently looking for a 2020 Goalkeeper?

Thanks for reading - hope to be in touch,

Quinn Stahmer