D3 Men's Soccer Recruiting 101

[Kuiper]

D3 Men's Soccer Recruiting 101

This thread is intended to provide a very high-level introduction to the D3 men's soccer recruiting process.  If you're on this board, I'm going to assume you're already interested in D3 soccer, so this isn't a "Why D3?" post, although I will mention some unique features of D3 which h may affect the recruiting process and may also speak to the appeal of playing D3 soccer.  Think of it as a nuts and bolts, how-to, type of thread.  With NCAA rules changing on the fly these days (often in response to legislative or judicial moves), it's always a good idea to confirm everything is still current, although I will try to update the thread as necessary.

[Kuiper]

What should you do and when?

1.   Watch games

This isn't a rule, by any means, but my advice is to start by watching D3 college soccer games (or really any level of college soccer) as early as possible, but definitely by fall of freshman or, at the latest, fall of sophomore year.  Taking your kid to watch a local game in person is a great way to get a sense of the atmosphere and the game-day environment and facilities, as well as to see what different campuses look like.  In addition, most D3 schools livestream their games for free on their website and many other levels air games on networks like ESPN+, FloSports (a few D3 conferences only stream on Flo) that you can watch if you are a subscriber.  Watching a game is a great way initially to get a sense of the different levels, and later to get a sense of different playing/coaching styles and quality within each level.  Too many kids insist they want to play college soccer, or they are only willing to play D1, without ever having watched a game, which is kind of crazy when you think about it. 

[Kuiper]

2.   Identify possible schools/conferences of interest

At an early stage, most kids and their parents don't know their options. You may think D1 is what you want, but you have no idea whether you could get a D1 offer or, even if you could, whether you would want it or if it would be from a school that you would be willing or able to attend given your non-soccer criteria and credentials.  Regardless of whether you and your kid are dead-set on D1, you should start by identifying a broad set of D3 schools and conferences that might be of interest to you.  Why?  Because D3 coaches can contact you and respond to your emails long before D1/D2 coaches can respond to you (June 15 of the summer before junior year).  If you want to consider schools at all levels, the worst thing you can do is think of D3 as a fall-back option.  It's better to think of your recruiting process as operating on parallel tracks.  D3 is the first out of the gate, so that's where you should start.  It's also the level where a decent number of strong schools have an accelerated pre-application and application process, so if you wait too long to turn to these schools, it may be too late in the process to get them interested in you.

How do you identify a broad list of schools when your kid may not even really know what they want in a school yet? 

If you really have no idea, you might start with conferences and a few of the common criteria students use in choosing colleges generally, such as proximity, academic prestige, size, etc.
 
For example, statistically most kids end up relatively close to home or at least want their parents to be able to attend a few games a season, so identify the nearby D3 schools that have men's soccer, look on their websites to find their conferences, and check out the conferences to learn more about the types of schools, their academic reps, and their soccer reputations (Massey ratings is one place that can give you a sense of the latter in a very general way - https://masseyratings.com/csoc/ncaa-d3/ratings?c=1).  Then you might put on your initial big list every plausible school in the same conference of the schools that are near to you.
 
Academic prestige is another sorting mechanism.  For example, many students apply to all the Ivy League schools because of the perceived similarity in academic prestige, even though it's kind of nonsensical given that the schools are dramatically different along many dimensions (size, urban/rural, academic strengths).  The D3 analogue might be the NESCAC.  Alternatively, you can use a ranking of national liberal arts schools.  Identify which have men's soccer, include all of the ones that seem to roughly meet your academic standards and look for other schools in their conferences that you might have missed.  It's an imprecise method, but it gives you a starting point. 

If, on the other hand, you know your kid is already laser-focused on a specific major that is not part of the common core, you can look for all the schools that offer that degree and offer soccer. For example, if your kid is interested in engineering, D3 might be the best place to do both, but only at schools that offer that option and you probably want a school with a big enough critical mass of those students playing soccer that the coaching staff is going to have to take seriously the need to arrange things to make it work.  The CMU, RIT, RPIs etc are great for that.
 
This is all an imprecise way to build a list, but it helps ensure you don't miss someone you didn't know about.  Better to be over- rather than under-inclusive at this point, because these are the teams you make a special point of trying to watch in Step one and contact in Step 4.  Part of the reason for creating a "big" list this early is because it might help you decide whether you really want to play D3 soccer.  After all, if you find out the majority of D3 schools are in the northeastern quadrant of the country and many are liberal arts colleges rather than a state's flagship big university, it might help you decide whether D3 soccer is for you.  On the other hand, if that's your only impression of D3, you may be surprised to learn that there are pockets of D3 schools in Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, Texas, the Southeast, and the upper Midwest that are outstanding.

[Kuiper]

3.   Marketing, not recruiting

The word "recruiting" implies that coaches find you and try to persuade you to come to their school.  That can happen in soccer, but not as often as you think (and it's usually because someone else on your kid's team did the hard work to get those coaches to come to your team's games).  College soccer coaches don't have a huge recruiting budget at any level and D3 coaches often have a smaller budget. 

Moreover, if the athletic coach is recruiting you without you contacting them and without you being sure that they have seen you play, it's possible that they are just trying to meet a quota from their Admissions Dept.  At some schools, coaches are basically Admissions liaisons in a tuition-dependent school where the school expects (and sometimes pays for) coaches to get people to apply to their school.  If they aren't contacting you to meet a quota, they may be trying to lure you into signing up for their ID camp, which often helps supplement the coaches' salaries (more about camps later).  If you send them an email first (and emails are the best opener in introducing yourself to a coach and school, although you might have texts and calls on once you have established a relationship), then they know you're at least somewhat serious, they can easily respond because they now have your email address, and you can gauge their interest by their responsiveness.

Even if coaches do have big recruiting budgets, they want kids who want them, who can get in academically, and can afford their school financially assuming normal financial aid availability.  They can guess all of that based on your family income (they check your zip code), high school, parents' educational levels, club (and club fees), but that requires some sleuthing on their part.  So, instead of recruiting, you would be better off thinking about this as marketing at the early stages.  You need to get coaches interested in you BEFORE they make the effort to see your kid in person even if your kid is on a team that travels to tournaments and events where the college coaches are in attendance.

More on how to do that in the next two posts

[Kuiper]

4.   Create a Highlight Reel

In Hollywood, they might call a highlight reel a "sizzle reel."  In business, they might call it an "elevator pitch."  Both are useful ways to think about a player's highlight reel.  They need to capture a coach's attention and they need to tell a story about your player that defines their "brand" or best features, and they need to do both before the coach closes your video and moves on to #567 of the 1000s of highlight videos they get ever year.   It can be as short as 2-4 minutes as long as you have a variety of clips that show off the best features of your kid's play at his preferred position and you put the best ones up front.  You don't have to wait until the end of the season or the end of the year to create a highlight reel.  You can create one every month if you have enough clips.  One benefit of that is it gives your kid an excuse to contact the coach with an "update" regularly.  That's marketing!

Do you need to buy special equipment to film your games?  No.  Most teams film their games using Veo or Trace or some other software.  The quality may not be first rate, but the views tend to be what coaches are looking for in terms of seeing the full field and understanding your player's movement on and off the ball and how your kid's team is set up.  I think it's helpful to have a few clips that zoom in a little closer on a player for closer angle looks, but that can come from your iPhone.  For certain positions, like goalkeeper, you can use an iPhone camera for the whole reel because the Veo-type cameras often don't stay on them long enough or don't get to them in time or zoomed in enough to see the save. 

Should you hire a company to cut the video and make it look snazzy?  It's not necessary.  Coaches want the basic information on the first screen (name, grad year, club, league, position, GPA, SAT/ACT scores (if you are at the age and you plan on using them), but they don't care and may be turned off by sound effects, slow motion, too many zoomed in shots, etc. 

Most players can do highlight reels themselves with easily available software.  If they can't, they can ask a friend to teach them.  Even if they never end up playing soccer in college, if they learn how to create a presentation involving text and video clips, they will have learned something from this process that could be very useful in real life long after their soccer career ends (welcome to slide show presentations!).  Plus, it will force your kid to look at video of their own games, which not enough kids do now despite the abundance of video available.  It's also what I view as one of the first litmus tests of whether your kid is serious about actually playing college soccer.  If they aren't motivated enough to watch their own games and pick out their best moments to show off to other people (which they can put on social media as well and impress their friends) are they really all that motivated to play college soccer?  The highlight reel is also better if the player does it themselves because they have a better sense of their best plays, what coaches praise about their play, and what style of play they want to be recruited for in college.

Rather than try to offer my opinion on what a great highlight reel looks like, Google the names of some of the recent starters playing your child's position at schools on your big list. You'll likely find the highlight reels of some of them on Youtube from when they were in your kid's position. The more you watch, the more you will see what kinds of clips work for your kid's position and how to differentiate a strong reel from a so-so one.

[Kuiper]

5.   Email coaches

After you have identified a big list of schools you are going to target, you need to contact them to introduce yourself, whet their appetite with your highlight reel, and start the relationship.  For many coaches, that is the first step in starting your "file."  At some schools, they may immediately respond and ask for additional information since they have no limitations on emailing you under DIII rules.  Some may even ask for your kid's resume (even in 9th grade - really, I'm serious - because they aren't going to waste their time on a player who isn't going to meet their school's admissions standards).

Who do you email?

Every coach listed on the coaching staff on the team's webpage in the athletics section of the school website.  And, to do it right, you should email all of those coaches individually.  Why?  Because if you email all of them, they might assume someone else will review it.  Plus, you don't know which coach is going to take the lead on recruiting.  It might be an assistant coach and the head coach comes in later in the process.  At a D3, plenty of the coaches could be part-time and only comes to practices/games, but it's hard to know that.  You also might catch the eye of one coach, who will fish your material out of the pile to show others.  Even if they are a volunteer assistant coach, they are going to have some sway with the decision makers.  And since some kids will only email the head coach, your email might get more attention from these other coaches than you might from the head coach.   

What do you say?

Subject line:  Market yourself!  Key features to get them to open the email.  Like "6'2" MLS Next CB, 2031 grad, 4.2 GPA"

Text:  Introduce yourself, explain why you are contacting them, school-specific reasons for why you are interested in them, and describe who you are and a few details that explain why they should be interested in you.

It doesn't need to be that long (they get hundreds or even thousands of these).  It does need to be from an email with an address that makes sense (e.g., name2031@), that your kid checks daily, and your kid needs to respond promptly to all responses, even if only briefly. 

What if they don't respond?

In the beginning, keep sending them regular emails/updates.  Shows continuing interest and mitigates the risk that your email will simply be lost in the cracks.  Schools often keep track of the contacts to gauge interest.  You don't want to go crazy and be annoying, but it wouldn't be odd to send an email at the end of your HS and Club seasons, after big successes, and to congratulate them on big wins or successes to show you're watching their games.  You can winnow your school lists down later, but if you are years away from senior year, it won't be surprising if they are prioritizing older recruits.  That doesn't mean they aren't keeping track of your interest and keeping those emails/links.

[more posts to come later, but this is a good start if you are still early in the process]

[EnmoreCat]

Very good stuff Kuiper and I do wish we had more of this insight when the journey first started back in 2018.  I do think the why D3 question is an important one and as an international consumer of American education (boosting the US trade position at Australia's expense and hopefully helping avoid the imposition of tariffs) I feel well qualified to offer an opinion if only from that perspective.  The perspective I have now, which I hasten to add, wasn't the same as when the process started, is that the level you play at is as important as you want to make it.  But then, I think that it's compulsory to be completely honest about what your standard actually is.  The instagram update that says you have committed to such & such Big 10 college could well be the highlight of your athletic "career".  It's not hard to find a roster at that type of school and D1 schools in general where a senior has hardly played.  That doesn't mean they haven't had fun, but in part they have sacrificed the potential academic benefit at the expense of what is essentially a "there for the ride" experience.  That's not to say that it will be any easier at a D3 programme, but at least in D3 you will have time to actually focus on the academic and lifestyle aspects of attending university, which is an important part of the experience and ultimately better sets you up in your actual career.   

Asking the current club coach and anyone else who is properly knowledgeable and most importantly, prepared to be honest, is super important, as is listening to the response.  Later on, asking prospective college coaches where they actually see the opportunity is crucial also.  It may be the case that you need to read between the lines, but listening to the answer is the key for me.  I have been helping a friend here whose son has just joined a D2 school and the response he got when asking that question was, "the team has underperformed in the position you play, we are trying to fill that gap and you will have the chance to be the solution".  No guarantees of course, but since arriving, he has already identified there is an opportunity, what happens after that is up to him. 

Ultimately, very few players, irrespective of the division, are going to actually have careers in the game as players, but perhaps have a better chance as coaches.  The average lifespan of a college player drafted to the MLS is one year and I recently heard a podcast where an agent said that players being drafted are essentially looking at spots 24 to 36 on an MLS roster and that is for the players considered rightly or wrongly as amongst the best in D1.  I understand there are player who beat those odds, sometimes from D3, but there are many, many more doctors, lawyers and engineers created than professional soccer players. 

So, my guide essentially distils to get to the best academic institution you can, taking into account whatever boxes need to be ticked on that side.  If you can identify five, for example, then start to look at their soccer programmes.  Is there going to be a big senior class graduating?  Who actually played and in the position you're looking at?  Were they freshmen or juniors, how did the team actually go?  Obviously, things worked out differently for EnmoreKitten, but when I was checking out programmes, I liked the idea of a well-ranked academic institution where there was a re-build taking place and therefore opportunity to play.  Four years of potentially not playing much is probably something no one expects wherever they commit, but it's kind of down the same path as what I think is very good advice, that is, if you were injured and unable to play, would that school be a place you want to attend?

I agree strongly that watching games is super important.  We had the chance in 2018 to watch D1, 2 & 3 games and spend time with coaches and players.  Whilst it was valuable and insightful, 6.5 years later, I truly can say I knew nowhere near as much as I thought I did and inside these forums, there are treasure troves of knowledge and experience that are easily accessible and can fast track your learning.  I would encourage you to reach out.

[Kuiper]

6.  Should you use a "recruiting service"?

In the last decade or so, a number of companies have sprung up to offer recruiting "placement" or "mentor" services for aspiring college soccer players (as well as in other sports and activities like theater and music that have specialized admissions processes).  The biggest one - Sports Recruiting USA - started as a service to help place international players in US colleges, including forming teams of international players to play and be scouted by US scouts in US and European/South American tournaments, and has expanded to provide similar services to domestic students.  Others are just one person shops with an Instagram/Twitter account and a phone.  Some provide social media help and produce highlight reels, while others are staffed by former college coaches who can scout your games at tournaments, offer an outsider's perspective on your level, and even provide tips on how to improve your game.  The costs can run from the hundreds to $3K+ depending upon what they provide.

Are they worth it?

If you view it as a counseling service, then they can be of some value.  Schools offer college counselors to help advise students on what they can do early in their HS years to improve their college applications in terms of courses and extra-curriculars, to give them information about financial aid options, standardized testing, and career pathways, and to help them select schools of different levels of selectivity that meet their criteria and help them to navigate the application and complete essays.  They don't, however, know much, if anything, about applying to college as an athlete and they are very unlikely to be able to help you select schools that meet both your academic and soccer criteria. Many school counselors don't even understand that you need to be on a different timeline than other students because of your recruitment.

Many, but not all, of the college soccer recruitment services can help fill that gap.  They can assess your soccer level, advise you on what to work on to help meet your goals, help you with the soccer equivalent of essays (highlight reels and emails to coaches), help you build your list of safety/target/reach soccer programs, help you strategize about ID camps (more about that later in another post) and help you select among possible options. They can also advise you on the timeline so you can alert your college counselors at schools and some even have training in the college academic admissions/FAFSA side and can help you there too (the ones that offer services to int'l college soccer applicants are particularly useful since they will know more than most people in your home country about the US college application process).  Many youth clubs offer some or all of those services for their players, and some HS coaches can as well, but if you don't have that or you don't feel it's adequate, a college soccer recruitment counselor can be helpful. 

If, however, you think you're paying $3K for someone to "place" your kid with a college program, especially a D3 program, it's likely not necessary or you're going to end up disappointed with the school or the soccer program.  That isn't to say that they don't technically "place" players.  Many of these services are provided by former college coaches who are reasonably well-connected and they might actually be able to call up a coach and get them to take a look at your kid based upon their recommendation.  Some college coaches who have fallen short in building their recruiting class call a service up and ask if they have players who can fit their needs.  So, it is possible that your kid could indeed be placed by one of these services.

In many cases, however, you are going to be "placed" at a school that would have been happy to have you if you had simply emailed them yourself.  Some might be schools that are desperate to fill their classes and could have financial stability or other issues that have led to declining enrollment.  Doesn't mean you couldn't get a great education at those schools or that it wouldn't be a great spot for your kid, but they aren't exactly selective.  Others might be decent academic schools with decent soccer programs, but the coaches are only willing to allow your kid to say they have "committed" to the school because they don't mind having a few extra practice/bench players if they can get in on their own academically and can pay their own way (and paying thousands for a college soccer recruitment service makes it sound like you aren't going to need much, if any, financial aid).

If you are "placed" at a school that is a great fit for you both soccer-wise and academically, chances are the coaches would have seen that if you had just contacted them yourselves with a nice highlight reel and they had watched you themselves.  This is especially true at D3 where they don't get as many emails as the D1 schools.  Parents and kids usually think the recruiting service's placement is going to be with a school above their soccer and/or academic level, but that's pretty unlikely to be the case.  At best, it helps your emails from slipping through the cracks, but so does being persistent and regularly contacting coaches even if they don't respond to the first couple emails (but only if you are contacting a school that is your level, both in soccer and academics).

[Kuiper]

7.  What about ID Camps?

In addition to watching your highlight reels and watching your club games at tournaments, you can get exposure to coaches through Identification ("ID") camps.
 
What are the advantages?

If your club team doesn't play at national tournaments and/or isn't in a league where there are showcases or playoffs that attract a lot of college coaches, this may be the only way that coaches will be able to see you play in person.  In some cases, this may be an opportunity for you to see a college campus in person and get a feel for the soccer program facilities and, depending upon how the camp is run, it may be a chance to see how coaches operate in a training environment and to get to speak with players in the program and get the scoop on how things run at that school, the coaches' style, and other general questions about college soccer such as how they balance soccer with academics and social life.  It used to be that camps were as long as 3-4 days, which allowed you to see what it would be like to live in the dorms and eat the food in the cafeteria as well depending on the camp's location, but those are becoming less common as schools switch to 1-2 days camps and sometimes don't provide housing.

What are the disadvantages?

They can be expensive.  Not only do they charge a fee for the camp that can run up to about $300-350 per day in the pricier camps, but there's the cost of travel, hotels, food etc.  They also can be time-consuming and exhausting, which can take away from real training and can increase risk of injury if you try to cram in too many in one trip.  If they are too big or are primarily designed to provide extra revenue to fund the program or the assistant coach compensation, the chances of identification might be pretty small.  There is also a risk that there are too many people at your position and you get shifted somewhere else and fail to impress.  Coaches will tell you that players often get moved to other positions in college, but at least players have some time to prepare for that possibility rather than being thrown in with no instruction with players who don't know each other playing an unfamiliar formation or system (or, more likely, no system at all). It's hard to stand out in those circumstances.

There are three main versions of these camps:

   1)  On-campus, single school.  These are camps run by the coaches/players of the school where the camp is located (they are sometimes run and operated by the head coach – with camp named after the name of the coach or the team mascot rather than the school – but that's typically to allow the coach to keep more of the revenues or because it avoids having to go through the school's red tape).  They are probably the best way to get an inside view of the program and to see how it might look to go to and be a part of that program.  The coaches design and run the drills and games and the players are there to help as "counselors" and available for questions.   They tend to be smaller because the coaches can only handle so many players.  The downside of these camps is they are inefficient.  You only get seen by one school's coaches and if they aren't impressed or they don't have a need at your position, it's just a camp, rather than an ID camp.  That isn't to say that you don't get anything out of it.  You get the chance to play a lot of small and large-sided games, get touches on the ball, and get an idea of what it might be like at that type of school (e.g., a small v. large school, DI v. DII v. DIII etc), but if you're going to jump-start your recruiting, there's an opportunity cost in the sense that you can't get money or time back to spend on a school that would have been a better recruiting fit for you.

2)  On-campus, multiple school.  One way to hedge your bets is to go to the camp of a school that is of interest to you, but that also invites coaches of other schools to attend.  You can get some of the same benefits as the single school camps in that it is hosted and run by a single school, but also increase your recruiting exposure.  The other schools invited tend to be non-competitors of the host school, either geographically or by division.
 
3)  Off-campus, single or multiple school "hosted".  This is another way to hedge your bets since there are multiple schools involved, but because it is off-campus, you lose some of the benefits of being able to visit campus and see the soccer facilities.  On the plus side, it might be in a multi-field complex that is near all the participating schools, which might make it a more convenient location for players to attend and provide more space.  Whether single or multiple school hosted, there is a college soccer program or programs invested in making sure it is a success, though.  In the West, the Elite Colleges Soccer Camp might be an example, since it is hosted by Occidental and its head coach, but they invite a bunch of other schools at multiple levels, including top DIII schools from the east, and they generally host it at a local sports complex rather than on campus.  They also have the coaches run teams/drills, which helps simulate some of the advantages you can from a single school camp in getting to know the coaching style a bit better.
4)  Multiple school, professional "host."  There are many programs that run soccer ID camps.  They might be on campus (e.g., Top Academic) or they might be at a multiple field sports complex (e.g., Soccer Masters, Future 500, Exact etc).  They are efficient in that they likely bring together more coaches from different programs than most of the other types of camps.  The downside is that no one school is invested in the program and the organizer is definitely focused primarily on revenue.  Doesn't mean you can't get recruited or noticed from the camps, but it might take more work.  If the coaches in attendance are the youngest and lowest status at their schools, they likely don't have recruiting responsibility and this is just a money maker for them.  Having said that, the same thing could be true for head coaches, many of whom just use it as a salary supplement and may not even pay attention much to what is happening on the field.

If I'm invited, does that mean they are recruiting me?

Many schools send out "personal" camp invites to everyone to try to drum up attendance.  If you know they have watched you play and inquired with your coach about you, then they might be truly interested.  If not, you might respond to the email and ask questions to gauge their interest.  Most coaches will be honest if you ask them directly given the cost/travel burden.
 
If I'm not being recruited specifically, is it still worth going?

Early on, it's definitely worth going to a couple of camps to gauge your level and get a feel for how camps are run so that you are more comfortable going to ones when you are being recruited.  It's also possible to get recruited without them knowing you ahead of time.  You have stand out, though.  If you have speed, that might get their attention.  If you are a GK and make a couple of great saves, command your box, and distribute well, that's hard for them to miss.  If you're a box-to-box midfielder who moves well off the ball, though, they might miss that.  In all cases, you should contact every coach who is going to be there and let them know you are coming.  That plus your highlight reel might cause them to look at you specifically during the camp, which could make the difference between being recruited or not.  You should also arrive early and walk up to each and every coach and shake their hands and introduce yourself.  Thanks them each after each day and at the end of camp.  You want them to remember your name/face.  Even then, you might still notice that certain strong players are always paired together or always sent to the main field or the head coaches' group.  Those are the ones who are already being recruited and the coach is using the camp to get to know them better.

[Ejay]

You should create a thread on how to stand out at a camp.  Every camp I've seen, there is a clear top 5% in talent, a clear bottom 10% in talent, and then 85% who are interchangeable.  Some might be great wingers but struggle to defend, some might be strong defenders but have a poor first touch, some might be good at everything but not great at anything, some might be super fast but can't shoot, etc, etc.  If you're in that 85%, what can you do to separate yourself from the group?