Advice needed. Please HELP

[Jonathan Castano]

All,

Hope all of you are having a great soccer season. I am in need of advice, and some help regarding college recruiting, and getting players to the next level. I have been approached by a few players along with there parents from the club i coach for, in regards to advise on how they can get there child recruited or seen to play collage soccer. my knowledge in this matter is slim but I was willing to help the players, and due to that is why Im turning to my NSCAA Family for advise, hints, help or any kind of information.

before i get into details I decided to do some research on what the club is doing to help players reach the next level, and to my surprise aside from a "player centric" program nothing is being done. I am pretty upset that there is NO college liaison to assist our boys in getting to the next level, here at the club. It seems, however, that once they reach U17-U18 they are being abandoned and no help is being provided. I Believe that one aspect of player development should also be OFF the field in helping them make decisions regarding the continuation of Soccer at the next level, and how to go about getting recruited and developing college coach communications, but none of this is done.

With all this said. Is why im turning to all of you for help. at this moment on our U-18 Boys team we have 4 boys that have a good shot to playing college soccer based on there skill level. unfortunately, the club is not putting any effort on getting these boys seen, and the boys have no clue what to do, as the club does not provide them with any information or guidance on how they can contact College coaches. or how they can sign up for ID camps of any type to be seen and hopefully recruited.

I guess my questions are,

how can players contact or develop some type of communication with college coaches?
what can be done to get these boys seen?
what needs to be done to get them recruited (if they do have the skill to play at the next level) ?
as a coach what can i do to help these players? knowing they are not playing big tournaments where they can be seen.


im sure there's more questions i should be asking but like i said above my knowledge in this subject is very slim and reason why im turning to all of you for help

again i hope all of you are enjoying the soccer season and are doing great, hope to see some of you soon at the convention. apologize in advance for taking some of your time.


thank you in advance for the help


Jonathan Castano

[Ryan Spears]

1) Work butt off to become a good player and student.
2) Make a 3-5 minute highlight video and upload it to YouTube.
3) Find schools they are interested in, send personal email to each coach, with link to video, expressing interest in that specific program. Include academic information.

If they are good enough then someone will pick them up, if not and they still think they can play then they should inquire about a try out and go prove it!

P.S. You gotta at least get them to attend one or two showcases. I recruit female soccer players and they play at least half a dozen each year. Soccer programs don't have large recruiting staff/budgets, therefore we must resort to value recruiting, which means showcases.

[Osama Hamid]

Jonathan,
You bring up some great questions. Education has to be the top priority so encourage your players to pick a school they like based on their studies. From there the key is exposure. Encourage your players to market themselves by going to the ID CAMP that most colleges offer. Go on an unofficial visit and meet the coach, learn about the program they want to join and show a genuine interest in why they like that program. College coaches have rules on how and how much they can communicate with recruits and when they can do it so it's a good idea to get this information as well. I'm happy to talk with you more.
Osama Hamid
osamah@cos.edu

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