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The College Recruitment Process

As a high school athlete you may:

Write or call college coaches as much as you want. Note Coaches may not return your calls to discuss recruiting information until July 1 after your junior year.

Visit college campuses at your own expense as often as you want.

A College Coach may:

Start sending you written recruiting materials beginning Sept. 1 of your junior year of HS.

Start calling you beginning July 1 after your junior year of HS.

Make a home visit no earlier than July1 after your junior year of HS.

Allow you to have an official campus paid visit after your senior classes of HS have started.

Must apply if you plan on playing D1 or D2. There is an application fee.

Apply after your first semester grades have been posted in your junior year of HS.

Athletic Scholarships

Division I institutions provide up to the maximum allowable scholarships in all the sports they sponsor. A fully funded men’s DI institution has 9.9 full scholarships available typically. Division II institutions provide both full and partial athletic scholarships to a lesser amount that DI. Division III institutions do not provide any scholarships based on athletic ability but do offer academic scholarships/grants.

College Recruitment Time Line: BE PROACTIVE!

Freshman Year- Start working on your soccer resume – play club all year round along with your High School team also if you wish start getting involved in ODP.

Sophomore Year- Start visiting colleges, meet coaches and have a list of 25 schools that interest you. Attend a college camp. Have a 1 page concise biography listing your accomplishments, academic profile, academic interest, contact info- email, projected playing schedule.

Letter should be personal.

Junior Year- Narrow down your list to 10-12 schools, inform coaches of your interest and when you will be playing.

Guest play with teams if necessary, build a relationship with coaches, and make sure they know you.

Attend the camp to get to know the coach and school better. Start narrowing down to schools you wish to attend. You might be ready to make a decision or a verbal commitment.

Senior Year- Take Official Visit if you want (5 max for D1).

You should be ready to make a decision by Xmas at the latest if not earlier.

Check out scholarships and other need based aid – worry about this last.

Look for the right school and worry about money last!

Exposure
Play club and High School- Play as many tournaments as possible and play in showcases to get looks from college coaches.

Make a DVD or tape and send it to a coach- this speeds up the process if you cannot be seen.

Create a YouTube video.

In addition or instead of creating a DVD, you can also create a YouTube video. Here are instructions on how to create and post a YouTube video:

1. Record game video (easiest to import with a digital camcorder)
2. Open preferred video editing software (MovieMaker, Movie Edit Pro, Ulead, etc)
3. Import your recorded video into the editing software
4. Using the editing tools, cut out the video sections that you do not want.
5. Mute the volume soundtrack to eliminate the game noise. (This was suggested by several college coaches)
6. Import music (mp3) into the video if desired.
7. When video is ready to be finished, export the video to wmv, mpg, or some other format that YouTube can accept. (AVI files tend to be very large)
8. Create a YouTube account if you do not have one.
9. Sign into YouTube
10. Go to the upload section and upload your exported video.
11. Set the privacy settings to the desired level (must be at least "unlisted" for coaches to be able to view)
12. Add any other information that you want saved with the video
13. Save the settings
14. Copy and paste the YouTube hotlink into your email that you plan on sending to the coach.
15. Coach should now be able to view your video simply by either clicking the hotlink or copying and pasting the link into their browser.

Here is an example video:

 

For More Information:

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