How to Get Recruited for Women’s Soccer

“If you are good enough, you will get recruited” it is a belief held by many recruits, but unfortunately it is not the reality. College coaches know what types of athletes they want, but their real problem, is where they can go to find them. The biggest misconception for most high school athletes bleeds into everything they do to get recruited. And with thousands of high school athletes in each sport, it is just not possible for coaches to find every athlete who might be a good fit for them.

The most competitive college programs throughout Division 1 have great resources to recruit but are looking for a specific type of athlete that is easily identifiable at all the top tournaments, camps, and competitions. Coaches of smaller programs “and there are a lot more smaller programs than bigger ones”, do not have the resources to find every athlete that might fit on their team. The recruiting game for most athletes will be about targeting the right schools and learning how to promote yourself to get offers you are happy with.

To get recruited for women’s soccer you will likely need to promote yourself to the right coaches, and this is exactly how you should do it.

Scholarship Limits for Women’s College Soccer

NCAA D1: 14 (equivalency)

NCAA D2: 9.9 (equivalency)

NCAA D3: Non-Scholarship

NAIA: 12 (equivalency)

1. Know how college soccer coaches recruit their team

College soccer recruiting can start as early as high school freshman year. The programs at the top of Division 1 will look to identify talent even before some athletes are in high school through travel tournaments and talent showcases like high level camps. The top events are normally held by either Elite Clubs National League (ECNL), Olympic Development Plan (ODP) or the National Premier League (NPL). Though they cannot contact these athletes directly, they can still make it clear in a few different ways that they are interested. These athletes will effectively set the standard for recruiting since they will normally be ranked as the top recruits. From that point on recruiting becomes a comparative analysis of who is the best player to recruit. Coaches will essentially look to see, who did you play against, and who did you beat to determine how good a recruit is. The more dominant a player has proven against their peers, the more coaches will be looking to recruit them. High school soccer is a part of this, but travel soccer takes the lead, particularly with major tournaments making this process much easier for coaches because they can see a lot of talented players in one place. If you are not being approached by coaches in a travel soccer setting, you will likely need to reach out directly, gathering as much information as you can about your career to show coaches you have what it takes to help their team’s win.

2. Start your recruitment journey as soon as you begin high school!

Soccer competition prior to high schools is supposed to prepare you for high school sports success. This means that accomplishments made before that point will hold little weight with college coaches. Coaches will often not consider a recruit until they are a contributor on the varsity level. In fact, most freshmen who are able to excel in varsity sports are typically on their way to consideration at the higher levels of college sports. If you are not yet on the varsity as a freshmen do not panic. It is still time to learn as much as you can about the recruiting process, and set goals for your training and performance. Most high schoolers don’t begin thinking about how to get recruited until at least their junior year. However, by that point, most college coaches have already identified many of the athletes they will be recruiting, and you will be playing catch up.

3. Approach your recruiting process with a business mindset

To get recruited you will essentially engage in a never-ending job interview. Coaches talk to recruits for almost two years prior to their commitment and follow them for even longer throughout their high school career. Consider that coaches do not just recruit talented athletes but rather someone who can fill a role on their team. Approach your sports career with a business-like intentionality behind your training, preparation, and self-presentation in order to gain and keep interest from college coaches. If you fail to plan, you will plan to fail. Sports scholarships are won during summer training, morning workouts, and evening weight sessions long before a coach offers them. In fact, the difference between recruits at the highest levels and those below, are they often have attended more camps, tournaments, and competitions maintaining a higher level of success.

4. Research athletes on college teams and see how they have performed to know if you might be a good fit

There are more than 1000 NCAA member institutions, not to mention many other NAIA, NJCAA, NCCAA, and USCAA college athletic departments. However, most high school recruits are looking to get recruited for teams that they have seen on television or have only a little knowledge about. College teams are not hiding the information on what types of athletes they recruit. On their athletic websites, you can research the high school statistics and other information about the athletes currently on their team. Look up athletes at your position and view the accomplishments those athletes had before they were recruited. If you research correctly, you will find teams that have athletes with similar high school profiles to yours.

5. Listen to coaches who do not offer you a full-ride scholarship

The harsh reality is that most college athletes do not receive any scholarship money for their sport. Soccer is a sport where even Division 1 teams will not give out full-rides to their entire roster, and there is no guarantee that a recruit will get offered one anywhere else at the collegiate level. If you are a high school student with a great GPA and standardized test scores to match, you can put yourself in great position to receive academic aid. College coaches will often look for the best students because they know that if they can only offer a partial athletic scholarship, that money can be combined with other academic aid to pay for the student’s education. Always remember that the lower your grades are, the harder it will be for you to find a college coach that is willing and able to recruit you.

6. Learn how to promote yourself to get recruited

Once you are at least a contributor on your high school level sports team, you should be prepared to reach out to schools via e-mail and through filling out recruiting questionnaires on athletic websites, communicate with coaches that you want to be recruited. I recommend that you create a free recruiting webpage but it is a mistake to think that any app or website will “get you recruited”. The link to the information you upload can be sent in an email to college coaches to make it easier to see who you are and help you get recruited. If you only create a profile, or worse wait for coaches to find you on social media, you will more often than not go under recruited, or un-recruited at all.

7. Take every opportunity to develop your skill and compete in tournaments and showcases as possible

The most important thing that will help you get recruited to play in college will be showing coaches that you are able to help their team win. The more opportunities that you can get to compete against quality competition, the better your chances of showing coaches that you can help them. Traveling to different competitions both in your area and outside of it will increase your chances of getting seen by coaches and give you a better understanding of how good other athletes are at your age. There is a big difference between being the best in your county, and the best in your state. Though you do not want to risk injury or burn out, it is important to prepare yourself to be able to handle a long and challenging competition schedule. Also if you want to play college sports the demands on your time will be significant. Athletes who have not competed as much outside of high school will often struggle to adjust to the amount of training and competition required at the college level.

8. Film your competitions and edit highlight film

Although traveling to compete in front of college coaches is important, the reality is that coaches will not be able to see you play most of the time. In order to get recruited for college sports you will need to show coaches what you are capable of by any means necessary. Game film is very important in soccer recruiting and without it, most coaches won’t take you seriously. With smart phones it is has never been easier for high school recruits to film their own competitions. Do the best you can to film all of your competitions which will make it much easier to show coaches what you are capable of. And edit highlight film to make it quick and easy for a coach to see what you can bring to the table. A good film showcases high level skill, efficiency, and dominance in under 5 minutes. Theatrical highlights are cool to watch but they do not often showcase what the coach is trying to see. Any highlight film should showcase your top 3 skills and focus on only a few competitions from your season rather than every big play to show coaches how you can make an impact on their program.

9.  “Set up your social media account to represent you well as a recruit

College coaches typically don’t use social media to “discover” new talent. They identify athletes they like from watching competitions, emails, recruiting questionnaires, recruiting profiles, camps, and other more efficient sources. However, if a coach is interested in  you than social media is normally much easier to find and reach out through, compared to tracking down a phone number or e-mail. Coaches who follow an athlete or engage on social media are normally not trying to watch your latest highlights, they should be able to see who you are as an athlete elsewhere. But they do want to know what type of character you have. Your profile should use your real name, and in your bio give your physical stats like height, HS Grad date, your high school, and the sport and position you play. Profile pictures should be of you competing and recruits should only use social media accounts to post content they would feel represents them in a professional manner. Social media will rarely be the reason someone gains interest from a college coach. But it can become the reason they lose interest.

Get the Soccer Offers you Deserve!

Navigating the recruiting process is hard work, but you don’t have to do it alone. Don’t go under-recruited! Get help to know exactly which colleges already want to recruit you, which ones will view you as a top recruit, and how to get their attention. Let SCA help you GET THE COLLEGE SOCCER OFFERS you deserve.

Coach Rob is a recruiting expert and the Founder of SCA Recruiting. He is also the author of the book Winning the Ship: How to Win the College Athlete Recruitment Game. Available now on Amazon.