How to be Marketable to College Coaches

The recruiting process for college soccer has become incredibly competitive. In order to stand out, high-school aged soccer players must take the initiative and establish relationships with coaches at their dream schools.

But what exactly do these coaches want to see? What can players do to gain their attention and prove that they belong on this team?

Here’s how aspiring college soccer players can market themselves to college coaches:

Video Content

A big part of marketing yourself is creating content that showcases your skills and personality. Today’s college coaches use videos to study players and make recruiting decisions. So, it’s highly recommended to create a quality highlight video containing some of your best moments on the field. To show your work ethic and commitment to improvement, you can also create videos of your training sessions or home workouts.

When you’re creating your highlight reel, don’t just put golazo’s or goal-saving tackles. The strikers coaches get excited about are often the ones that take advantage of defender’s mistakes and get tap-ins. For defenders, a goal-saving tackle might mean you were out of position. Make sure to show your whole game.

Curate Your Social Media Accounts to be Soccer First

College coaches use social media to study players as well. Because of this, you have to be very careful about what you post. While seeing you having fun with your friends is fine, seeing pictures of you partying isn’t going to make them confident that you’ll be able to handle your studies and your team responsibilities.

Focus your posts on soccer-related videos and other content that shows why you’d make a great teammate.

For example, you could post content showing your gratitude and support for your teammates and coaches. You should also follow the social media accounts of your top-choice schools along with public figures who share your values. Coaches may be curious to see who you view as a role model on and off the field.

Attend Events and Showcases

College camps give you the opportunity to put your talents on display in front of college coaches. Be sure to research the camps and showcases designed for your level of play. Coaches also want to see that you’re attending the most competitive soccer events in your region. So, if you’re attending a competitive club tournament, you should probably post photos or videos to announce you’ll be there beforehand and then document your attendance.

Personalize Your Emails

Now that you have your plenty of content to share, it’s time to reach out to coaches directly via email. The purpose of the email is to introduce yourself, show your skills (that’s what those videos are for), and talk about why you’re interested in this specific program.

For the introduction part, you’ll want to include all relevant information, such as:

•   Club team name and coach

•   The high school team and coach information (if you play high school soccer)

•   List 2-3 biggest strengths as a player

•   Your height and weight

•   Are you right-footed or left-footed?

•   Jersey number

•   Goals scored (if you’re an attacker or defender who is involved with set pieces)

•   Assists (if you’re an attacker or wing back)

•   Shutouts (if you’re a goalkeeper or defender)

To make your email stand out, it’s absolutely crucial to personalize the message. An email that is obviously a template you’ve copied and pasted to send to multiple coaches will instantly be deleted. Figure they’ll spend a similar amount of time reading it as you spent writing it.

So, do some research and find something about this program or the coach that you find interesting or inspiring. This can be about a game they had this season, their style of play, or you see that their starting left back (surprise! The position you play) is a Senior this year.

This takes time, and coaches know that. They will remember your work ethic if you’ve clearly done your research before contacting them.

Highlight Academic Achievements

Every college coach shares at least one thing in common: they want players who perform just as well in the classroom as they do on the field. If you don’t meet their schools’ academic requirements, your talent means a lot less to them.

So, in your introductory email, you can also share your current GPA, your best test scores on the SAT or ACT, your transcript, and any other notable academic achievements. This is another great way to distinguish yourself because at this stage, grades matter just as much as athletic ability.

If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to college recruitment, we are here to help. As former pros, we know how intimidating this process can be. But you don’t have to it alone. Let’s set up a mentoring session so we can develop a comprehensive strategy for grabbing the attention of your dream school.