NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

The first day of school is right around the corner; did you use your summer wisely? In addition to family vacations and relaxing, as a future collegiate athlete your summers should also include camps, tournaments, researching schools, contacting coaches and going on visits. If your summer didn’t look like this, you will need to make up for it this fall.

Coaches will be back on a regular schedule in their office so you should have an easier time reaching them than you did over the summer. However, you need to remember that they will be in season so they will be extremely busy. You will need to be more persistent with coaches, more than any other time of the year. Don’t give up on a school if you don’t hear back from a coach right away. If it’s been a couple of weeks, send the coach a friendly reminder email and ask your questions again. It would also be a good idea to try calling them, but keep in mind their practice times.

The fall is also a good time to take visits. School will be back in session so you can see campus at its liveliest time. You will hopefully have an opportunity to tour the campus and sit in on a class so you know what to expect in the coming years. It’s also a good opportunity for you to go watch a game to see the level of play and how the team is coached. This is one of the best times of the year for visits, so do your best to take advantage of these upcoming months.

In addition to taking campus visits you will also need to increase your outgoing contacts to coaches. You should be contacting coaches to let them know of your interest and of your desire to visit campus. Even if you aren’t sure you have enough interest in a school to visit, you still want to contact coaches to get to know them and their school. It’s time to get disciplined again, not only with your school work, but with your recruiting as well.

I speak with 30-40 families weekly about college recruiting and I’m amazed at the lack of knowledge of the APR – Academic Progress Rate. Here is a very long article that is a must read for any parent of a 9th grader, or older, who has aspirations to play in college. It details the 4 stages of penalties for athletic programs that the NCAA imposes should their athletes not make progress toward graduation. If you have questions, go here.

The season for college soccer is right around the corner. This is when players start reporting to camp and start 2-a-days. If you are thinking about playing college soccer my biggest recommendation is to get out and watch some games. If you think you want to play DI soccer, go watch a DI team play. Before you go do some research.

1) Go to the team’s athletic page and see who they are playing. Also, see how the team has been doing all year.
2) Read the coaches biography. See where the coach comes from, how long has he been coaching for, what are his/her accolades.
3) Look at the team’s roster. If you play forward look at how many strikers they carry on their roster, when are they graduating, read their biography, etc. Really get to know what types of players that coach recruits and get an idea if you would fit in.

The more research you do and games you watch the better of an idea you will have. You need to be realistic and make sure you are looking at the right schools. You do not want to waste the coach’s time or your time, so get out and watch some games!

NCSA would like to welcome two new members to our team, Soccer Recruiting experts Tim and Taylor Twellman.

Tim Twellman

After a standout college career at Southern Illinois University, in which he played both soccer and baseball, Tim went on to play professional soccer for 10 years in the NASL for the Minnesota Kicks, Tulsa Roughnecks and the Chicago Sting. Currently, he is director of the Twellman Soccer Academy. Tim brings over 35 years of on the field and off-the-field soccer sales and marketing experience.

Taylor Twellman

After two seasons at Maryland Taylor Twellman set off for Germany to play professionally.  Today, Taylor is one of the premier scorers in the MLS.  He was the fastest in league higstory to 100 goals and was the runner up for the 2002 MLS MVP.  He has also earned 30 caps and six goals for the US National team.

Would you ever let your high school coach call a college coach to promote you? What role do you think a high school coach should play in your recruiting? Thoughts…..

With the recent success the US Team had in the Confed Cup do you think it will continue or was this just a fluke?

Right now is the most critical time in the recruiting process where coaches are expecting phone calls from players. If you haven’t started you need to start ASAP. You need to start separating yourself from other recruits on the coaches list.

In order to be adequately prepared for a call with a coach, there are a couple things you must do. You should first think about the following areas: your overall tone, your confidence level and your leadership ability.

Most importantly, you need to make sure that you are enthusiastic when talking to coaches! They will be able to sense if you are doing something else at the time or if you really don’t want to be talking to them. It can be an easy way to lose out on an opportunity and you don’t want to risk it.

Before you have your first live call with a coach, you need to have a couple practice runs.

1. Call coaches at schools you are not interested in, talk to that coach and see how you do. You have nothing to lose since you aren’t really interested in that school.
2. Role play with a teammate, friend or parent and go over the questions you are planning to ask as well as the questions coaches usually ask.

In terms of leaving voicemails:
1. Practice leaving voicemails for coaches on your cell phone or house phone.
2. Listen to your voicemails, would you call yourself back? Goes back to tone and you need to get used to paying attention to this.

When it comes time to actually calling a coach, you need to make sure you have written down your list of questions to ask the coach and you want to have a pen and paper ready.

It is important to have a pen and paper ready!

1. To be able to write the answers to your questions and the questions you were asked
2. You will be more prepared to ask your questions
3. You will remember everything a coach tells you.

If you are prone to saying um or like when you get nervous, it may help to have a note for yourself that reminds you not to say it or reminds you to be enthusiastic. These things are very easy to forget about when on a call.

If you’re a student-athlete who wants to play your sport in college you will have to work very hard to become the best student and the best athlete you can be.  It’s too competitive for you not to give 100% effort in both of those areas you have total control over.  If you give any less, there are plenty of others who are out-working you today.  Now that is a very challenging proposition in which you expect to be rewarded for that hard work.  Unfortunately, after all of that hard work, you DO NOT get to choose your school.  The school chooses you. 

Now there are exceptions to this reality.  One percent of student-athletes are “blue-chippers” who are recruited by the top-tier, name-brand schools.  However, the vast majority will not be able to choose their number one choice school.  This harsh reality is more harsh for those of you living west of the Mississippi River.  The vast majority of athletic programs at 4-year colleges and universities are located east of the Mississippi River.  As an example, there are only 28 four-year colleges who play football in California.  Whereas, in Pennsylvania, a state with less than half of California’s population, there are 82 four-year colleges who play football.  There are a lot of talented football players in Arizona.  However, that state only has 3 four-year colleges who play football.  

A student-athlete can find a GREAT school that is the perfect fit.  But they have to be willing to play anywhere that has their required academics.  If you are not willing to play at any school that matches your academic needs, you’re really not serious about playing in college.  You should quit spending your parents money on travel ball, camps, lessons, equipment, etc.  The flip side, if you’re serious, you need to be involved with hundreds of schools – just so you’ll have a chance.  Are you serious about playing in college?  Are you sure?

I’m always amazed at what people’s definition of recruiting is.  Some think they are getting lots of interest when in fact they are among thousands on a college coach’s mailing list.   Below is a list of check points to see where you are.  If you’re a 2010 student-athlete and you’re not at a 4, 3, 2, or 1, you’re behind your peers.  If you’re a 2011 graduate and you’re not at a 7, you’re behind your peers.  If you’re a 2012 grad and you are not at a 10, you’re behind your peers.  If you wish to catch up, click here.

YOU means the student-athlete, not the HS coach or club coach.

1. Have YOU received a full or partial scholarship or grant & aid offer in writing from your dream school?
2.  Have YOU received a full or partial scholarship or grant & aid offer in writing from any school?
3. Have YOU received a full or partial scholarship or grant & aid offer made verbally from any school?
4. Have YOU been offered or taken an official visit?
5. Have YOU received a video and/or transcript request from a college coach?
6. Have YOU received phone calls from college coaches?
7. Have YOU been offered or taken un-official visits? 
8. Do YOU receive personal, handwritten letters from college head coaches on a regular basis?
9. Do YOU receive emails from college coaches on a regular basis?
10. Have YOU received questionnaires or camp information from college coaches?

NCSA’s own Kellen Mulldoon, a 2009 graduate from Wisconsin, is sharing his recruiting story with you. He recently signed his NLI to play soccer at University of Massachusetts – Amherst. As you will read, Kellen worked extremely hard at his recruiting and it paid off here is his story…..

The college athletics recruiting process is about marketing oneself to stand out in a pool of thousands of athletes at the same level. There are only a select few athletes who top programs put their attention towards aggressively. For the rest of us, myself included, they have to work for the attention of recruiters and be the aggressor in the recruiting process to show colleges that they are worth their time.

NCSA really helped promote me as a college recruit, as they knew that I had the skills and the drive to play Division 1 Soccer. NCSA sent my player profile and stats out to D1, II and III schools, which I would follow-up with contacting coaches through e-mail about their program. Soon enough, I found myself building strong relationships with three universities. These schools had both my desired major (engineering) and a solid soccer program. For every tournament I attended, I e-mailed the coaches so that if they had the opportunity, they could come see me in action. It was also helpful that NCSA frequently updated my profile with every new accomplishment. My NCSA profile gave me something substantial and indicative of my worth as a player to send to college coaches. It helped me build relationships with schools that otherwise may not have contacted me. Instead of waiting around for a college coach to notice my strengths, NCSA helped me to take the initiative to achieve my goal, earning acceptance into a D1 soccer program.

The best part of this recruitment process is developing strong relationships between college coaches. Soon I found myself in the midst of a soccer network – coaches knowing players I have played with, or other friends and coaches I know. In the soccer world, it’s a small circle. Everyone seems to know each other at least down the line somewhere. As in the “real-world” or any career situation, marketing yourself well is of the utmost importance. This pays off when college coaches across the nation talk to each other about you as a player, and more importantly, as a person. Talking with many coaches has also helped build my confidence in dealing with professionals and in making my college decisions.

After 2 years, the recruitment process has ended and my journey with NCSA is coming to a close. It is time for me to take the final steps. To prepare for my upcoming season as a Division 1 soccer player, I am training everyday with my motivation being the soccer field. Looking back on my recruiting process, all of the hard work: e-mailing, calling, visiting, and going to training camps, I realize it was all worth it. All of the monthly e-logs helped me stay on track so I was able to continue relationships with various coaches.

My advice to anyone who is aspiring to play collegiate soccer or any other sport at a higher level is to be proactive. Develop strong relationships with your current teams, college coaches, and college players. Visit as many schools as possible, put in the work regardless how tedious it seems, play your best, and enjoy this sometimes draining recruitment process. It will all pay off in the end like it did for me!