One of the most common questions I get about the college recruiting process is “what are college coaches looking for in a player?”
Obviously, they are looking for highly skilled players on the field… Players that have good technical abilities, are fast, strong, and smart.
But when college soccer coaches are evaluating players, they look for so much more than just how good a player is.
You have to understand that this coach is trying to find a player that they want on their team for the next 4 years.
They want a player that they actually like and a player that will represent the program well.
In addition to your technical and tactical abilities, coaches are paying attention to the little details such as:
How you warm up, how you communicate with teammates, coaches, and officials, how you deal with mistakes on the field, your body language, your confidence, how you react after a win or a loss.
And those are just some of the things they look for on the field.
How you behave and present yourself off the field is just as important.
If you are a great soccer player but get poor grades or have poor behavior, that coach is not going to want to deal with you.
They have 400,000 other soccer players to choose from that are just as good or better than you and get good grades.
Coaches are looking for players that are well liked and good members of the community. They want players who are going to make them proud and make the university proud.
The last point I want to hit, and this one is absolutely HUGE, is that coaches are going to dive into your social media accounts to see what kind of person you are.
If you have nasty pictures, use cuss words, talk badly about others.. you can say bye to a scholarship.
It may seem so insignificant to you right now, but trust me… its not!
I know kids first hand that didn’t get to play in college because they weren’t willing to clean up their social media accounts.
If you’re not sure if you should post something or not.. use this rule:
If you wouldn’t want your grandma to see it, then don’t post it!!
So this week, if you have a social media account, I challenge you to go through it and make sure that it is clean!
Delete any pictures that are inappropriate or negatively affect your character.. It’s simply not worth it.
Sadly, if you aren’t willing to do so, then you can say bye to playing soccer in college.
If you are serious about playing college soccer and are willing to work hard in order to make it happen, I want to help you!
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