Helpful Hints & General Tips

Helpful Hints & Tips For the Recruiting Process

Be realistic when searching for a school – there are many, many very good schools/soccer programs and they’re not only DI schools, but also DII and DIII schools.
If you’ really interested in a school, try and attend their summer soccer camp (if available). This is a good way for you to see the school and also for the coach to see you in training, matches, and how you interact with people.
See as many women’s soccer games as possible; not only in the fall, but also the majority of soccer programs have a spring schedule. Try and schedule official or unofficial visits around these games.
Don’t send out a mass letter and/or email and forget to change the name of the school and/or coach.
Be polite on visits – ask as many questions as you can – also don’t be afraid to ask the team questions that you might be afraid to ask the coach.
How does the team interact both on and off the field?
Follow up with a tournament schedule either the Tuesday or Wednesday prior to the weekend’s tournament – don’t leave it until Friday, because most college coaches generally leave Thursday or early Friday morning to get to that tournament.
Don’t be afraid to email coaches just to say hello – maybe to congratulate them on a win, reaching a milestone, or just to chat.
Also don’t be put off by the “lower scholarship offers” – that might be all that the program has left available to them for the following season. If you really want to go to a certain school, and you can manage the low scholarship to begin with – then seriously think about it – remember: scholarships can both increase and decrease – it’s entirely up to you and your attitude and performance.
Also, remember, that there are some extremely good club programs at top level schools – that you may be interested in attending for academic reasons. This type of soccer program can also be very rewarding, but usually with not as much focus on soccer, i.e.: it won’t take up as much of your time.
PERHAPS THE BIGGEST HELPFUL HINT IS TO NOT JUST “CHOOSE A COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY” BECAUSE OF THE ATHELTICS … YOU NEED TO BE ABLE TO PICTURE YOURSELF AT THAT PARTICULAR INSTITUTION BECAUSE YOU “LOVE” THE WHOLE ATMOSPHERE AND ENVIRONMENT!

RESEARCH THE COLLEGES OF YOUR INTEREST:

Research the academic programs (one’s that you might be interested in).
Research the athletic program and more importantly – the women’s soccer program. Some things to look for: the team’s record, the season just completed, and years past; transfers in and out of the program; how long the coach has been there, are they planning to stay?; what conference they play in; teams they generally play against – i.e.: easy teams, hard teams, etc..; the team itself – how many seniors, juniors, sophomores, freshmen, how many on the roster, etc…
Research their facilities (are they on campus), strength and conditioning facilities, all other athletic facilities as well.
Research the size school, is it private, etc…
What is the weather like year round (do you favor warm weather or cold weather?)
Research the resources available to you as a student athlete.
Research academic awards/scholarships/grants, etc…. you could be eligible for many of these that you otherwise wouldn’t have known about.
Find out about the different Colleges and States – some State’s throughout the Country do things very different and some have major benefits: (i.e.: in Georgia they have something called the “Hope Scholarship” – if you maintain a 3.0 throughout college your tuition is paid for by the State.)

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