This blog is for those goalkeepers who are looking to play in college but are struggling to be noticed by college coaches. The most popular question most goalkeepers and their parents ask is, “how do I get recruited to play in college. There are few steps that you MUST avoid and other steps that you must follow, read carefully.

In the last few years our organization ZPro Futbol has been working very closely with a number of College coaches from around the US, so we decided to collect all recruiting details & tricks directly from ALL OF THESE coaches.  If you are a talented keeper looking to play in college then here few quick tips to start your search:

Make contact YOURSELF

If parents initiate contact with college coaches, you probably will NEVER be recruited. These coaches want to know YOU, not your parents. Send them emails that make sense, well written, do not send them some email you found in the internet. Introduce yourself and tell them why you want to go to their school (Often time coaches want to know that you want to be there for a reason. For example,  this school has a certain major that you want or you like the environment etc).  Coaches want to be sure you will not come to their school for the wrong reasons and be miserable in the next 4 years. They also want to know about your goalkeeping experience & keeper accomplishments.

Make sure to have professional email usernames avoid ridiculous email names such as killerclown@… or goaliebadass@  These unprofessional usernames will certainly destroy your chances. Instead, create a professional name, like your first and last name, OR Initials from your first name and your full last name, example  [email protected]   etc

You MUST be persistent with you emails & phone calls but be careful not to be too annoying. Remember, these coaches are VERY BUSY, specially if they are in-season. So use common sense.

Videos

Send them highlight videos of you playing in actual games & also your goalkeeping training. For highlight videos, show few seconds leading up to the play where coaches can see your positioning, decision making & readiness. Of course, show your saves, crosses, goal-kicks, punts, penalties & if possible videos of you communicating during games.

Goalkeeping training videos, these type of videos will show coaches the type of rigorous and intense training that you currently do.  Also, the training video will helps coaches see your training background and work ethics, which is VERY IMPORTANT in the college competition level.

DO NOT make long videos, coaches do not have time to watch 10 min videos, specially when they get hundreds of them every week. Often times, assistant coaches end up watching these videos.  But the key is, to make videos that can catch the coach’s  attention within the first 10 seconds.  More on how to make a video on later blogs!

Phone calls

Same as emails, be persistent. Sometimes coaches will not have the time to speak to you unless they have already set up something with you. Furthermore, coaches have office hours in the morning hours so usually those are the best time to catch them. Also, late Spring into early summer is usually a time where they have more time to speak since that is when they start their recruiting season.

Here are few things that will hurt your chances to get recruited:

Example,  you invite a coach to watch you at a showcase tournament but YOUR MOM or DAD are the annoying, obnoxious, ridiculous parent on the sideline, then you can be SURE that your chances to get recruited will disappear. Coaches DO NOT want to be associated or have these parents at a college game and ruin their school and their soccer program image.

Social media: today, some coaches will look into your social media to get more info about you. So you must be careful what you post in your social media.

Last, DO NOT depend on showcases, tournaments, club coaches to help you get recruited. What works for someone else does NOT MEAN it will work for you, remember every goalkeeper is different. Make sure you initiate the contact and do your own work because those 4 years in college can make or break the rest of your life….

For more info on college recruiting videos, send me a message