NCAA Division III Recruiting Rules

Each week this blog talks about some different aspect of the recruiting process for NCAA Division III college soccer.  But specifically, what are the recruiting rules for NCAA Division III college soccer?  The actual “rule book” (aka the NCAA Division III Manual) is a 282-page document of bylaws and subsections and articles that makes the US Constitution look tiny by comparison!

This week we are going to highlight some of the major recruiting rules for you in the context of what college coaches can do during your high school years. This is part of the ongoing education process!  Enjoy!

 

As a FRESHMAN

Recruiting Activity	Rule
Recruiting Brochures	College coach may send you info on camps or other recruiting material
Phone Calls	No restrictions, may call at any time
Text Messages	No restrictions, may text at any time
Off-Campus Contact	May not make contact until after Sophomore year
Unofficial Visits	Unlimited
Official Visits	Not permitted

As a SOPHOMORE

Recruiting Activity	Rule
Recruiting Brochures	College coach may send you info on camps or other recruiting material
Phone Calls	No restrictions, may call at any time
Text Messages	No restrictions, may text at any time
Off-Campus Contact	May make contact once your Sophomore year is complete, with restrictions
Unofficial Visits	Unlimited
Official Visits	Not permitted

As a JUNIOR

Recruiting Activity	Rule
Recruiting Brochures	College coach may send you info on camps or other recruiting material
Phone Calls	No restrictions, may call at any time
Text Messages	No restrictions, may text at any time
Off-Campus Contact	Permitted, with restrictions
Unofficial Visits	Unlimited
Official Visits	imited to 1 per institution

As a SENIOR

Recruiting Activity
Recruiting Brochures	College coach may send you info on camps or other recruiting material
Phone Calls	No restrictions, may call at any time
Text Messages	No restrictions, may text at any time
Off-Campus Contact	Permitted, with restrictions
Unofficial Visits	Unlimited
Official Visits	Permitted, limited to 1 per institution

The bottom line is this— as you can see from the list of rules above, most NCAA Division III college coaches will start recruiting players in their Junior and Senior seasons of high school, because this is when they are permitted to do so.  As a high school soccer player or parent of a high school soccer player, should understand these rules as well and know how they impact you or your son or daughter.

If you need to get in touch with college coaches, use COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE.  

COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE is a tool for high school students to find contact information for college and university athletic programs throughout the United States.COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE will provide a high school students with the coaches name, email address, phone number, mail address, school’s website, athletic department website, academic rating for the school, tuition price, and more.

For more info, go to: http://www.collegecoachesonline.com

Use the: PROMOTION CODE: D3HUB123 for a $5.00 discount on your purchase.

As always thanks for reading the Hub.  Questions!  Email us d3recruinghub@gmail.com.  We are still offering FREE telephone consulting services!  If you would like a phone call, please email us and we can set up your first phone call!

 

Which Tournaments Do College Coaches Attend?

It is summer time— time for summer vacations, summer camps and summer soccer recruiting tournaments!  There are tourneys all over the country for NCAA Division III college coaches to attend, so the question becomes, which tournaments do college coaches attend?

First and by far most important is knowing which high school players are attending a particular event.  College coaches will go to tourneys to see players play, that is the most important factor in getting them to attend an event.  Now that does not necessarily mean if one tournament has 300 players attending and another has 500 players, that a college coach will choose the second one.

The key factor is which tourney has more players attending that a college coach is recruiting or wants to recruit.  This is the primary driver that will bring college coaches to tourneys and other events as well.   It is not simply how many players will be at an event, it is how many recruited players will be at an event.

Remember, most NCAA Division III college athletic programs have limited resources.  This includes limited resources for recruiting, so coaches cannot attend every event.  They have to pick and choose.

If you and your team are attending an event, you need to make sure that you let college coaches know in advance.  If your club team is well-run and organized, you will probably have your schedule months in advance.  That is great!  Send an email to the college coaches for the schools that you are interested in attending letting them know that you will be certain events.

It doesn’t have to be a long email, just give them the basic details and be sure to personalize it!!!  Obviously, you as a recruited high school soccer player are getting recruited by more than one college program—college coaches know that.  Just make sure that when you email the coaches, you personalize it for each coach.  That is, don’t send out a massive email to 20 coaches (cc’ing all of them) with your tourney schedule.  Or worse yet, send an email to Coach A and then resend the same email to Coach B without changing the greeting, school name, etc., etc.

The bottom line is this— college coaches will go to the events where they know they will see the most players that they are recruiting or trying to recruit.  So be sure to send them your schedules so you get on their radar!

If you need to get in touch with college coaches, use COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE.  

COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE is a tool for high school students to find contact information for college and university athletic programs throughout the United States.COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE will provide a high school students with the coaches name, email address, phone number, mail address, school’s website, athletic department website, academic rating for the school, tuition price, and more.

For more info, go to: http://www.collegecoachesonline.com

Use the: PROMOTION CODE: D3HUB123 for a $5.00 discount on your purchase.

As always thanks for reading the Hub.  Questions!  Email us d3recruinghub@gmail.com.

 

Snapchat and College Recruiting

We are in the age of Social Media!  Like it or not, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Google+, Reddit, Flickr, Vine, and Meetup are all here and don’t look to be going away any time soon.  We are constantly bombarded with messages of “Follow us on Facebook” or so-and-so Tweeted this or folks just posting their pictures on Instagram.

You can also add Snapchat to that list of Social Media sites.  Snapchat was developed in 2011 by a team of Stanford students and is a free social media app that allows you to take pictures or videos, customize them, and then send them to your friends.  One unique feature is that the sender decides how long the picture will stay up on the site— it could only be for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, etc.

Snapchat is new, it is exciting, so of course it has become popular among young people, including high school students.  So naturally, colleges are now using Snapchat as a recruiting tool for high school students.!

NBC News had a recent article on this titled “Colleges Use Snapchat to Attract Prospective Students”.  (Click on the link for the complete article.)

Because of the temporary nature of the photos and videos taken, the article states it is “enabling colleges to create a sense of exclusivity and urgency”.  Moreover, “schools are finding they lead to lasting results. Earlier this year, the over-the-top bench celebrations of the Monmouth University basketball team — featured on the school’s Snapchat account — not only led to coverage on ESPN, but also thousands of new fans.”

So of course the athletic departments are taking it to it as well….and seeing results!

From the article- “When you post a tweet, maybe 1,000 of your 5,500 Twitter followers will look at it,” said Gary Kowal, Monmouth’s assistant athletic director for communication and new media. “Whereas if you post something on Snapchat and you have 2,000 followers, you’ll get 1,900 views.”

And the target audience agrees.  Here is a quote from a high school senior in New Jersey:

“I would say almost every high school student has Snapchat,” said Pat McGowan, a senior at Middletown (N.J.) High School North. “Many students check Snapchat hourly. It basically allows you to see what goes on at the college almost live, so it’s definitely effective.”

One of the other unique features about Snapchat is that is has geofilters.  The geofilters will let you share your location with the photos or videos that a user posts when using the app.  From Drake University and the University of Michigan:

“…Drake University used a geofilter to connect with potential students attending the state high girls’ basketball championship in Des Moines, Iowa, overlaying an image of the school’s bulldog mascot onto Snapchat images from the event. And during the recent commencement ceremony at the University of Michigan, parents and graduates could choose from three custom geofilters when posting pictures; over the course of six hours, the filters were used 2,200 times, resulting in more than 100,000 views.”

The bottom line is this— Social Media platforms, including Snapchat, are here to stay!  There are certain to be new ones coming in the future as well.  For high school athletes, it is another source for you and your families to get information about a school.

Don’t forget— D3 Recruiting Hub is partnered with COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE!

COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE is a tool for high school students to find contact information for college and university athletic programs throughout the United States. COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE will provide a high school students with the coaches name, email address, phone number, mail address, school’s website, athletic department website, academic rating for the school, tuition price, and more.

For more info, go to: http://www.collegecoachesonline.com

Use the: PROMOTION CODE: D3HUB123

Every customer who makes a purchase at College Coaches Online website with
this Promotion Code will receive a $5.00 discount on their purchase.

As always thanks for reading the Hub.  Questions!  Email us d3recruinghub@gmail.com.

Team Profiles

It is that time of year for lots and lots and lots of college showcase tournaments!  And that means that there is lots of NCAA Division III college coaches out on the recruiting trails looking for players.  Now we all know that this is the 21st century and everyone is trying to go paperless, but there are still a few things that are great to have paper copies for—namely team profiles for soccer tournaments.

You cannot replace a paper copy of a team profile for a coach to take notes on about players they are recruiting.  Yes we know that more and more coaches have iPads or tablets and can use those, but nothing beats paper and ink—especially when it is raining!

The critical question is this—what is the important information to include in a team profile to make it attractive to college coaches?

First, since the D3 Recruiting Hub always tries to be educational, let’s clarify a few things.  At most college showcases, college coaches will receive a player profile book from the tournament with team info on every player aged U15 and up.  This includes their name, jersey number, email, phone number, graduation year, academic info (SATs, GPA), and position.  The more info a player puts into the registration system, the more info that will be available.  If a player does not provide this info, it does not get to the coaches.  This can affect how much you get recruited.  These books are sorted by age group and team.

Many teams also make up their own team profiles that they give out to college coaches at all events— tournaments, showcases, state cups, etc.— that have more detail than the generic player profile books.  These are very handy to help promote your team and you can add on guest players as needed.

When creating team profiles, it is important to remember your audience.  In addition to the info mentioned above (name, email, etc.), you should have graduation year, high school, position(s), and intended major if you know it.  Indicate on the profile any players that are committed to colleges by their junior or senior year, so college coaches know that they are not looking to be recruited. Individual player pictures are good to include because that helps us recognize players on the field and, when we meet with them in person, we have a face to associate with a name.  Of all this info, the two most prominent things should be jersey number and graduation year.  Lastly, include your team colors, logo, manufacturer (adidas, Nike, etc.) —anything that will help college coaches pick out your team on the field right away.

Now how do you organize all this info?  Some teams put this info on one sheet of paper while others go full color with one page per player highlighting each player’s accomplishments in their soccer careers (congratulations on winning the U9 Indoor State Cup, but do you think that is relevant to your college soccer career) and put this in a nice binder with a cover page, table of contents, and so forth.  Being on the D3 level and recognizing that you are not going to get any financial reward for playing soccer, logically your team will not want to spend too much money trying to promote your players since there will be no return on investment.

Suggestion— a tri-fold, color brochure for your teams.  First they are only one page, there is enough room for 22 players, they are easy to carry around in your back pocket/jacket pocket and not expensive to produce.  On one panel list the team NUMERICALLY with the names, position(s) and graduation year— this is a quick reference that coaches can use to find players that interest them and quickly circle their names for follow up.  The bulk of the brochure will have a color picture of each player with their name, jersey number, graduation year, high school, email address, phone number,  and intended major.  Other info you can include is GPA, SAT scores, home address and recent accomplishments.  Lastly, make sure you have space for contact info for the coaches (phone number and email) as well as upcoming tournaments.

The bottom line is this— For your team profiles, keep them simple and include the necessary detail without it being overwhelming.  You don’t have to spend a great deal of money on creating a team profile for your team. Sometimes less is more!

Any questions, drop us a line at d3recruitinghub@gmail.com.

College Coaches Online- New Partner

The D3 Recruiting Hub is the #1 source on the Web for information about the NCAA Division III soccer recruiting process.  The NCAA Division III recruiting process is difficult and challenging, and the D3 Recruiting Hub tries to explain things in simple, easy to understand language.

In the recruiting process, it is important to know how the process works, but it is also equally important to be able to research colleges and find those college coaches you need to contact. The D3 Recruiting Hub is pleased to announce that we are affiliated with COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE.

COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE is a tool for high school students to find contact information for college and university athletic programs throughout the United States.  COLLEGE COACHES ONLINE will provide a high school students with the coaches name, email address, phone number, mail address, school’s website, athletic department website, academic rating for the school, tuition price, and more.

For more info, go to: http://www.collegecoachesonline.com

Schools can be searched based on: sport, region, division, state, public/private, enrollment size, tuition prices, ACT/SAT scores, class rank, and GPA.

There is an online version and a CD version.  The online version is updated in real-time, the CD is updated 2 times per year. The information is accurate enough for the NCAA to adopt the listings.

PRICES
•Online version (you are assigned a username and password) – $19.95
•CD version (you can print mailing lists) – $29.95

Use the: PROMOTION CODE: D3HUB123

Every customer who makes a purchase at College Coaches Online website with
this Promotion Code will receive a $5.00 discount on their purchase

_________________________________________________________________

The D3 Recruiting Hub and its employees are not responsible for the content of any third party sites and assumes no liability for any readers that utilize these sites.

FREE Phone Consultations!

The NCAA Division III soccer recruiting process is a confusing, difficult and challenging process for students and their families to negotiate their way through.  It is much less structured than Division I or II.

The D3 Recruiting Hub is the #1 source for information about the NCAA Division III soccer recruiting process.  We have been helping educate students, parents and their families about the recruiting process with articles for the last six years.

But we at the Hub know that you have individual questions that need to be answered for your specific situation.  For this reason, the D3 Recruiting Hub, in addition to our library of articles, is offering FREE telephone consultations.

Telephone consultations will best answer your individual questions and help you meet your specific needs.  Here is what some of our clients are saying about their recent telephone consultations:

The D3 Recruiting Hub has a wealth of information that is helpful for any stage of the recruiting process. We did a telephone consultation with the D3 Recruiting Hub and they shared valuable insights from the coaches’ point of view as we looked to narrow down some college options.

– Anne, Michigan

I want to thank the D3 Recruiting Hub for their quick response for my information request. They answered all my questions on the D3 early decision process. They were very patient and made sure that I totally understood the process. Their knowledge of the D3 recruiting process was impressive and extremely helpful. I would highly recommend their services. Thanks again for helping us out.

-Tom, Pennsylvania

Do you have individual questions?  Are you looking for more information?  If so, then it is time for you to get a FREE consultation.  Drop us a line at d3recruitinghub@gmail.com and we can set something up.

Thanks for reading the D3 Recruiting Hub!

Committing to an NCAA Division III Program- Part II

Last week we discussed a few types of commitment at the NCAA Division III level including Early Decision, Early Action and the verbal commitment.  This week we look at the next steps in the process of committing.

After a student applies to a school, presumably that student gets accepted to that school.  Once a student gets accepted to the institution, the school will send them an offer letter that the student can sign and send back to the school.  Usually this includes some form of a financial deposit.  So the next the next level of commitment is signing the acceptance letter and returning it to the school with the required deposit.  (There may or may not be a separate housing deposit to reserve space in on campus housing; for the sake of this discussion we are going to assume they are one in the same.)

Now, usually this deposit is refundable up to a certain date…so even if a student-athlete has applied, been accepted and put down a deposit, they can still withdraw their application and get their deposit back if they request before the cut off date. Moreover, even after the cut off date a student-athlete can still withdraw their application; they just won’t get their deposit refunded. So even though they have gone through all those steps and shown a certain level of “commitment”, they still do not wind up at that school.

The next level of “commitment” is, in addition to all of the above (applied, accepted, deposited), the student registers for classes. Now at this point, coaches usually breathe a sigh of relief and figure that the student has actually committed to their school and they are going to attend. The recruiting part of the process is now over, but it still leads us to the final level of “commitment”.

The final level of “commitment” is when the student actually shows up for preseason practices in August and is ready to participate. Even though they signed up for classes and have become a student at the school, coaches will know that students are truly “committed” by the hard work and effort that they put into their practices as well as their classes. This stage is outside of the recruiting process, nonetheless equally important for both the student and the coach.

The bottom line is this—Until a student is on the field for preseason practices, an NCAA Division III coach really has no 100% guarantee of which students are ultimately committed to their program and going to be a part of it. From the student’s perspective, there is no binding commitment for the student (beside early decision) and you can change your mind up until the last minute despite what coaches may tell you.

The D3 Recruiting Hub is offering FREE telephone consultations!  Do you have more questions that you need answered?  Would you like a personal, individualized consultation?  Drop us a line at d3recruitinghub@gmail.com and we will set up a phone call with you.

Committing to an NCAA Division III Program- Part I

It is that time of year again, when high school seniors across the country are deciding on which college they will choose for the next four years.  For some, it is the hardest decision that they will have to make due to the mental, emotional and financial stress it puts on them and their families.  For high school soccer players, it means choosing a soccer team that you want to commit to for the next four years.

At the NCAA Division III level, there are many pressures placed on high school seniors to pick one school over the other- from college coaches, from parents and from themselves.  And once that decision has been made, how does a high school soccer player commit to an NCAA Division III soccer program?  The answer to that question may surprise you.

As has been discussed in previous posts about the National Letter of Intent, the NLI is a binding program that only applies to schools that participate in the NLI program (namely NCAA Division I and Division II colleges and universities).  NCAA Division III schools, DO NOT have the NLI program.

So how does a student-athlete “commit” to an NCAA Division III school?

For NCAA Division III colleges, there really is no specific, binding action that you can take to commit yourself to an institution.  Let’s repeat that— there are no specific, binding actions that commit you to a college or university at the NCAA Division III level.  (The lone exception to that is if you apply Early Decision— that is binding.  For more info on early decision, see the College Board’s website on “Early Decision and Early Action”.)

Let’s look at the different types or levels of “commitments” that are typically used by a student-athlete and coach when looking at an NCAA Division III college.  First is the verbal commitment. That goes along the lines of a conversation like this:

Player- “Hey Coach, I really, really thought it over for a long time and I decided that I am going to go to your University in Fall 2016. Can’t wait to be a part of your team”.

Coach- “Hey that’s great news we are excited to have you on the team.  Did you sign your acceptance letter and send it back with your deposit?”

Player- “Well not exactly…..”

Coach- “OK, well as soon as you can get that done.  And don’t forget to send in your deposit for on campus student housing, because you want to make sure you have housing for next year.  Did you get that in?”

Player- “A deposit for what???”

Coach- “OK, let’s take a step back. Did you complete your application yet?”

Player- “Oh yeah sure I got that done today!  It is sitting here right in front of me.”

Coach- “OK, why don’t you send that in to the Admissions Office and we will go from there.”

Let’s be real—- this commitment, while it may be sincere and true, is essentially worthless.  The player could wake up the next morning after having made that “verbal commitment” and change their mind.  Do you know any high school aged kids like that?  They can, they do, and there is nothing restricting them from doing it.  And there certainly are a few “steps” more than just saying “I am coming to your school.”

As the above conversation showed, the next level of “commitment” is applying to the school.  By filling out an application (and possibly paying an application fee), the player is showing a greater level of investment in the school by actually applying.  With the increase in usage in the Common Application, even applying to a school has become easier and many high school seniors routinely apply to 10 or more schools if they accept the Common Application.

Also keep in mind that many students will apply to a “safety” school.  By this we mean a school that the student is fairly certain to get accepted to based on their own academic record and the admission criteria of the school to which they are applying.  They apply to this school only in the event that all other applications fall through.

In next weeks post we will continue with this discussion.

The bottom line is this— as Shrek said, like ogres, committing to an NCAA Division III school has layers.  There are several different “layers” of commitment.  Just saying that you are going and applying is not enough!

The D3 Recruiting Hub is offering FREE telephone consultations!  Do you have more questions that you need answered?  Would like a personal, individualized consultation?  Drop us a line at d3recruitinghub@gmail.com and we will set up a phone call with you.

 

Meeting With NCAA Division III College Coaches

It is that time of year for NCAA Division III colleges and coaches and high school students to ramp up on their recruiting activities.  Colleges will host events for high school students, coaches will be out at soccer tournaments recruiting high school students, and high school students (and their families) will be making decisions about where they are going to go for college.

When you as a recruited high school student athlete (or parent of a recruited student athlete), get the opportunity to meet with the head coach, assistant coach, or players from one of the colleges or universities on your list of schools, you have a great opportunity to gather information.  The best way to do this—ask questions! Yet one of the things that frequently happens is an NCAA Division III college coach will say…

“Do you have any questions?”  

And the response is…nothing, silence, no questions!

This is a waste of a great opportunity!

In order to help you get started, here are some questions that you can ask.

For Head Coaches/Assistant Coaches

• How long have you been coaching collegiate soccer?
• How long have you been at the school?  How long do you intend to stay at the school? Is this position a stepping stone for another coaching job?
• Are you full time or part time?
• Do you have cuts?
• How many players make the team?
• How much playing time do freshmen get?
• Can you describe what you do in the preseason?
• What is your coaching style?
• What is your coaching philosophy?
• How do you select your team captains?
• Do you coach other teams besides this one?
• What times are practices?  Do you have spring practices?
• What do players do in the off-season?  Over the summer?
• What are your goals for the team for next year?  In four years?
• Are you planning any trips?  Domestically or abroad?
• Is the team involved in any fundraising activities?
• Is the team involved in any community service projects?
• What are the team rules?
• Do you allow/encourage players to play other sports besides soccer?

For Collegiate Players

• Why did you choose this school?
• What do you enjoy most/least about this school?
• What do you enjoy most/least about playing soccer at this school?
• What is your major?  Why did you choose that?
• Did you switch majors?  If so, why?
• How is the team chemistry/team dynamics?
• How would you describe the head coach’s style?
• How would you describe the assistant coach’s style?
• How is your relationship with the coaching staff?
• What do you do for fun on the weekends?
• How is the food in the cafeteria?
• Do you live on campus or off campus?
• If off campus, why do you live off campus?

These are just some of the many, many things that you can ask players and coaches about on your visit.   Take these questions with you in a notebook.  Write them down.  Be prepared!

Now understand, you might not hear some of the answers that you hope for.  Such as— “Preseason is really rough; two players dropped out” or “The food in the cafeteria is mediocre and Fridays are the worst” or “The worst thing about soccer is getting up at 6:00 AM for team runs” or “I really don’t like some of the away games when we leave at 7:30 AM and don’t get back to campus until 9:00 PM”.

It is better to know that stuff ahead of time rather than after the fact.  The other important thing is how the players and coaches answer those questions when you ask them.  It is important to start to build a level of trust with the coaching staff and players as you will be with these folks (at one school) for the next four years.

The bottom line is this—Any time you meet with a college coach, assistant coach or players, you should have questions to ask.  Asking questions, and listening to the answers, is the best way learn and help you make your decision for college.

Thanks for reading!  Questions?  Drop us a line at d3recruitinghub@gmail.com .

How Do College Coaches Evaluate You?

On the East Coast, it is that time again when NCAA Division III college coaches start fanning out to college showcase events to see recruits as the Spring tournament season kicks off again.  Coaches have their lists of players and players have their list of coaches that they want to come see them play.  But the question is, how is that college coach evaluating you?

Most coaches, if they are smart, will evaluate you in many ways.

First, and most obviously, NCAA Division III college coaches will look at your fundamental abilities as a player.  How good are you technically? Passing, receiving, dribbling, shooting— pretty obvious so far right?  Next of course is the physical part of your game—speed, size, strength, quickness.  All important aspects of soccer.  All coaches want fast, big, strong players that are technically very solid.  Who wouldn’t?

Tactically it is always a little bit harder to evaluate players because a college coach watching from the sidelines does not necessarily know what tactics your club coach has told you to employ for a specific game or situation.  Maybe as a defender your club coach wants you to stay back and not push forward into the attack.  Or your club coach may have the forwards always stay in specific channels rather than interchange and be a little more creative.  But in general, smart tactical players make good decisions on offense and defense, so college coaches will look for that.

Another important aspect that college coaches will look for is the personality and psychological aspects of players.  What is your personality like?  How do you interact with your teammates?  College coaches are asking themselves if you would be a good fit for their team.

For example, when you get to the field, how do you start preparing for the game?  Are you the last player to the field?  Are you getting focused for competition or just chatting with your friends? Are you encouraging your teammates or just quietly getting ready?  What is body language like?  Are you excited to be there or just going thru the motions?

How do you behave during the game?  Are you a vocal leader on the field or just quietly playing your position?  How do you react when you are faced with adversity?  What do you do when your team is down a goal and it is late in the game?  Do you elevate your level of play to try and get an equalizer or do you just accept the situation?  Moreover, what happens if YOU are directly responsible for something bad happening— like you foul an opponent that leads to a penalty kick or you score an own goal.  What do your body language and resulting actions say?  You are going to face these kind of situations in college soccer, so college coaches want to see this.

How do you react to a bad call by a referee?  Are you yelling at the official in protest or do you just accept this as part of the game and move on?  What do you say to your teammates in situations like this as well?

What do you do when your coach subs you during the game?  Are you shaking your head like a prima donna or are you encouraging your teammate who is taking your place?  Again, your body language says a lot.

College coaches want to see how you react when you are faced with adversity.  It is easy to be a happy, positive player when you are playing a weak team and are up 6-0 -right?  But what happens when your team gives up a late goal to go down a goal in the semifinals of the tournament against a strong team. And the ref has been calling everything for the other team and nothing for your team.  Are you being resilient?

The bottom line is this—college coaches are CONSTANTLY evaluating you as a player.  From the minute they see you at the field until the time they leave.  They look not only at your soccer and athletic abilities but also your personality.  College coaches want to find players that are the right fit for their programs.  Moreover, they want to evaluate more than once to see you in different sets of circumstances as well.

Thanks for reading the Hub.  Questions? Comments?  Drop us a line at d3recruitinghub@gmail.com.