How to stand out at a soccer ID camp

One run by a college you would attend, where your level fits and the squad loses players at your position before you arrive. A Division I college’s camp must be open to any and all entrants, limited only by number, age, grade level or gender (Bylaw 13.12.1.3), so being invited tells you nothing about whether the coach wants you. Choosing the camp is your job.

1. 1Start from your list of colleges, not from the invitations in your inbox. Find each one’s camp in ID camps by state.
2. 2Open the college’s program page and count the seniors at your position.
3. 3Check who is coaching. A camp staffed by the college’s own coaches is the point; a camp where they drop in for an hour is not.
4. 4Check the price against what ID camps cost, and add the travel.

Write to the coach about a week before. Say you are coming, give your graduation year, position, club and grades, and link your video, so your name is not new to the staff on the day. The template is in how to email college soccer coaches.

If you are younger than the Division I contact date, expect no real reply: a Division I coach may not send recruiting messages before June 15 after sophomore year (Bylaws 13.1.3.1 and 13.4.1), though camp information may be sent at any time (Bylaw 13.4.1.13(b)). Write anyway: the rule limits the reply, not your email.

• Train in the week before as if it were a match week. Arrive fit and rested.
• Bring both colors of shirt if the camp asks, water, and boots for the surface.
• Learn the names of the head coach and the assistants, and the formation the team plays.

• Play your position. A coach is filling a place in a squad. Show them the player they would be getting, not a different one.
• Do the simple things at speed. First touch, the pass that keeps the ball, getting back into shape.
• Take coaching. When a coach corrects you, do it on the next action. It is one thing a camp can show that video cannot.
• Talk. Organise the players around you. It shows you understand the game, and it makes you easy to find.
• Be the same in the last game as the first. Tired minutes show a coach what a season with you looks like.
• Introduce yourself once. A handshake, your name, your year and your position, at a natural moment. Then let your play speak.

Goalkeepers: ask before you pay how many keepers are coming and whether there is keeper-specific coaching. More in goalkeeper recruiting.

At a Division I camp, a coach may have a recruiting conversation with you from August 1 before junior year (Bylaw 13.12.1.5.1). Before that date they can coach you and tell you about the camp, but may not talk about recruiting. Silence from a Division I coach to a younger player is the rule at work, not a verdict.

Division II coaches may communicate with a player at any time (Bylaw 13.1.3.1), and Division III coaches may send materials at any time (Bylaw 13.4.1). The dates for every level are in the recruiting calendar.

1. 1Write to the coach within a few days. Thank them, name one thing you worked on at the camp, and ask one direct question: where do I stand for my class?
2. 2Send new video when you have it, with a line on what has changed.
3. 3If you hear nothing and you are old enough to be contacted, follow up once more, then weigh the college against the others on your list.

What to write, with a template: how to follow up with a college coach.