Best Tournaments to Make Contact w/ Men's Soccer College Recruiting?

[Kante]

Howdy,
Was working on a project for our team. Specifically, was looking at Disney College Showcase, Las Vegas Players Showcase, the Dallas Cup and the Jefferson Cup. Putting aside travel and tournament costs, was wondering which was best for making contact with men's soccer college recruiting.

Couple of key questions are:

1) At what point does the # of teams go from "critical mass needed to get college recruiters to attend" to "overwhelming noise that's difficult to cut through"?

2) Are there any tournies where - based on your experience - the college recruiters are less focused than they might be at another tournament? i.e Las Vegas Players Showcase vs say, the Dallas Cup

3) Are there any tournaments not listed that should be listed as solid for making contact with men's soccer college recruiters? Looked at Surf Cup and it's solid but pretty SoCal heavy. As SoCal team, we're looking for college recruiters who we might otherwise not make contact with.

 

[jpeter]

I will take a shot since my player(s) have attended all of the above + others.

Dallas & Jefferson are about the same time so very expensive or difficult to do both the same year.

Jefferson attracks a lot more east coast, ivys colleges and has 4-5x more teams vs Dallas Cup. Naturally the competition is spread out more for Jefferson but it's setup as a showcase rather than a strict tournament like Dallas. They have several flights and try to match teams up with like track records which helps.

Dallas has the international teams and is more difficult to get in to, plenty of college types attend but it's one of those where the better your team does the more likely your player(s) will be seen by more coaches. Making the playoffs, semis, finals normally help in that regard a bunch. If your team is good but not great (top 10 for example)
Dallas might not be the best option.

Players showcase is another spring type tournaments with not nearly as many teams as Jefferson or with the same level of completion as Dallas. Pacific, NW, NV, Utah, AZ colleges but kind of a mixed bag D1-3 and others. . Vegas is fun don't get me wrong and if your player is looking at going to Portland, Oregon State or a West coast d2 that one is fine. For top d1's the others have better attendance.

Disney is a winter tournament and mostly southern, midwest, or east coast but the sheer number that attend are/where impressive. more D3's but a decent number of D1's also along with the Army, Navy and others. Might not be as popular as it once was due to other leagues showcases at around the same time and due to high school tournaments like the Addias showcase during this time frame.

Davis college showcase in NoCal is pretty good for something you can still get to by auto travel.

Surf & Man City you know about those already but pretty good overall.

 

[mirage]

I guess DA fell a part too early for your kid. I know, having read some of your posts in the Boys DA threads, your kid played in DA and you were really on top of things there.

My older kid is entering his senior year in college and has a season to play before he graduates next year. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the fall season actually happens and will allow spectators (keep in mind its mens soccer so social distancing is not a big challenge except for big matches and playoffs).

DA folding has a huge impact to college recruiting, since college coaches attended the showcases and playoffs. It was a venue that allowed them to save costs and time. When our kid played in those events, every game had 40~60 coaches on the sidelines. Now they'll have to go back to the old fashion way of recruiting prior to DA - hit the road more. Of course their budget won't increase (if anything decreasing), it simply means that they'll travel closer to home and only attend major key events.

Things are going to change so anything anyone would tell you would be speculative but probably not too far off either.

1) When college coaches attend any event, they have a list of players that they are seeking already. The total number of teams probably won't enter their decision to go or not to go to the event. That said, they will find "gems" while watching their targeted players. In other words, players on the other team that the target player is playing against.

2) If you are wondering the lights and sounds of LV are distractions to the coaches over fine Texas BBQ, no it won't matter for any coaches there. Remember that they are there to do the job of recruiting. That said, the game time is more of an issue. Coaches are typically burned out by late afternoon so if you're playing an evening game, don't expect many to show up. Also, the caliber of the tournament will make a difference. Definitely Dallas over LV because its centrally located compared to being out in west, in addition to being the top tournament in the country.

3) One of the coaches that recruited our kid could not make the tournament (northeast school) we were at so he requested the entire game video (our kid played DA and high school in different years because he wanted to). I bring this up because going forward, with all the Covid-19 issue for a while, I can imagine many coaches simply staying within their driving distance. Which means that regionalization will only increase. So if you want your kid to be exposed to schools in the east coast, say, you may have to be more creative in the short term. Both Jefferson Cup and Bethesda Memorial Day tournaments are major deals back east. Disney may or may not be based on the feedbacks I've heard but it may change.

The biggest change to the torments, once we start playing on the normal basis again without DA, probably will be the NPL/ECNL (US Club Soccer) and National League/National Cup (US Youth Soccer) regional and national finales. These games will mean more in the new context.

Our youngest lost his last season of soccer due to the current situation. He is not seeking to play in college and now has accepted an offer for fall so I won't be hanging out at this forum much longer but sure have enjoyed the ride. Hope you will too...

 

[ChrisD]

I guess DA fell a part too early for your kid. I know, having read some of your posts in the Boys DA threads, your kid played in DA and you were really on top of things there.

My older kid is entering his senior year in college and has a season to play before he graduates next year. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the fall season actually happens and will allow spectators (keep in mind its mens soccer so social distancing is not a big challenge except for big matches and playoffs).

DA folding has a huge impact to college recruiting, since college coaches attended the showcases and playoffs. It was a venue that allowed them to save costs and time. When our kid played in those events, every game had 40~60 coaches on the sidelines. Now they'll have to go back to the old fashion way of recruiting prior to DA - hit the road more. Of course their budget won't increase (if anything decreasing), it simply means that they'll travel closer to home and only attend major key events.

Things are going to change so anything anyone would tell you would be speculative but probably not too far off either.

1) When college coaches attend any event, they have a list of players that they are seeking already. The total number of teams probably won't enter their decision to go or not to go to the event. That said, they will find "gems" while watching their targeted players. In other words, players on the other team that the target player is playing against.

2) If you are wondering the lights and sounds of LV are distractions to the coaches over fine Texas BBQ, no it won't matter for any coaches there. Remember that they are there to do the job of recruiting. That said, the game time is more of an issue. Coaches are typically burned out by late afternoon so if you're playing an evening game, don't expect many to show up. Also, the caliber of the tournament will make a difference. Definitely Dallas over LV because its centrally located compared to being out in west, in addition to being the top tournament in the country.

3) One of the coaches that recruited our kid could not make the tournament (northeast school) we were at so he requested the entire game video (our kid played DA and high school in different years because he wanted to). I bring this up because going forward, with all the Covid-19 issue for a while, I can imagine many coaches simply staying within their driving distance. Which means that regionalization will only increase. So if you want your kid to be exposed to schools in the east coast, say, you may have to be more creative in the short term. Both Jefferson Cup and Bethesda Memorial Day tournaments are major deals back east. Disney may or may not be based on the feedbacks I've heard but it may change.

The biggest change to the torments, once we start playing on the normal basis again without DA, probably will be the NPL/ECNL (US Club Soccer) and National League/National Cup (US Youth Soccer) regional and national finales. These games will mean more in the new context.

Our youngest lost his last season of soccer due to the current situation. He is not seeking to play in college and now has accepted an offer for fall so I won't be hanging out at this forum much longer but sure have enjoyed the ride. Hope you will too...

Youtube videos of matches are key, I filmed alot of girls HS soccer and plenty of club games and I know of 4 girls that have had interest and the parents just sent them video as well. Imagine being a coach, and you look up online and you can watch the game to see how the player looks on and off the ball. One of the showcase I was at this year , everyone had their print out and you could see college reps everywhere and alot of parents were filming.....

 

[espola]

Youtube videos of matches are key, I filmed alot of girls HS soccer and plenty of club games and I know of 4 girls that have had interest and the parents just sent them video as well. Imagine being a coach, and you look up online and you can watch the game to see how the player looks on and off the ball. One of the showcase I was at this year , everyone had their print out and you could see college reps everywhere and alot of parents were filming.....

Be careful of the youtube videos. I stumbled on one within the last few days while looking for something else. It showed one player clearly outlined with a flashing circle in several short bursts of training exercises and games. In the whole video (about 8 minutes) he used his left foot only twice, and one of those times he fell down.

 

[El Clasico]

Mostly in agreement with JPeter.
Jefferson, Dallas, Disney and Las Vegas....in that order. More important, email coaches directly if players have an interest. From my experience, they will make an effort to watch your game(s).

 

[Frank]

Dallas (Entire US attends; texas and Mid West well represented)
Jefferson (East Coast primary)
Surf (Western US primary coaches)
Las Vegas (if you are in National League sidelines are packed) (Entire US attends)

 

[focomoso]

1) When college coaches attend any event, they have a list of players that they are seeking already...

My question is always how do they compile this list? It seems getting on their radar in the first place is the most important step. It gets everything else rolling. Anyone have any insight into how they decide the players they're going to look out for?

 

[jpeter]

My question is always how do they compile this list? It seems getting on their radar in the first place is the most important step. It gets everything else rolling. Anyone have any insight into how they decide the players they're going to look out for?

Coaches contacts, scouting, review recuiting lists, profiles, etc but always help if your player contacts them; expresses interest, ask about there id camp, get on the notification list, send some highlights tell them you that you will be playing at xyx and would love if them could come to some games.

The assistant or somebody else on staff is usually the first contact.

There are also some recuiting NSCA and other agent like firms who help people out in raising awareness of player(s)

 

[mirage]

My question is always how do they compile this list? It seems getting on their radar in the first place is the most important step. It gets everything else rolling. Anyone have any insight into how they decide the players they're going to look out for?

From our experience, the coaches makes the list of players they see based on prior interactions with the players in some ways.

For our kid, it was sending the coach an email with highlight link and expressing interest in the program and the school. The coach can either respond positively by following up via club coach or directly, depending on the high school year, if interested. Also, a player can establish personal contact with the coaching staff at the particular school's ID camp (not the aggregated come all we have 30 university coaches camp). We did that with few schools back east. We'd targeted the schools of choice and attended their on-campus ID camps. The viewing/coming to see him play at games came thereafter.

The consistent comment we got from EVERY coach is that, they take interest in players that take interest in them. So the player has to initiate the contact. If you are in the belief that your kid will be discovered, well, not saying it doesn't happen but the odds are significantly lower than if the player makes the effort to be seen by coaches of interest.

 

[Kante]

From our experience, the coaches makes the list of players they see based on prior interactions with the players in some ways.

For our kid, it was sending the coach an email with highlight link and expressing interest in the program and the school. The coach can either respond positively by following up via club coach or directly, depending on the high school year, if interested. Also, a player can establish personal contact with the coaching staff at the particular school's ID camp (not the aggregated come all we have 30 university coaches camp). We did that with few schools back east. We'd targeted the schools of choice and attended their on-campus ID camps. The viewing/coming to see him play at games came thereafter.

The consistent comment we got from EVERY coach is that, they take interest in players that take interest in them. So the player has to initiate the contact. If you are in the belief that your kid will be discovered, well, not saying it doesn't happen but the odds are significantly lower than if the player makes the effort to be seen by coaches of interest.

super useful feedback. thank you!

 

[jpeter]

From our experience, the coaches makes the list of players they see based on prior interactions with the players in some ways.

For our kid, it was sending the coach an email with highlight link and expressing interest in the program and the school. The coach can either respond positively by following up via club coach or directly, depending on the high school year, if interested. Also, a player can establish personal contact with the coaching staff at the particular school's ID camp (not the aggregated come all we have 30 university coaches camp). We did that with few schools back east. We'd targeted the schools of choice and attended their on-campus ID camps. The viewing/coming to see him play at games came thereafter.

The consistent comment we got from EVERY coach is that, they take interest in players that take interest in them. So the player has to initiate the contact. If you are in the belief that your kid will be discovered, well, not saying it doesn't happen but the odds are significantly lower than if the player makes the effort to be seen by coaches of interest.

Yes helps especially after the first contact, for us a good majority of the first contact was not player driven, my son would routinely have scouts ask about him by name at all his tournaments from colleges or organizations he hadn't even thought or knew much about.

Manager and coaches would keep track but it was a eye opener some time as we wondered why mutiples would show up with no advance notice for the most part. He started asking who referred them so we attempted to keep a somewhat loose track and he fiquired about 1/3 of them where due to his first contact. The 2nd or subsequent times yeah he made contact with almost all of them in some form before they showed up again.